Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Warriors Beguile Farmington, Spoil Homecoming
— Homecoming week glitz combined with injuries and perhaps a touch of pride after beating 7A Van Buren in week three short- circuited Farmington in a 42-26 loss to Little Rock Christian.
On Friday when the Cards should have been at the top of their game entering 5A West league play in a bid for a playoff run, they weren’t. The redbirds didn’t perform terribly, running 71 offensive plays for 318 yards compared to Little Rock Christian’s 66 plays for 327 yards but against a larger school with a deeper roster Farmington was off just enough to tilt the game in favor of the visitors.
“We didn’t have a very good week of preparation,” said Farmington coach Mike Adams. “I’m proud of our effort, we kept battling to the end but we’ve got to prepare.”
An interception by Josh Williams on the game’s opening possession gave Farmington a chance to score first but they wound up kicking ball away on fourth down and the punt was short and took a peculiar bounce rolling laterally out of bounds after traveling a mere 12 yards.
Little Rock Christian drove 55 yards with nearly half (25 yards) coming on controversial penalties to score a 7-0 lead on Brooks Broshears’ quarterback keeper.
The Cardinals responded with a 67-yard touchdown march in 13 plays capped by Brice Waggle’s quarterback sneak from a yard out. Gabe Sequichie’s kick tied the game at 7- all but the snakebites continued.
In the second quarter Broshears returned a Cardinal fumble 60 yards for a touchdown. Waggle then tossed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Evan O’Dell tying the game at 14-14 before the Warriors added 14 more points to go up, 28-14, at intermission.
Thirty-two seconds into the third period, Justice Hobbs ( 19 carries, 94 yards) rambled 28 yards for a touchdown. The point- after kick missed leaving Farmington behind, 28-20. Farmington had a chance to draw even but Tanner Gentry returned an interception 50 yards for a second Little Rock Christian defensive touchdown.
“We made too many mistakes. We just gave them two scores. You can’t do that against a good team and win,” Adams said. “We lost two offensive linemen, that was tough to overcome. We put our quarterback in some bad situations where you have to throw and they [Little Rock Christian] knew it.”
Again Farmington rallied with Waggle ( 24- 36, 268 yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions) finding O’Dell for a 10-yard score. A two- point conversion attempt failed leaving the Cardinals down, 35-26.
Little Rock Christian produced another touch- down on McFarland’s 5- yard carry at the 9: 03 mark of the fourth extending their lead to sixteen, at 42- 26. The Warriors chewed up a lot of clock on their final drive but missed a field goal with 1:59 to go.
Farmington took over and advanced 20 yards but ran out of time with the Warriors winning, 42-26.
Farmington visits Greenbrier on Friday, a team Adams said is not as big as Little Rock Christian but probably faster and likes to snap the ball every 10 seconds.