Wolves turn in ‘lackadaisical’ perfomance at Mountain Home
Lake Hamilton head coach Tommy Gilleran described his team’s performance at Mountain Home in one word: lackadaisical.
A four hour bus ride combined with the Wolves (4-0, 2-0 6A-west) underestimating the Bombers led to a tougher task on the road than Lake Hamilton fans might have been expecting.
The Wolves returned home to Pearcy early in the morning with a 28-19 win.
“A lot of it they saw that they were 0-3 and struggled a lot,” Gilleran said. “Our kids can’t look past that. I just told them like how Notre Dame overlooked Marshall and didn’t rise to the occasion. Same thing with Texas A&M. They lost to a team that was not an SEC type caliber team. If you play down to the level of the competition sometimes there’s a good chance you get beat.”
Gilleran said his team played with so much energy the previous week to beat Little Rock Christian 34-19 that some of that energy was lost at Mountain Home.
“We had to figure some things out offensively,” Gilleran said. “They did a good job moving around and doing some things differently until we could figure it out and get the ball moving. We had some miscues on offense.”
In a game Lake Hamilton was heavily favored to win, the Wolves led just 7-6 at halftime.
“Defensively just the energy,” Gilleran said. “No energy. They had some good stops in the first half to make them kick two field goals to make it 7-6 at half. We just didn’t have the energy. We figured some things out in the second half. Still missed blocks, miscues, stuff like that. Lot of it was just the energy level was way down and then the long bus drive made for a long day for us.”
First-year starter Easton Hurley helped the Wolves gain control in the game. We went 3-for-6 passing for 64 yards. Hurley also carried the ball three times for 56 yards and two touchdowns.
“Easton through it all got us through it, got us different plays and made a couple throws,” Gilleran said. “In fact, last touchdown he had a 48-yard rushing touchdown which kind of sealed it. He just has great leadership qualities. He’s always motivated, always makes the other kids rise to the occasion.”
Senior running back Kendrick Martin dealt with a leg injury against Little Rock Christian but was back on offense for the Wolves against Mountain Home. He finished the game with 17 carries for 112 yards.
“He’s still kind of banged up, but he still carried the ball,” Gilleran said. “There’s a lot of them he would’ve broke if his leg wasn’t bothering him. But he still played through it.”
Justin Crutchmer tallied 95 yards and a score on 14 carries.
Gilleran said he wants to see his team improve its energy level and prepare for the game without overlooking the opponent ahead of Siloam Springs Friday.
“I’m just glad we won and our kids found a way to win on a long day,” Gilleran said. “We got home at 2:30 or 3 this morning so it’s a good win for us. Just got to move forward.”
MOUNTAIN PINE OFFENSE HEATS UP
Mountain Pine scored 60 points by halftime in the Red Devils’ 68-30 win at Parkers Chapel Friday night.
The usual suspects like Allstate running backs Keelan Dobbins and Isaiah Miles did well in both the running and passing games. Jonah Wilburn also had an “outstanding” performance.
“We did very, very well last night,” Mountain Pine head coach Daryl Scott said. “Got a lot of kids playing time second half that usually don’t get in the game. So they got some game experience there. But offense was rolling pretty good last night.”
The Red Devils (3-0) scored just 38 points the week before in a win over Rector, and Scott said last week his team had a lot to improve on ahead of Parkers Chapel.
After only playing one half against Fountain Lake in the season opener, Mountain Pine’s offense is finally starting to click.
“We didn’t have that game experience this year as a team just yet,” Scott said. “In practice we’re building what we’ve been working on and just getting better and better on the little things and it showed (Friday) night.”
All three units performed well for the Red Devils Friday. Mountain Pine started the game off with an onside kick and recovered it.
“We gave up a couple of long touchdown passes,” Scott said. “We were in position, we just didn’t make the play. One of the balls we tipped and it just landed in a receiver’s hand. So just a couple of things like that. Other than that, the defense played pretty well. We gave up a couple of runs up the middle just because we were out of position. I was very proud of the defense. They did a good job.”
Scott said it was very important to spread the playing time around last night, and some players even made extremely strong impressions off the bench.
“They practice hard everyday,” he said. “You know scout team and helping us get better as a team. To be able to get out there and showcase their talents, I saw two guys on defense for sure that did a great job that I was not expecting that to happen. I expect them to get a lot of playing time with the starters, too.”
JESSIEVILLE WINS BIG AT ATKINS
The Jessieville football team traveled to Atkins playing for four Lions who were injured in a car wreck and with one still in critical condition.
In an inspired performance, Jessieville took down the Red Devils 48-8.
COBRAS CRUISE PAST CEDAR RIDGE
Fountain Lake traveled to Newark to take on the Timberwolves and won comfortably.
The Cobras put 21 points on the board in the first quarter before scoring seven in the second. Fountain Lake tacked on six more points in the third quarter and seven in the final 12 minutes to set the final at 41-6.
JUNIOR RAMS BLANK HOT SPRINGS
The Lakeside junior high football team blanked Hot Springs 39-0 after both teams went into the contest undefeated.
Beau Brock opened the scoring for Lakeside with a 20-yard touchdown run with 6:34 left in the first quarter. Brock tacked on the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.
Wally Wolcott then connected with Luke Wrublesky on a 17yard touchdown pass with 7:23 left in the second quarter. Brock ran in the two-point conversion and junior Rams led 16-0.
Brock quickly added another touchdown rush just over three minutes later. Brock turned from scorer to provider when he found AJ Burns in the end zone for the two-point conversion.
Leading 24-0, Wolcott found Brock on a 62-yard touchdown pass with 22 seconds to play before halftime. Sam Luse made the extra point to set the halftime score at 31-0.
Chris Ford recovered a fumble to start the second half before Darnelle Osburn scored on an 11-yard touchdown run for a 37-0 Lakeside edge.the junior Rams set the final when Wrublesky and Jeremiah Evans registered a safety.
Brock touched the ball 11 times for 141 all purpose yards and three touchdowns. Wolcott went 9-for-14 passing for 171 yards and two touchdowns. Osburn finished with five carries for 51 yards and a score.
The Lakeside defense allowed just 11 total yards the entire contest.
The eighth grade Rams took a 24-6 win over Hot Springs. Emerson Collins connected with Quardarius Jackson on a 63-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring. Jackson punched in the two-point conversion for an early 8-0 lead.
Late in the game, Ethan Hornbeck and Blake Vincent earned a safety for the Rams to set the final.
Both the junior high and eighth grade Lakeside teams boast records of 4-0.