CONWAY — After only two offensive plays in the first quarter, Jonesboro owned a 14-7 lead over Conway. It took just as many plays in the fourth quarter to seal the game for the Wampus Cats.
Trailing 35-34 with 2:16 left in the fourth quarter, quarterback Tyler Langley found Brandon Cox down the right sideline on the first offensive play of that possession to give Conway (1-1) the lead. On the Hurricane's next possession, Hayden Strickland turned a tipped ball into an pick-six and propelled the Wampus Cats to a 49-35 win at McConnell Stadium.
"We talked about it at halftime, as long as they just kept playing, you know, it's a long ball game," Conway coach Clint Ashcraft said. "Last week (in a loss to Fort Smith Southside), we were in a tough one in the fourth quarter and we didn't finish. And tonight I think our guys showed that they learned from last week and kept playing and finished. We finally finished."
The offensive explosion began with the Hurricane (1-1) scoring on a 47-yard lateral-and-pass from quarterback Mike Malugen to Jannuel Manning. After Langley found Kourtney Pringle for an 8-yard touchdown to even the score, Jonesboro's Zac Brooks turned a flat pass into a 75-yard score to make it 14-7.
"Momentum plays a big factor in every football game," Jonesboro coach Randy Coleman said. "Whether it's pee-wee to NFL. And in the fourth quarter, we lost momentum. We had a 35-34 lead with about for minutes to go, we got a third-down conversion that, you know, if we convert, we run a lot of time out. And we put ourselves in a better position to win. After that, we give up the big play (Langley to Cox), and we couldn't really gain anything after that."
Jonesboro owned the first half stat sheet, racking up 272 yards of offense to Conway's 199. Malugen had 220 yards through the air.
After Cordarius Irby took it in from 8 yards out, a missed extra point made it 35-34. The Wampus Cats forced the Hurricane to punt and on the very next play, Langley went up top to Cox, who had no black jerseys in front of him. The two point conversion made it 42-35.
"I knew we had it the whole time," Langley said. "We're a team that, sometimes we get down, but we fight back and we get it done."
Four plays later, Strickland snatched the Malugen pass intended for Brooks out of the air and returned it 42 yards to provide the stamp on a game that was vindication for Conway following a tough loss at Fort Smith Southside in Week 1.