Brennen Johnson picked the perfect time to lead Pulaski Robinson on its most time-consuming drive of the night.
The Senators milked more than eight minutes off the clock on their final possession and held on to defeat visiting Central Arkansas Christian 28-21 in a nonconference game on Friday night.
Robinson (2-0) ran 13 plays on its final drive and Johnson successfully converted two fourth-down plays on the possession to prevent the Mustangs (1-1) from their second come-from-behind victory of the season.
Robinson junior T.J. Hammonds -- 6 carries, 119 yards -- scored on runs of 72 and 20 yards and he also caught a 64-yard scoring pass from Johnson to account for three of the Senators' four touchdowns.
Johnson, a 5-11 junior, also completed a 45-yard TD pass to senior Cameron Harris as Robinson rallied from a 14-7 halftime deficit.
"We're not a one-dimensional team," Robinson Coach Todd Eskola said. "This is a unique year that we've got seven or eight kids who can go 80 yards at any time. Last week, we had three backs with more than 100 yards and this week we had a kid [Johnson] made some big plays through the air after a bad first half."
CAC junior Braylon Harris rushed 25 times for 192 yards -- including a 3-yard run on the first possession. CAC held the ball for 29:30 to 18:30 for Robinson, and finished with 287 yards of total offense.
The Mustangs picked up touchdowns on a 2-yard run by Cam Glaze and on a 27-yard pass from Noah Evans to Hunter Corbell. All three of those CAC players are sophomores.
The Mustangs failed to score in the second quarter after having a first-and-goal at the 2. A fumbled snap resulted in a 20-yard loss on a second-down play. The drive ended with Robinson's Xavier Casey intercepting a Kayleb Scallon pass.
"We knew this was going to be a battle, and we just didn't take advantage of every opportunity," said CAC Coach Tommy Shoemaker, whose team also intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble. "We had our chances, we just didn't get it done."
Robinson took over at its own 25 after Corbell made a diving catch of Evans' TD pass with 8:51 left.
Johnson ran for 10 yards on a third-and-11 and converted the fourth down with a 2-yard run. Four plays later, Johnson ran for 8 yards on a fourth-and-7. CAC was forced to call all three of its timeouts on Robinson's final possession.
The Mustangs got the ball back at its 1 with 24 seconds to play. The drive ended at the CAC 25.
The Senators ran only 23 plays before its final 13-play drive.
The Senators finished with 321 yards -- 213 rushing, 108 passing. Robinson's largest time-consuming drive before the fourth quarter lasted five plays and took 1:40 off the clock.
Sports on 09/13/2014