Wildcats cruise on four scores by Day

Junior running back Alex Day rushed for 238 yards and four touchdowns to spark North Little Rock to a 40-13 victory over West Memphis on Friday at North Little Rock.

Day struck early and set the tone for the game by running 62 yards on the second play from scrimmage to give the Charging Wildcats (5-4, 4-2 7A/6A) a 6-0 lead.

By the end of the first quarter Day had rushed for 94 yards and two touchdowns.

“That’s nothing new for Alex,” said first-year North Little Rock Coach Jamie Mitchell. “We just gotta keep giving him the rock.”

The Wildcats kept giving Day the ball and West Memphis simply had no answer for the 5-11, 192-pound back.

Day’s third touchdown of the night came from two yards out with 7:35 left in the second quarter to make it 20-0.

Very little went West Memphis’ way. The exception was the play of senior quarterback Trevor Pagan, who replaced an ineffective Kylin Whiting, the Blue Devils starter, at quarterback. Pagan threw a 10-yard touchdown pass with 1:13 to play before halftime to trim the deficit to 20-6.

But North Little Rock quelled any West Memphis momentum at intermission by answering quickly with an 85-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Corvasea Cooney to Kyleal Lewis with 57 seconds still on the clock in the second quarter.

“We started to look like a team that can throw the ball tonight,” Mitchell added. “[Cooney] did a good job on several throws.”

Meanwhile, the Charging Wildcats defense limited West Memphis (4-5, 2-4) to only 29 yards rushing in the first half and kept the Blue Devils from reaching the triple-digit mark by game’s end.

North Little Rock pounced on a West Memphis turnover with 2:55 left in the third quarter to give Day a shot at his fourth touchdown of the game, which came from 44 yards out for a 33-6 lead for

the hosts.

North Little Rock’s final score came on a twoyard touchdown from Garet Melton while West Memphis added another Pagan TD pass

to Jamerun Dudley with four minutes left to play.

SEARCY 61, MOUNTAIN HOME 26

MOUNTAIN HOME — A kickoff return for a touchdown was among Luke

Dixon’s six scores as Searcy (6-3, 3-3 7A/6A-East) defeated Mountain Home (1-8, 0-6).

Jackson Hall and Michael Parsley returned interceptions for touchdowns, while Trenton Turner caught a pass for another score.