Prairie Grove Hosts Black And Gold Game

PRAIRIE GROVE — Football season is upon us and Thursday, Prairie Grove fans got to catch a glimpse of their 2013 hometown gridiron stars.

Tiger football players and cheerleaders from the peewee level all the way to senior high introduced themselves during the annual Black and Gold football game and pie auction. While it was only what senior Tiger coach Danny Abshier refers to as a “glorified scrimmage,” it was still an opportunity for the community to whet their appetite after the football famine brought on by the end of the 2012 season.

The junior Tigers took the field early in the evening showcasing their starting offense. Anthony Johnson displayed his speed by peeling off a 52-yard touchdown run on the Black team’s first possession, with Reed Orr concluding the drive by punching in the 2-point conversion.

Following the touchdown, the first team offense retained possession and promptly proceeded to march down the field in the other direction. It took the first teamers six plays to travel 70 yards, capped off by Zeke Laird’s 34-yard touchdown strike to Isaac Disney. Laird crossed the goal line after calling his own number on the 2-point try.

Disney’s touchdown grab and Laird’s successful conversion concluded the scoring in the junior high scrimmage. The senior Tigers took a different approach when they took the field for their scrimmage later in the evening. Instead of running the first teamers as a whole unit, coach Abshier split his squad equally, hoping for a spirited contest. However, ball control issues plagued both squads, with the pigskin hitting the turf nine times during the contest.

There were four turnovers, two by each squad in the first five possessions of the scrimmage. The fourth turnover came when the Black squad threatened to score after driving to the nine, but Logan Bartholomew ended the scoring threat when he picked off Jacob Storlie two yards in the end zone, then raced 102 yards down the sideline for a Gold team touchdown. J.D. Speed crossed the plane of the goal on the 2-point try, making the score 8-0 in favor of the Gold squad.

Later in the contest, the Black team cut the deficit to 8-6 when Nick Sugg capped off a 70-yard drive with a two yard touchdown. The Black team then took the lead on their next possession when Storlie hooked up with Bobby Catt for a 52-yard touchdown pass. Storlie converted the 2-point attempt, putting Black ahead 14-8.

The Black team’s lead was short lived, because on their next possession, the Gold team chewed up 75 yards of real estate, 55 of those yards coming from a Dylan Soehner reception on a pass from Ryan Marrell and concluding with a four yard touchdown run by Bartholomew. Marrell dove across the goal line on the 2-point attempt putting the Gold team ahead 16-14.

The teams traded touchdowns midway through the second half, with Sugg scor- ing his second touchdown on a run from two yards out to put the Black team on top 20-16. The Gold squad countered with an Eli Lopez four yard touchdown scamper which brought the final score of the turnover-plagued scrimmage to 22-20. Both senior and junior high football teams travel to Huntsville on Friday for a pre-season tune-up against the Eagles. The junior Tigers will then open the season on the road when they travel to Lavaca on Sept. 5 to take on the Golden Arrows. On Sept. 6 the Sr. Tigers will host the Golden Arrows at home in their season opener, with kickoff commencing at 7 p.m.