Soph throws for five TDs, Knights keep rolling

Like certain Arkansas cities with fruits and vegetables — say, Atkins with pickles and Warren with tomatoes — Centerpoint High, between Glenwood and Amity, harvests winning quarterbacks.

Sophomore Josh Lawson, following the lead of Keenan Owens and Owen Bright, threw five touchdown passes for the unbeaten Knights Friday night in a 34-6 home victory over Mountain Pine at Diamond Bank Stadium in Rosboro.

Somewhat rusty after a week off, Centerpoint led 6-0 after the first quarter and 20-6 at halftime, then scored on its first two possessions of the third quarter. The 3-0 Knights, with a high-profile Week 1 victory over Class 4A Haskell Harmony Grove, look inside the 3A-5 conference for the first time Friday night at Smackover.

“You never know how kids are going to do after a week off,” said Knights coach Cary Rogers, whose team drilled Pike County Class 2A rival Murfreesboro in its last game. “And we were a little slow out of the gate.”

The Knights got rolling from their 16 on the team’s second possession, Lawson rolling out and finding classmate C.J. Fox downfield on a 64-yard catch and run. From the Centerpoint 17 after a procedure penalty, Lawson located senior Landon Way in the back of the end zone.

Lawson, said Rogers, is making up for lost time after breaking an arm on the first play of a junior-high scrimmage last year. At 6-3, Lawson has a strong arm and rapport with receivers.

“You can usually always find a kid who can throw the football,” Rogers said. “It’s not always that easy to find kids who can go get the football. We’ve got some who can.”

Lawson spread his touchdown passes between three targets, Fox with 37- and 30-yard scores on the Knights’ first two possessions of the second half. Landon Way had a second touchdown catch, for 13 yards, and his brother, Houston, a junior, one for 34 yards, both in the second quarter. Landon’s second score, 7:08 left in the first half, capped a 14-play, 60-yard drive that bridged

two quarters, if not parts of the Obama and Trump administrations.

Sophomore Hayden Rogers kicked for a 13-0 lead after a drive that Centerpoint overcame two penalties for holding and one for illegal procedure. “We’ve got to clean that up” before conference season, Rogers said.

Mountain Pine, 0-3, has not led in 144 minutes of football, a discouraging note for coach Sam Counce’s team before it begins conference play against 2-1 Cutter Morning Star this week at Stanley May Field.

In a first half played for the most part in a 20-yard zone around midfield, Mountain Pine punted once and was stopped on downs twice in Centerpoint territory in the first quarter. Senior quarterback Collin Smith answered Centerpoint’s second touchdown with runs of 14 and

12 yards before junior Josiah Walpole went 36 yards for a

13-6 score.

A three-year starter who earned all-state honors last year, Smith drove the Red Devils, then down 34-6, to the Knights’

13 before Centerpoint took over on downs. “He was the one that we focused on stopping,” Rogers said. “He did a good job.”

After home losses to Class

2A opponents Mineral Springs and Dierks, Mountain Pine went on the road against a team that, like itself, is accustomed to playing deep into November. The Red Devils now concentrate on

2A-5, in which they are preseason favorites in Hootens’ Arkansas Football.

Trying to keep spirits up, Counce told his team afterward, “You played your guts out. See you tomorrow morning at nine.”