Arkadelphia stands tall in 2nd half for win over Fountain Lake

FOUNTAIN LAKE — Arkadelphia got off to a slow start but powered past Fountain Lake for a 44-22 win at Allen Tillery Field Thursday night.

“Gotta give Arkadelphia credit,” Fountain Lake junior high head coach Josh Wesson said. “They came out; they’re well coached. Things were going our way the first half, and [we] had a couple injuries. At the start of the second half, [we] had to move some people around and they punched us in the mouth in the second half. We had no answers.”

The junior Cobras kicked things off fast as Taten Smith ran 46 yards into the end zone with just under two minutes off the clock, but the conversion was denied.

Fountain Lake would not let up on the junior Badgers as Trystan Redifer recovered two fumbles by quarterback Donovan Whitten, to stop the visitors. Quarterback Wesley Campbell found Smith on a 12yard pass before spotting Redifer for a 23-yard touchdown with 41.6 seconds left in the half. Campbell found Smith on the conversion play for a 14-0 lead.

“To be honest, I was a bit worried for us at the beginning of the game,” Arkadelphia junior high head coach Drew Loe said. “Fountain Lake was just taking it to us, eating the clock, playing power football, just what Fountain Lake does best. I guess after halftime we said something to ‘em that sparked a nerve with us, and we just kind of carried it on from there.”

In a two-play drive with 10.2 seconds left until halftime, Arkadelphia running back Latonio Hughes broke loose on an 89-yard touchdown run to put the junior Badgers on the scoreboard for the first time of the night. The conversion run by K.D. Young pulled Arkadelphia within 14-8.

Hughes ran the ball 27 yards with 54 seconds off the clock, and the PAT by Isaac Olmedo was good to bring Arkadelphia within 15-14, setting the tone for the rest of the game.

“We had three guys go down,” Wesson mentioned. “Whenever you’re having to play a bunch guys in spots they’ve never played before, it’s tough to handle a really good team like that. We had all of our running backs go down last week, so Redifer had to play running back for us and then we put him out at receiver. He’s just a really good athlete. He works hard and plays extremely hard. He had a good night.”

Whitten recovered Olmedo’s onside kick, and Hughes punched it in again for 20 yards with 6:55 left in the third. Olmedo’s kick was good to give Arkadelphia its first lead of the night.

“Latonio is a very special kid,” Loe said. “He’s a fast runner — he’s got good vision when he hits the pockets.”

Arkadelphia’s Chase Vantilborg recovered a junior Cobras fumble, and he then ran it into the end zone on

the next play. The conversion play made it 30-14 for the junior Badgers.

The Cobras could not catch a break as fullback Tucker Guy recovered another fumble, and wide receiver Tripp Campbell drove it in to score with 2:16 in the third. Olmedo’s point after kick was good for a 37-14 lead.

“Our offense started playing better, and our defense started playing, forcing three and outs,” Loe said. “I gotta commend these kids for coming out in the second half and just putting on a show that we work with everyday in practice. … I know we had a couple mishaps in our offensive line. We gotta get that fixed up, and hopefully we’ll be better with that next week.”

Finding their footing on an 11-play drive, Campbell carried it in from the 1-yard line with 5:09 left, and the conversion pass to Preston Taylor made it 37-22.

The Badgers were able to punch it in one more time with 4:59 left in the game as Hughes ran for a 50-yard TD and Olmedo’s kick set the final score.

“From seventh grade all the way up to high school, the 7-4A, it’s the SEC,” said Wesson. “I mean, there’s no weeks you can take off. Every team’s great, a bunch of really good coaches top to the bottom in the league, so we’ll have the minors next week.”

The junior Cobras travel next Thursday to match up with Bauxite at 7 p.m.