Cabot rolls
Senior running back Mason Bell rushed for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Grant Freeman passed for 2 scores as Cabot outlasted Jonesboro 47-27.
CABOT 47, JONESBORO 27
CABOT — Mason Bell followed last week’s impressive showing in Cabot’s season opener with an equally splendid outing in the Panthers’ home debut.
The senior running back ran 15 times for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns as Cabot outlasted Jonesboro 47-27 on Friday night at Panther Stadium.
Quarterback Grant Freeman pitched in by completing 15 of 22 passes for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns for Cabot (2-0), which took down its second consecutive 6A-East opponent after disposing of Searcy a week ago. Bell was a load for the Lions to handle in that one on the road, and he was just as hard on the Golden Hurricane at home.
“He really ran well,” Cabot Coach Scott Reed said of Bell, who also had 137 yards on the ground in the Panthers’ 28-point thrashing at Searcy. “I thought Evion Jimerson did a heck of a job running the ball, too. Our offensive line. … we’ve got some really good run-blockers, and they really opened up holes for those guys.
“But with Bell and Jimerson, that’s a really nice onetwo punch.”
Jimerson added 53 rushing yards on 9 carries and a touchdown as Cabot rushed for more than 250 yards against a Jonesboro defense that yielded very little in its 37-7 beating of Little Rock Catholic in its previous game. Braden Jay chipped in with 144 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns, including an 80-yard kickoff return for a score.
But the Golden Hurricane were their own worst enemy at times.
Jonesboro (1-1) attacked Cabot successfully through the air at times behind quarterback Rykar Acebo, who was 25-of-36 passing for 287 yards with 3 touchdowns. The problem for the Golden Hurricane was that every time they seemingly got something positive going in the first half, a negative followed.
“You can’t beat a good team if you’re not doing the little things right,” said Jonesboro Coach Randy Coleman, whose team’s chances at winning were also hurt by their 2 for 15 effort on third downs. “Sacks and turnovers will get you beat every time. [Friday], the turnovers we had turned into points for Cabot, and then the sacks put you so far behind the chains that it’s hard to get things going consistently.”
Cabot sacked Acebo six times, four of which came in the first two quarters, and converted two Jonesboro fumbles into touchdowns in the first half. Those two scores provided the difference in the Panthers’ 28-14 lead at the half.
Bell popped his initial touchdown on the first play of the Panthers’ second possession when he sprinted through the middle of the line for an 82-yard score. Freeman would later toss his first scoring pass — a 15-yarder to Chandler Carter — with 3:37 left in the opening quarter to give Cabot a 14-0 lead.
Jonesboro finally scored with 8:39 showing in the second quarter on Acebo’s 60-yard bomb to Jesse Washington, but Jimerson’s 2-yard touchdown run on the Panthers’ next drive pushed their lead back to 14.
The Hurricane decreased their deficit on Brock McCoy’s 30-yard touchdown with 3:17 to go in the half only to witness Cabot re-establish its 14-point cushion on Jay’s 8-yard score a little more than two minutes later.
Coleman’s team eased to within 28-21 in the third when Acebo tossed a 40-yard touchdown to Latrell Brown at the 8:31 mark and pulled as close as 35-27 with 9:35 remaining in the game on a 34yard touchdown catch from Kavon Pointer, who ended the night with nine catches for 119 yards. But Jay essentially knocked the wind out of the Hurricane’s rally when he followed Pointer’s score with his kickoff return.
Freeman later delivered a 50-yard strike to Ashton Shurley with less than five minutes left in the game to finish off the victory.
“It was a good win for us,” Reed said. “We gave up a few deep balls, but I was impressed with Jonesboro’s passing game. We got them down, but they just kept coming back and getting after us.
“But I was proud of the way we settled down, especially when they cut it to seven. We got it going on the ground a little bit, and Jay got that kickoff return score. That was certainly nice to have.”