Lions ‘find rhythm’

Gravette coach Kelby Bohannon said that his team “had a good thing going” during the second quarter of Friday’s game against Berryville.

It was much better than good. The Lions scored 31 points during that 12-minute span and set the stage for their first win of the season with a 44-21 rout over the Bobcats.

“We found a rhythm offensively,” Gravette coach Kelby Bohannon said. “We saw some things that we liked on film and were hoping we could take advantage of them. In that second quarter, everything just clicked.

“We were able to run with the ball a little bit. We moved the ball some with our passing game and hit some big plays. Defensively, we were able to get a couple of turnovers. We had a good thing going that time.”

Gravette (1-6, 1-3) led 7-0 after one quarter, thanks to Rhett Hilger’s 18-yard touchdown run, before the offense erupted. Kyler Austin scored on a 1-yard run, then Berryville scored to make it a 14-7 game before the Lions put together four touchdowns in less than 6 minutes.

Hilger was responsible for a lot of it, throwing touchdown passes of

59 and 17 yards to Karl Bontrager and 62 yards to Mason Meeker right after Meeker intercepted a pass. Hilger also added a 32-yard touchdown run as the Lions led 38-7 at halftime, then hit threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Ellis to cause the running clock.

“I’m really proud of our kids,” Bohannon said. “They’ve been resilient all season. We’ve been in several of our games, with a chance to win, and we couldn’t get the ball to bounce our way or make that play when we needed it.

“They’ve stayed the course and stayed the process. We knew going into the season that we would be young and that there was going to be a learning curve. The kids have done all that, and they have responded well.”