LITTLE ROCK — It was a blue ribbon performance.
Greene County Tech senior quarterback Clayton Davis earned the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Feat of the Week after running and passing for 450 yards and five touchdowns in a 42-22 5A-East home victory over Forrest City on Friday.
Davis completed 13 of 24 passes for 234 yards and 3 touchdowns, and ran 15 times for a career high 216 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“He had a great game,” Greene County Tech Jeff Conaway said. “Surprised us all.”
Friday’s game was only the fourth in high school for the 6-3, 215-pound Davis, who didn’t play as a sophomore or junior.
Conaway said Davis has been heavily involved in Future Farmers of America, a youth organization that is a part of agricultural education programs at middle and high schools across the country.
“He played football in the ninth grade, but he had some conflicts,” Conaway said. “He was wanting to show these pigs or chickens or whatever. He just had some conflicts there and for whatever reason, he got more interested in showing animals than he did playing football.”
There has been nothing “fowl” about Davis’ return to football.
He’s already thrown for 1,149 yards and leads the Eagles in rushing with 399 yards.
But Conaway said Davis had a “ breakout” performance against Forrest City, the defending 5A-East champion.
“We always knew he had the running ability to really put defenses in a bind,” Conaway said. “But the way he performed against Forrest City, the way he ran the ball, was just on another level. They couldn’t tackle him …He’s a brute out there. He’s hard to tackle.”
Davis scored on runs of 20 and 15 yards and had a 67-yard carry against maybe the fastest team in the 5A-East, Conaway said.
Davis threw three touchdowns to junior wide receiver Nathan Summitt, the longest being 49 yards.
“He was 13 of 24, but he had some drops,” Conaway said. “He didn’t complete 90 percent of his passes, but the thing that probably gets me the most excited is just his ability to be accurate with the football. He has put the ball right where the receivers can be successful and that’s very surprising from a firstyear quarterback.”
Conaway said Davis is a 4.0 student and has earned an agricultural scholarship to Arkansas.
Feat of the week PLAYER Clayton Davis SCHOOL Greene County Tech POS. Quarterback CLASS Senior AGAINST FORREST CITY RUSHING 15 carries for 216 yards and 2 touchdowns PASSING 13 of 24 for 234 yards and 2 touchdowns
Sports, Pages 23 on 09/29/2010