Lions too strong for determined Red Devils
MOUNT IDA — Mount Ida is still the team to beat in its football conference, if not in Arkansas Class 2A for a second-straight year.
The defending state champion raised its winning streak to 16 games and stopped Mountain Pine’s at seven with a 49-22 triumph Friday night at Stidman Field.
“My hat goes off to Mountain Pine,” said Mount Ida head coach Mike White. “They came out and played us well, and it looked like a good old fashioned Mountain Pine-Mount Ida game. I’ve been watching them since the ’80s. Their kids played extremely hard.”
Mountain Pine senior Fay Haywood went 54 yards in the game’s opening minute for a touchdown, later scoring from 10 yards out and finishing with 153 yards on the ground.
“I knew he was good,” White said. “We didn’t tackle well, but there’s a reason for that. We knew he was good. I was impressed with the way the whole team played. I’m impressed with the speed that they played at. I’m looking for Mountain Pine to make a little noise in the playoffs.”
Down by two touchdowns early in the second half, Mountain Pine coach Sam Counce started gambling, going for it on fourth downs.
“We had to take some chances to win the game, and some of them backfired on us,” he said. “That’s what you’ve got to do against a championship team like that. We couldn’t sit back and let them run over us. We had to do some things — went on fourth down a few times. I felt like the kids played good.
“They’re the number-one team in the state. They won state last year. They’re good, and coach White’s got them going.
“I’m proud of our kids, they played hard. We had some things go bad there at the end that made the score look worse than what it was, but that’s part of it. We’re going to learn from it, and we’ll try to get everybody healthy and go (against visiting) Foreman next week.”
Mountain Pine (7-2, 5-1) hosts Foreman Thursday night while Mount Ida (9-0, 6-0) travels to Lafayette County.
Mount Ida junior Jonathan Lagrange ran for 135 yards and four touchdowns, two in the third quarter as the Lions went up 35-14. “He’s one we go to when we need to pound the ball,” White said. Bridger Farmer carried 11 times for 127 yards, he and Dallas Weston each scoring a fourth-quarter touchdown.
“The second half, we got some things fixed, especially defensively and shut them down somewhat” White said. “That’s a good football team. We can’t underestimate an opponent, ever.”
Mountain Pine scored its last touchdown after Mount Ida snapped the ball over the punter’s head, the Red Devils starting from the Lion two-yard line. Collin Smith scored the touchdown and Haywood added the two-point conversion.
Penalties hurt both teams, Mount Ida charged four times for 45 yards and Mountain Pine five times for 30 yards.
“We made mistakes when you can’t make mistakes against a good team,” said Counce. “Early in the first half we lined up offsides on a fourth down and gave them a first down. We had an offsides penalty late in the second quarter that really hurt us. We had some momentum, and we hurt ourselves.”
Counce took some consolation that Mountain Pine scored three touchdowns against a defense allowing 5.75 points through eight games.
“Mount Ida hasn’t let a lot of people move the ball on them much,” Counce said. “The momentum we’ll take out of this will be that we did score against a really good team, and we didn’t give up. We knew we were against a state team, but we played hard. They hung in there. I’m just proud of them to come from where we were, and we’re 7-2 right now, playing for second place in conference and a second-place seeding if we beat Foreman next week. What else can you ask for. They played hard.”
Gunner Gilbert had 10 tackles to lead Mount Ida. Champ Saylors had nine and Bridger Farmer and Ethan Winkley eight each. Winkley, Saylors and Drew Allen each had sacks.
Haywood led the Red Devil defense with nine tackes, Asa Gatlin with seven and Chad Graves and Elijah Browning six apiece.
Mountain Pine;7 7 0 8 —22 Mount Ida;14 7 14 14—49 First quarter MP — Fay Haywood 54 run (Chad Graves kick), 11:14
MI — Jonathan Lagrange 4 run (Tyler Allenbrand kick), 7:46
MI — Cade Jackson 1 run (Allenbrand kick), 4:02 Second quarter MP — Haywood 10 run (Graves kick), 4:00
MI — Lagrange 1 run (Allenbrand kick), 2:05 Third quarter MI — Lagrange 5 run (Allenbrand kick), 9:28
MI — Lagrange 4 run (Allenbrand
kick), 3:49 Fourth quarter MP — Collin Smith 1 run (Haywood run), 8:26
MI — Bridger Farmer 7 run (Allenbrand kick), 6:27
MI — Dallas Weston 1 run (Allenbrand kick), 2:39 INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing — Mountain Pine, Fay Haywood 23-153, Collin Smith 14-54, Elijah Browning 11-43, Devon Washington 4-18, Chad Graves 1-4. Mount Ida, Jonathan Lagrange 23-135, Bridger Farmer 11-127, Cade Jackson 12-76, Luke Forga 3-22, Cade Helms 4-20, Dallas Weston 4-17, T.J. Walden 1-15, Ridge Gibbs 2-4, Tyler Allenbrand 1-(-19). Passing — Mountain Pine, Smith 1-3-0-4. Receiving — Mountain Pine, Josh Walpole 1-4.