Faulkenberry leads Gentry past Huntsville
HUNTSVILLE — Senior quarterback Jon Faulkenberry broke the game open in the second half with a couple of long touchdown runs Friday night, leading his Gentry Pioneers to a 42-28 victory over Huntsville.
Faulkenberry tallied 200 rushing yards on 18 carries, while completing 7 of 10 passes for another 117.
“It’s fun to score, and we’ve been fortunate enough to ride some pretty good coattails,” Pioneers coach Paul Ernest said with a grin after the game.
Gentry outgained Huntsville 533-347 in total offense, as the Pioneers racked up 416 yards on the ground. Myles McFerron ran the ball 25 times for Gentry, finishing with 133 yards including a 5-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
“I can’t say enough about Myles McFerron, the way he took care of the football and ran it for us tonight,” Ernest said. “He’s a senior that hasn’t gotten a whole lot of carries, playing behind some other kids, but he runs hard, and he got it done for us tonight.”
After Huntsville fumbled the ball away on its first offensive play of the game, Gentry needed just three plays to move the ball 32 yards to score. A 22-yard run by Faulkenberry got it to the Huntsville 1, where he plunged in on the following play with 10 minutes, 54 seconds left in the first quarter.
McCone got the Eagles’ offense in gear on their next possession, orchestrating a 15-play drive. But the drive stalled at the Gentry 8, after McCone’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
Huntsville turned the ball over again on downs at the Gentry 37 midway through the second quarter, but an interception by Tyler Smith quickly returned the ball to the Eagles. Quarterback Sean McCone needed just two keepers, one for 40 yards, to get the Eagles on the scoreboard and cut the lead to 7-6 with 9:01 to play in the first half.
Gentry (4-2, 2-1 4A-1 Conference) put together a 16-play drive to end the half, as Faulkenberry hit Daniel Thao on a 3-yard TD pass as time expired, sending the Pioneers into the intermission with a 14-6 score.
After Gentry scored on the opening possession of the third quarter, an 11play drive by Huntsville — including four straight completions for McCone — cut the deficit to 21-12.
The teams traded scores once more, as Faulkenberry darted 80 yards down the left sideline for a Pioneer score, then McCone hit Zack Elsey for an 11-yard Huntsville touchdown.
Faulkenberry then had a 40-yard touchdown run called back by a penalty. But on the next play, he hit Peyton Wright for a 51-yard strike down the middle of the field. He added a 43-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter to give Gentry a comfortable 4220 lead.
“We knew that both teams would be able to come out and move the ball,” Huntsville coach Randy Barnhill said. “But it just came down to turning the ball over too many times and not making the plays when we needed to.”
The Eagles did put one more score on the board when McCone hit Elsey for a 46-yard slant route.
Huntsville (1-5, 1-2) has now dropped five straight games since a seasonopening win over Green Forest.