Hornets have little trouble in rematch
BRYANT — There was no second-half surge needed for Bryant this time around against Fort Smith Northside.
The Hornets did all of the pushing they needed to do in the first two quarters.
Quarterback Carson Burnett shook off a pair of early turnovers by accounting for three touchdowns in the first half as top-ranked Bryant blistered the Grizzlies 42-10 in the quarterfinals of the Class 7A playoffs Friday night at Hornet Stadium.
The victory was the Hornets’ 11th consecutive in the postseason dating back to 2018. And much like it was in the majority of those previous 10 games, Bryant (10-1) was overpowering.
Burnett completed 11 of 16 passes for 133 yards with 2 touchdowns and rushed 11 times for 40 yards with 2 more scores for the Hornets, which didn’t have nearly as much trouble with Northside (7-5) in this one as they did when they met earlier in the season.
Bryant beat the Grizzlies 35-17 on Sept. 24, in the teams’ conference opener, but the Hornets didn’t put that game away until the fourth quarter. It didn’t take nearly as long for the three-time defending state champions to do so in the rematch.
“I thought we did a really good job against the run,” said Bryant Coach Buck James, whose team held Northside’s backfield tandem of Ty Massey and Sundquist Church to just 117 yards rushing combined. “Really, on both sides of the ball, I thought we dominated the line of scrimmage. I think that a lot of times, that’s what you need in playoff games.
“Our kids just responded well. They didn’t get their heads down about the miscues that we had and just kept playing hard.”
Those mistakes came quickly for Bryant as Burnett threw interceptions on two of the team’s first three possessions. He also threw a third one in the third quarter. The Hornets also had a touchdown pass in the second period negated because of a holding penalty.
However, Bryant shook off those mishaps and ran out to a 28-3 lead by halftime, largely because of the number it did on the Grizzlies’ offense. Massey and Church had more than 1,000 yards rushing each coming in, but both were held to less than 35 yards apiece in the first half. As a whole, Northside had just 35 yards of offense in the first 24 minutes of play.
“We just ran into a buzzsaw,” Northside Coach Mike Falleur said. “That’s a really, really good football team over there. We knew we had to play exceptional. … we didn’t and Bryant did. I don’t think they did anything differently than what they did the first time we played them.
“They just executed really well this time. We forced them into some turnovers that we didn’t take advantage of, and you’ve got to do that against those guys. We had to be at the top of our game to stay in it, and we just didn’t do it.”
Bryant also sacked Grizzlies’ quarterback Walker Catsavis six times, with many of those coming on straight bull rushes from its defensive line.
Burnett, whose first interception came on Bryant’s initial drive, rebounded from that shaky start to get the Hornets off and running on their next series. He finished off an 8-play, 71-yard march with a bruising 4-yard touchdown with 5:08 left in the first quartet to put Bryant up 7-0.
After Northside came away with a 37-yard field from Saul Rodriguez following Burnett’s second pick, Bryant responded by scoring touchdowns on its final three possessions of the half, beginning with James Martin’s 18-yard scoring run in the second quarter. Burnett would follow that up with a 6-yard touchdown scamper with 6:47 to go before shoveling a 9-yard scoring pass to Mytorian Singleton with 58 seconds showing.
The Hornets pushed their margin to 35-3 with 7:59 left in the third on Burnett’s 14yard touchdown pass to Robert Hendrix and eventually capped their scoring with an 8-yard run from Chris Gannaway a little over four minutes later.
Massey, who ended with 64 yards rushing on 13 carries, registered Northside’s lone touchdown with his 1-yarder up the middle with 9:30 remaining.
Gannaway finished with 104 yards on nine carries, Martin rushed 15 times for 82 yards and Singleton caught six passes for 77 yards for Bryant, which will host nemesis North Little Rock next week in the semifinals. The two teams have played in the past three state title games, but a trip to the final will be on the line this time.
“It’s a chance to play for a state championship,” said James, who also led the Hornets to a 24-12 victory over the Charging Wildcats on Oct. 29. “We’re going to have to play great defense, and we’re going to have to be able to control the line of scrimmage. Against North Little Rock the last time, we didn’t do that. We’ve got to play better than we did last time, and we’ve got to play better than we did [Friday].”