Newcomer Calvary takes third Live Like Bryce title
PEARCY — Lakeside junior quarterback Will Perrigo knew that it came down to him as the Lakeside Rams came to the end of the 20 minute Live Like Bryce 7-on7 Tournament final against the Calvary Baptist Academy Cavaliers from Shreveport, La., at Bank OZK Field.
Both teams had managed two touchdowns each as Lakeside’s defense held the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Division III quarterfinalists to their lowest offensive output of the game, forcing the game into overtime where each team had a single four-play drive to move the ball 10 yards for a touchdown.
The Rams were on a high after stopping the Cavaliers at the 3-yard line at the buzzer, and Lakeside head coach Jared McBride told his junior quarterback the play. Perrigo took the ball, stepped back and threw toward junior receiver Isaac Echols, but Calvary safety Cameron Thomas managed to grab the ball for an interception, earning the team two points and the win.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to try to fit the ball in,” McBride said. “I thought Will had a really good day for us. He threw the ball well. We just couldn’t squeeze one in. It’s my fault — a bad call. The kids played hard, and we had fun.”
Cavaliers head coach Rodney Guin said that he was not disappointed to see his team held offensively.
“It’s 7-on-7, so you never know what’s going to happen from one game to the next,” he said. “We played well offensively all day long, and it’s tough on the defense, this game right here. They’ve got a good team, too. We’re happy. We came up, had fun and the kids got better today, and that’s what we wanted to do.”
The Rams got on the scoreboard first after holding the Cavaliers on its initial drive, but Calvary knotted the score on its next play as senior quarterback Cade Hart fired a shot into the back corner of the end zone 45 seconds after the Rams scored. The Cavaliers took a 14-7 lead with 8:12 left on the running clock, but both teams were denied on their next drives with Perrigo finding Echols on a short shot up the middle with 1:33 to go to knot it at 14-14.
“It was exciting; 7-on-7 is exciting,” Mc
Bride said. “It’s an opportunity to compete, and Calvary is a very tradition-rich program. We were glad to compete in the championship game, and our kids fought hard all the way to the very end.
“We held right in there with them — blow for blow, and our kids played hard and had a chance at the end. That’s all you can ask for.”
This was Calvary’s first trip to Pearcy, but Guin said that he plans to make this a regular trip in the future.
“Somebody put us on it, and I’ll tell you — this is a first-class deal right here,” he said. “They treat you well. They treat the kids well, and you know, if they’ll have us, we’re going to keep coming back because we really enjoyed it.”
While the Cavaliers had one of the longer drives of the teams at the event at just over three hours, the ability to play against unfamiliar opponents made the trip worth it.
“We just like to play,” Guin said. “We want to play people different than who we play all the time at home. That gets so old. We had this opportunity, and I’m telling you, it was a lot of fun.”
Eight schools participated in this year’s Live Like Bryce 7-on-7 Tournament with Lake Hamilton and Lakeside both fielding two teams. Fountain Lake, Malvern, Mineral Springs and Mena completed the group from Arkansas while Coweta High School from just outside Tulsa, Okla., rounded out the teams.
Lake Hamilton head coach Tommy Gilleran said that he was impressed with the talent this year.
“Calvary Baptist, from Louisiana, you saw how talented they were,” he said. “Coweta, from Oklahoma, seemed like they played pretty good. Mena, he feels like he’s got a really good team, feels like he can go far in the playoffs. I think we’re going to go far. I know we’ve got some young kids playing. Overall, I think this was a really good tournament.”
Gilleran said that while the Wolves run a Wing-T, which is a run-heavy offense, 7-on-7 gives the team an opportunity to improve its passing game.
“It’s good for us to see things we need to work on, but also, where we’re really going to see a difference for Lake Hamilton football is team camps because we’re mainly run-based,” he said. “We do a lot of play-action stuff, so a lot of our stuff is based on play-action. … We try to run stuff we’re going to run on Friday nights because we feel like if we’re going to do it, we need to get better at that and not worry about winning a 7-on-7. Now, we want to win every 7-on-7, but we want to do it through what we run. We’re not going to make up stuff to — something we’re not going to run on Friday night.”
The Wolves were stopped in the tournament quarterfinals by Coweta, a team from one of the largest classifications in Oklahoma after finishing third in their pool, but Gilleran was pleased with his team’s performance.
“Layne [Warrick] is a year older,” he said. “Of course, last year, he didn’t play much at all; he was injured all summer. This is the first full summer we’ve had him throwing. His development is getting better and better. He’s got to see the reads and make the throws. He’s not doing that all the time.
“He’s really good when there’s pressure and he has to run and move around. I feel like in a real football game it’s different, and he does a really good job of that. We’re not relying on him to stand back there and throw it 30 times either. If we throw it 15, 10 times a game, we’re going to be where we need to be offensively.”
Lake Hamilton will open its season at home against Lakeside on Sept. 5 with Fountain Lake hosting Hot Springs. Mineral Springs will visit Mountain Pine on Sept. 6, and Mena will host De Queen on Aug. 30.