LITTLE ROCK — The opening drive was all Little Rock Catholic, but the rest of Friday night’s 7A-6A Central game belonged to Bryant.
After Catholic drove 80 yards to score on their first drive, the Hornets (3-1, 1-0) scored the rest of the points in a 31-7 victory at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
“I was really worried when they did that at the first of the game, but we didn’t change anything up, we started playing harder,” Bryant Coach Paul Calley said. “We were kind of asleep on that first drive and they were clicking, but we got a stop on the second possession and they gave us great field position several times, then we got some turnovers down the road that helped us.”
Quarterback Zach Conque ended the 15-play drive for the Rockets (1-3, 0-1) with a 1-yard sneak. Catholic got six first downs in that drive, but was shut down the rest of the first half thanks to a blitzing Hornets defense, led by Matt Jones, who had three sacks.
Bryant caught up with Catholic on the second play of the second quarter when Hayden Lessenberry threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Tanner Tolbert.
The Hornets took their first lead soon after following a partially blocked punt by Tolbert. Lessenberry scrambled out of the pocket and threw a 32-yard completion to Stephen Clark, then found Clark wide open two plays later for a 36-yard touchdown pass and a 14-7 Bryant lead with 6:34 to go in the first half.
The Rockets’ defense, led by Matt Morris, sacked Lessenberry three times in the first half and held Bryant to 1 yard, but Lessenberry threw for 171 yards and 2 touchdowns on 10 of 14 passing.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK 34, RUSSELLVILLE 15
RUSSELLVILLE - Junior tailback Dominique Golden ran for more than 100 yards and three touchdowns to lead North Little Rock past Russellville.
North Little Rock (2-2, 1-0 7A/6ACentral) scored on its first play from scrimmage on a run of 60 yards by Golden.
The Charging Wildcats led 14-8 at halftime.
On the second play from scrimmage in the second half, Golden ran 70 yards for another touchdown.
Sports, Pages 25 on 09/25/2010