Davis leads Badgers in rout of Troy
A strong performance by running back Jaishon Davis and composed quarterback play from Donovan Whitten led Arkadelphia to a 43-27 win over Hot Springs at Tommy Holt Memorial Field Friday night.
The game was essentially over after the first half as the Badgers led 43-7 at the break. Just playing one half, Davis had eight carries for 123 yards and two scores while Whitten was 10 for 15 for 220 yards and three touchdowns.
“Jaishon ran the ball hard,” Arkadelphia head coach Trey Schucker said. “He was the type of running back that we know he is. Tonight he was the one cut, get downhill and go break tackles kind of back. Donovan showed a lot of progression from last week to this week, and I knew he would. He’s had a great developmental process.”
On the home side, Hot Springs struggled from the start and found it hard to build any momentum throughout the contest.
“I just didn’t have them ready,” Hot Springs head coach Darrell Burnett said. “Just simple as that man. I’m not going to point a finger at any kids or throw any kids under the bus. I didn’t have everybody ready. That goes from the kids,
that goes from the coaches. Our school district, our community, they’re owed a whole lot better.”
After penalties were a problem for Hot Springs last week against Fountain Lake, the Trojans registered 13 penalties for 77 yards against the Badgers.
“Same ole stuff man,” Burnett said. “We’ve got to fix it. We see it. We know we see it on film. The thing about it: it doesn’t just happen on Fridays; it happened during the week. That’s on us. I can sit here and point the fingers and talk about the kids; that’s on us. We’ve got 13 coaches on this staff from seventh grade all the way up to 12th that get paid good. It’s on us to fix it.”
With the Badgers leading 14-7 in the second quarter and driving into Hot Springs’ territory, the Trojan defense came up with a big defensive stop after stuffing Braylon Bailey at the 39-yard line.
Looking to capitalize on the momentum swing, Trojan quarterback Isaac Shelor targeted a wide open T.J. Brogdon for a big gain down the field, but the ball bounced off Brogdon’s hands for an incompletion.
Just two players later, Shelor targeted an open Deshawn Roberts down the field but the pass was also dropped for incompletion and forced a punt. The Badgers scored on the ensuing possession and tacked on a 2-point conversion to take a 22-7 lead. The two dropped passes were a missed opportunity by Hot Springs.
“It was real big, it was real big,” Burnett said. “It would’ve made it close. We have to capitalize off stuff like that.”
Leading 29-7, Davis showed his strength and broke multiple tackles down the field on a one-play drive where the senior rushed 67-yards to the endzone en route to a 36-7 lead.
“He’s a hard runner,” Burnett said. “He’s a real hard runner. We had some guys tackling; we had some guys arm tackling. Biggest thing was you know deep balls here and there, missing tackles, this and that. We’ve got some things we’ve got to fix, but it wasn’t just him. The penalties, the timely penalties stopping drives. It’s a whole lot of things.”
The visitors sealed the game late in the first half when the Badgers swatted a Shelor pass at the line of scrimmage that fell into the hands of defensive lineman Kaden Young. Young returned the ball 37-yards to the house for a pick-six and 43-7 lead.
Hot Springs scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter including a Perry Jones 1-yard rush, a 70-yard touchdown reception by Brogdon and an Akeem Dorsey 18-yard run as time expired with no extra point attempted to set the final.
Burnett emphasized his team has eight games left to turn things around.
“A loss is a loss you know,” Burnett said. “Let’s just be real. If you lose by two, it’s the same as losing by 42. Yeah one of them is more embarrassing but at the end of the day it tests your character. … It’s two things, you’re either winning or you’re miserable. There isn’t an in between. When you lose, you’re miserable. We have eight more chances to get it fixed and it’s going to define everybody.”
The win for Arkadelphia was a bounce back victory after falling to Camden Fairview in the Badgers’ first game of the season.
“I was very, very pleased with how we executed tonight,” Schucker said. “We followed the game plan. With a good week of preparation like we had we knew this was kind of what we could be. We didn’t meet our expectation last week. Very, very pleased and proud of our guys for executing the way they did tonight. It was what we needed. … We needed this to get back on track and get our guys to understand and feel the success and move forward.”
The Trojans host Mena Friday at 7 p.m. Arkadelphia travels to Greenbrier.