No matter how much film Hazen Coach Joe Besancon and his staff watched, it was nearly impossible to find a way through Junction City's defense.
It was just as difficult in real life.
Junction City held Hazen to 157 yards of offense Saturday night as it pulled away for a 38-6 victory in the Class 2A state championship game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
"We knew coming in that we were going to play the best team we'd played, and by far the best defense we'd seen," Besancon said. "They are just super, super fast."
Hazen, which averaged more than 300 yards through its first 14 games, rushed for only 94 yards against Junction City. Hazen junior running back Logan Penn rushed for more than 1,700 yards this season but was held to 60 against Junction City. He had just 37 yards through through the third quarter before Junction City's reserves took the field.
"Running is what we do. That's who we are," Besancon said. "We couldn't come in here thinking we could throw the ball 35 times. We're a running football team, and we came in here hoping that's what we could do, but they just did a better job than us across the front.
"They truly have a bunch of great football players."
Penn scored Hazen's only touchdown on a 2-yard run with 8:55 left in the fourth quarter.
"They just had great team speed," Penn said. "They pursued good. They were aggressive, and they wrapped up when the got to me. They are the best team I've ever played against."
Junction City junior linebacker Blake McLelland the Dragons knew they had to shut down Penn.
"Penn looked good on film," McLelland said. "He's fast. He's strong. We knew he'd be hard to stop."
Junction City led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter before Hazen's defense began to perform better. Hazen held Junction City scoreless through the second quarter, giving its offense an opportunity to pull within two scores in the third quarter.
Hazen drove to the Junction City 33 on its first possession of the second half, where it face third and 3. Senior running back Lucas Tenison carried off tackle, but McLelland smashed through Hazen's line to stop Tenison for a 1-yard loss. On fourth and 4, senior tailback Trenton Mosby tried to turn a corner on a sweep but junior defensive back Akeem Gibson made a diving tackle in the flat to stop Gibson for no gain.
"They had momentum going there," Junction City David Carpenter said. "They were fired up. They'd shut us down a couple of times, and then our defense rose to the occasion and took care of things for us."
Junction City took only three plays to score on its following drive, with the final play a 1-yard sneak by senior quarterback Randall Holyfield that gave the Dragons a 28-0 lead with 6:41 left in the third quarter.
"We knew they had four guys back there that were going to be hard to stop," Carpenter said. "Every film we had on those guys, they were tearing people up.
"It was just great to hold them as well as we did."
Sports on 12/14/2014