Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Junior Tigers Handle Lincoln In Season Finale
PRAIRIE GROVE — The junior Tigers defeated Lincoln, 30-7, Oct. 27 to finish their season, 6- 4, while Lincoln fell to 5-5.
Prairie Grove accumulated 235 rushing yards although they struggled in the passing game, completing 1 of 7 passes for 13 yards, en route to building a commanding 24-0 halftime lead.
“I’m proud of them, they overcame a lot of adversity, a lot of stuff happened this year,” said Prairie Grove coach John Elder, who praised the play of Cade Grant and Jared Harger, both of whom were returning from missing games due to injury.
“Cade Grant almost had a pick there, he had some tackles and a couple of nice runs,” Elder said. “Jared Harger came back and played real well.”
Elder tipped his hat to the defensive unit, whom he said played the run tough and reacted efficiently to Lincoln’s spread passing game.
“They ( Lincoln) were missing one of their better players, they were doing some screen stuff, but our defense played extremely well,” Elder said. “Defensively, we held them to 25 yards in the first half and that was huge. Our defense just ate them up.”
Lincoln eighth- grader Daytin Davis, the junior Wolves’ leading receiver did not play. Prairie Grove’s defense set the tone early, forcing a three-and-out on Lincoln’s first series. The Tigers worked a short field, driving 49 yards in eight plays all on the ground after opening with an incomplete pass. Foster Layman had a 16-yard run, Harrison Lowe had a 12- yard carry and Keiandrae Hobbs added a 10- yard rush to set up Layman’s 8-yard touchdown. Layman tacked on a 2-point run giving the junior Tigers an 8-0 lead.
Lincoln appeared poised to answer after recovering an onside kick. Wolf quarterback Tyler Brewer passed to Blake Arnold for 16 yards and a first down near midfield. The junior Wolves crossed into Tiger territory on Noe Avellaneda’s 10-yard gain on a sweep to the 41, but Prairie Grove rallied and forced a turnover on downs with Cade Grant making a tackle behind the line of scrimmage.
Prairie Grove then chewed up 55 yards, keeping the ball nearly four minutes, on a second touchdown march. Layman converted a fourth-and-4 with a major run, gaining 27 yards on a sweep to Lincoln’s 22. The junior Tigers overcame a holding penalty with quarterback Jadin Higgins throwing to Hobbs for 12 yards. Hobbs then ran for 8 more yards and a first down at the Lincoln 12. Lowe punctuated the drive with a 7-yard touchdown run. Hobbs added the 2-point conversion, putting Prairie Grove in front, 16-0, with 5:03 left in the second quarter.
Lincoln punted on their next possession and the Tigers struck quickly. Prairie Grove got 47 yards on first down on Jared Harger’s run. Hobbs covered the final 14 yards on two carries, scoring on an 11-yard dash to the house. Higgins contributed a 2-point run on a keeper and Prairie Grove led 24-0 at halftime, which remained the margin at the end of the third quarter. Harger’s interception gave the junior Tigers prime field position in the fourth at Lincoln’s 32. Prairie Grove needed only two plays to score. Grant ran for 25 yards after taking a pitch and getting outside. He ran off left tackle for a 7-yard touchdown to cap the scoring for Prairie Grove at the 5:49 mark of the fourth.
Layman’s interception stopped a Lincoln drive in Prairie Grove territory, but the junior Wolves tightened up their defense throughout the second half and the junior Tigers had to punt. Lincoln fashioned a 5-play, 82-yard touchdown drive to erase the goose egg from the scoreboard. Brewer threw to Abraham Calvillo, who picked up 28 yards on a screen pass. Calvillo ran for 9 yards on the next play and Avellaneda took a sweep 35 yards to the junior Tiger 10. Avellaneda scored standing up on a 10-yard run with a nifty cutback. Lincoln kicked the extra-point to make the final, 30-7.
Lincoln coach Tyler Dorton wished his squad would get over the mystique of competing against Prairie Grove, which he felt contributed to their poor start. He said they played much better in the second half.
“The kids still battled, they never quit,” Dorton said. “We need a good off-season. That will serve the eighth- graders well. Putting them on a weight program will help them a lot. We just got to keep banging out our fundamentals on what we’re trying to do. We played a lot of eighth-graders this season. They got a lot of valuable experience, downs and distances. We were exposed to a lot of different things.”
Dorton also praised the ninth-graders for their leadership.