Turner, Badgers end losing streak at Fountain Lake
FOUNTAIN LAKE — Fountain Lake fans were able to notice two things Friday night as the Cobras hosted Arkadelphia for homecoming at Allen Tillery Field: the Badgers were not as bad as their record suggested, and Andrew Roberson was missing from the Cobras’ backfield.
Roberson, who was benched by head coach J.D. Plumlee in a game-time decision due to injuries from the past two weeks,
has dominated the backfield for the Cobras (3-3, 0-3 4A-7) this season, tallying over 400 yards on 73 carries.
“You take away one of your horses, and he was missed on both sides of the ball,” Plumlee said. “That hurts. Kyle Fortner going down, not playing the second half takes away another two-way guy. That’s part of it. We’ll get Andrew back. It was my decision to sit him, and we’ll get him back for the home stretch.”
Arkadelphia (1-5, 1-2) put up
415 yards of offense Friday in a
44-0 rout of the Cobras, including a 243-yard performance by quarterback Cannon Turner who rushed for 100 yards while passing 9-for-16 for 143 more.
“I felt like he threw the ball a lot better than he did the previous week,” Arkadelphia head coach J.R. Eldridge said. “He managed our offense really, really well. I felt like we got better on offense. We got better on defense, and we got better on special teams.”
Prior to Friday night, Arkadelphia’s last win was against Warren, 28-27, in December in the Class 4A state championship game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
“You can be fooled by their record, being 0-5, but that’s the same team that won the 4A state championship,” Plumlee said. “The Hatley kid is healthy. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be 5-5 come Week 11.
“I thought we played extremely hard. We drive the ball three or four times up the field, and we shoot ourselves in the foot with a snap or a hold. That’s the stuff that we’ve got to clean up. We’ll get better. The first half of conference is over, and here we go.”
This season, the Badgers had been outscored 177-96, including a 56-17 loss in Week 1 to Class 6A Benton (5-1, 3-0 6A-West) and a
42-14 thrumming to Joe T. Robinson (5-1, 3-0) last week at home.
“I thought we cut out a lot of mistakes that we’ve been making in previous games,” Eldridge said. “I thought our guys came out and executed. I thought they came out and revealed their character.
“Starting off 0-5 is really, really tough on coaches. It’s tough on players; it’s on a community, but I felt like our players showed really just who they were by coming out and playing hard and continuing to try to clean up mistakes that we’ve been making.”
Fountain Lake had experienced a better start to the season as the Cobras had scored 113 points while giving up the same
113 to their opponents.
The Badgers wasted little time Friday night, taking just
3:28 on the opening drive to find the end zone to cap a 10-play, 62yard drive. Arkadelphia scored three more touchdowns in the game, one each in the first, second and fourth quarters while kicker Gabe Goodman had a perfect game with all four point-after attempts and three field goals, including a 37-yard kick early in the fourth quarter.
After giving up 31 yards in the first half, the Cobras held Arkadelphia scoreless in the third frame. Plumlee said that during the halftime break, he told his team, “Quit looking at the scoreboard, and play the next snap.”
“I told them, ‘Guys, we’re going to keep playing, and we’re going to get better each snap,’” Plumlee said. “That’s what you’ve got to do. … I told our guys right now that they’re going to keep chopping wood and carrying water every snap, and we’re going to get up and keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it. And we did. We’re going to take the positives from this film, and we’re going to grow from it. That’s what you’ve got to do.”
Zion Hatley may not have found the end zone in the game, but he was the team’s second-leading rusher with 12 touches for 70 yards.
“I feel like he’s kind of getting back in his stride,” Eldridge said. “He had about three games where he was really injured, and I felt like he got back to kind of normalcy with his injury. Now he’s looking like he did last year, so we’re looking forward to more great things from him.”
Victor Tademy had a strong game as well, picking off a big pass in the second half that would have put the Cobras in the red zone for the first time.
“I thought Victor played an excellent game — offensively, defensively,” Eldridge said. “He made a great play on the ball over here with the interception. That’s what Victor can do. He did a great job.”
Joe Murphy put up 88 of the team’s 155 rushing yards on 16 carries, Colson Simpson had 32 yards on eight carries, and Ahman Johnson had 32 total yards with three carries for 22 and four catches for just 10 yards.
“That’s the type of kid he is,” Plumlee said of Murphy. “He’s a high-character kid. We ask him to do a lot of stuff, and he takes it with a grain of salt, puts a smile on his face and goes to work. He’s a warrior, but all those guys were. Ahman Johnson, a tough kid, was getting hit on all night, getting tough yards and got up and kept wanting some more. I’m proud of our boys.”
Plumlee said he and his team will not let the outcome weigh them down for the remainder of the season.
“Our goal is still intact,” Plumlee said. “This league makes you better, and we’re excited to be right here in it, and we’re going to keep fighting. Our boys are resilient and they’re tough. We’ll come back in Monday and get ready for Bauxite.”
Fountain Lake will travel to Bauxite (6-0, 3-0) Friday night, and Arkadelphia will play host to Haskell Harmony Grove (42, 2-1).