Wildcats stare down Jacksonville
El Dorado beat Jacksonville 46-27 in the regular-season finale Friday night at Memorial Stadium. It was the fourth win in a row for the Wildcats, who improved to 6-4 and will take the No. 6 seed to Pulaski Academy next week in the first round of the 6A State Playoffs.
J Prince Roberson had a monster night with six receptions for 136 yards and four touchdowns. Mitchell Polk completed 7-of-12 passes for 144 yards and three TDs. Jeremy Samuel had 21 carries for 111 yards.
The Titans, meanwhile, were as close to a one-man offense as possible. Quarterback Kentrel Thompson had 17 carries for 372 yards and four touchdowns.
“We knew the quarterback was really, really good. He's really the only one that hurt us. He's a threat for sure,” said El Dorado coach Chris Hill, who praised the Titans during the week for playing hard despite a record that dropped to 2-8.
The game was actually closer than the final score. The Wildcats led 21-7 at the half and 24-7 after Cooper Henry's 40-yard field goal with 3:09 left in the third.
Thompson answered for Jacksonville with a 74-yard touch- down run. Ahmad Young blocked the PAT for a 24-13 lead with 1:53 left in the third. The Wildcats' offense sputtered and Jacksonville cut the deficit to 24-21 when Thompson scored on a 32-yard run and then ran for the 2-point conversion with 10:42 left in the fourth quarter.
El Dorado would grab the momentum right back when AJ Gilmore returned the ensuing kickoff 70 yards for the touchdown.
“That was huge,” said Hill. “They'd cut the lead down. AJ did a great job hitting the sideline and out-running people to the end zone. That was a huge play. Anytime you can answer back from a big score, it
takes a lot of wind out of their sails. It takes the momentum away from them. That was a huge play in the ball game. It may have been the turning point in the ball game.”
Henry's PAT extended the lead to 31-21 with 10:30 left in the game.
Two plays later, Thompson broke loose again, this time scoring on an 84-yard scamper, pulling the Titans to within 31-27 with 9:34 remaining. He had scoring runs of 74, 80 and 84 yards.
“Nobody else hurt us. Nobody else hurt us at all,” said Hill. “They'd run the ball and we'd stuff it. A couple times we over-pursued or we lost contain. He's a good back. He's a really good back. When you play a guy like that, you've got to keep your fits. Several times we got out of position tonight and gave him running lanes. That's certainly something we'll have to adjust this week.”
The Wildcats regained control with their best drive of the night, a 9-play, 48 yard scoring march. Samuel had three carries for 13 yards and Bretaveon Brown carried the ball twice for 17. On second-and-goal from the 9, Cannon Jacobs took the hand-off on a jet sweep and found Roberson open in the back of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown with 5:37 left to play. The snap-hold on the PAT was botched but Jacobs found Young for the 2-point pass and a 39-27 advantage with 5:37 left.
El Dorado concluded the scoring on Polk's 51-yard touchdown strike to Roberson with 1:13 left on the clock.
The Wildcats opened the game with a missed opportunity by the offense. Jervalen Junior recovered a fumble on a punt at the Jacksonville 27. El Dorado failed to score, however, coming up short on fourth-and-1 at the 18.
The next opportunity was set up by the defense when Gilmore intercepted Thompson's pass at the 32. On the next play, Polk connected with Roberson on a 32-yard touchdown. Henry's kick gave El Dorado a 7-0 lead with 4:35 left in the first. Three plays later, Thompson would answer with an 80-yard touchdown run, tying the game with 3:32 left in the first.
The Wildcats regained the lead on the ensuing possession. Roberson got behind the secondary with a double-move and hauled in a perfectly thrown 35-yard TD pass from Polk with 2:06 left still in the opening quarter.
The lead swelled to 21-7 on Polk's 2-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal. Samuel set up the score with a 43-yard rumble to the 4-yard line.
Despite scoring a season high in points, El Dorado's offense was hit-andmiss with an inconsistent running game in the first half.
“That was very frustrating. We didn't sustain our blocks on the line of scrimmage. We let them cross our face. We would pull past a defender and not kick him out. I was disappointed in us offensively,” said Hill. “I was disappointed we couldn't sustain drives better than we did. We were able to hit them on some big plays. And that's got to be part of the offense, too. But people are going to take the big plays away from you. We have to be able to sustain drives.
“I thought our defense was on the field a lot in the first half because we had so many three-and-outs. We'd run the ball and end up losing two yards or four yards. Now it's second-and-14. That limits your play calling. At times, it was very frustrating offensively tonight.”