Episcopal Collegiate Coach Richie Marsh wasn’t surprised by Allie Freeman IV’s performance Friday night, and he gladly took the boost defensive back Will McCastlain provided.
Both were key in Episcopal Collegiate’s 25-19 victory in Little Rock, which handed Barton its first loss of the season.
Freeman, a sophomore, caught 14 passes for 164 yards and scored 2 touchdowns and added an interception to lead the Wildcats to a homecoming victory.
“Fortunately, that is pretty average for him,” Marsh said. “He did a very good job. All of our receivers did a good job.”
McCastlain recovered two fumbles, forced another, blocked an extra point, added an interception and also caught a pass.
“Truth be known, he probably won the game for us,” Marsh said. “He made the greatest play I have ever seen in high school when he made that strip from behind and got the ball. That was a heck of a play. And the block kick kept it a two-score game. Kids don’t realize but that was a huge deal.
The Wildcats (7-1, 3-1 2-3A) finished with 364 yards of offense and quarterback William Pollock was 25 of 43 for 310 yards and 3 touchdowns.
“That is our regular offense,” Marsh said. “We just sorta do like everybody else tries to do, we just try to execute it better. You are always concerned about running against them. They are so physical at the point of attack. We tried to attack the edges and the open spaces in the secondary a little more.”
Barton (7-1, 4-1) fumbled twice inside the Episcopal 10 and forced five turnovers.
Freeman grabbed a 15-yard touchdown pass from Pollock with 11:54 left in the first half and Kahry Wright caught a pass from Pollock on the two point conversion to take an 8-0 lead. Freeman scored on a 3-yard run with 4:08 left in the half to go up 15-0 at halftime.
The Bears quickly made it a game in the third quarter when Cameron Anderson scored on runs of 9 and 16yards in a little more than two minutes to make it 15-12. After the first score, McClastlain blocked the extra point, and Barton’s two-point conversion after the second score failed.
Harris Bethel caught a fourth-down 24-yard pass from Pollock in the fourth quarter but the Bears responded less than 2 minutes later to make it 22-19.
Wright then made a 22-yard field goal to make it 25-19 with 6:48 left.
NO. 1 CHARLESTON 42, LAVACA 13
CHARLESTON - Quarterback Ty Storey passed for five touchdowns for No. 1 ranked Charleston (8-0, 5-0) in a 4-3A Conference victory over Lavaca (4-4, 2-3).
Three of Storey’s scoring passes went to Chance Shelby, whose first catch of the game set the Charleston school record for receptions. Shelby had four catches for 66 yards. Austin Pittman had 107 yards on 7carries and scored a touchdown.
Lavaca scored first on a 1-yard run by quarterback Anthony Todaro in the first quarter.
Storey passed for three touchdowns of 38 and 14 yards to Storey and 44 yards to Hayden Newhart as Charleston took a 21-6 lead by the first period’s end. Storey threw a 26-yard touchdown to Colten Ward in the second quarter.
Pittman scored on a 10-yard run for a 35-6 halftime lead.
Lavaca scored the game’s final touchdown on a 19-yard pass from Todaro to Luke Brown in the fourth quarter. Todaro also kicked the extra point.
NO. 5 SMACKOVER 14, CAMDEN HARMONY GROVE 0
CAMDEN - Unbeaten Smackover limited Camden Harmony Grove to 138 total yards.
Fabian Sims and Elmo Hempstead had interceptions for the Buckaroos (8-0, 5-0 6-3A), while Keiandre Purifoy ran nine times for 40 yards.
Smackover finished with 322 total yards, including 199 passing.
Sports, Pages 28 on 10/26/2013