Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Second Half Explosion Rocks Huntsville
PRAIRIE GROVE — The junior Tigers held a slim, 22-13, lead at halftime before erupting for 30 points in the second half en route to a 52-29 victory over Huntsville on Thursday, Sept. 21.
“We came out on fire in the second half, it was good,” said Prairie Grove head junior high coach John Elder.
Elder gave a shout-out to the offensive line, who labored to open holes in a big way.
“We just kind of ran wide a lot,” Elder said. “We worked a lot on our sweep. Our offensive line just blocked extremely well. That kind of opened other things up. Then we came back to the sweep. We over-powered them in the second half.”
Prairie Grove halfback Cade Grant finished with 307 yards rushing on a mere 10 carries. His average run was 30.7 yards and every other time he touched the football was a touchdown. Grant scored five times, including touchdown runs of 55, 4, and 44 yards in the first half. Fullback Foster Layman gained 108 yards and had a touchdown on 10 runs.
Junior Tiger quarterback Miles Castleman completed 1 of 6 passes for 36 yards. Tight end Josh Weber had one catch for 36 yards.
Prairie Grove took the opening possession of the contest 67 yards in 6 plays for a touchdown. A neutral zone encroachment by Huntsville on third-and-one gave the junior Tigers a first down at their own 45. After an incomplete pass, Grant reeled off a 55-yard run, the first of his 5 touchdowns. Paytin Higgins kicked the extra-point and Prairie Grove led 7-0 with 4:53 left in the first quarter.
Castleman was sacked twice on the next Prairie Grove possession forcing a punt. The boot traveled only 13 yards providing Huntsville with prime field position at the junior Tiger 28. Prairie Grove jumped offsides on defense allowing Huntsville a first-and-5 start from the 23. On the next play, Huntsville completed a pass for a touchdown and kicked an extra-point to even the score, at 7-all, as the first quarter wore down.
The junior Tiger offense responded with a 4-play, 63-yard scoring march. Grant’s 4-yard touchdown was set up by Castleman’s 36-yard completion to Weber, who fought for extra yards after the catch. Huntsville jumped offsides prior to the extra-point snap so Elder elected to go for two and sent out the offense. Layman ran in a 2-point conversion, putting Prairie Grove ahead, 15-7.
Despite a sack by Cage Adams, Huntsville was able to drive 52 yards in 10 plays to answer the Prairie Grove score. The Eagles capitalized on a short field after a good kickoff return. Prairie Grove prevented Huntsville from tying the game by stopping a sweep on the conversion attempt and maintained a 15-13 advantage.
Only 1:45 remained in the first half. Huntsville helped by kicking the ball out-ofbounds which drew a flag and enabled the junior Tigers to start at their own 35 with no time off the clock. Grant provided a solution to the time problem by busting off a 44-yard touchdown carry that came with 16 seconds to go before halftime.
Higgins booted the point-after and Prairie Grove took a two-score, 22-13, lead. Huntsville again got another good kick return of 26 yards to their own 47, but the Eagles were content to take a knee and let the half expire. Had they an inkling of what was to come in the second half, they might have tried a “Hail-Mary” pass, but the Eagles didn’t and the junior Tigers ran all over them in the second half. Prairie Grove’s 52-29 win opened conference play with a 1-0 start for the junior Tigers.