SYLVAN HILLS 48, NEWPORT 9
Sylvan Hills christened its new artificial surface with a crushing performance on the ground Friday night against Newport.
The Bears scored on seven of their first eight drives and rolled to a 48-9 victory over the Greyhounds in a Class 5A/4A nonconference matchup.
Sylvan Hills (3-0), the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's No. 5 team in Class 5A, finished with 487 yards offensively, including 400 rushing.
Senior quarterback Tra Doss rushed for 110 yards on 10 carries with 3 touchdowns and also completed 4 of 7 passes for 87 yards. Classmates Fred Williams and Marlon Clemmons combined for 191 rushing yards. Williams had 92 yards on 17 carries and 3 touchdowns while Clemmons finished with 99 yards on 7 carries. Clemmons also caught a 30-yard pass.
Sylvan Hills Coach Jim Withrow liked the offensive balance that the Bears had between Doss, Williams and Clemmons.
"They all played well," Withrow said. "They all knew their role. It's not a deal where we're worried about who gets what. It's just that everybody does their job.
"We got everybody involved. It was a team effort."
Newport (2-1), the Democrat-Gazette's No. 6 team in Class 4A, was held to 213 yards. Junior running back Carl Turner was held to 66 yards on 13 carries.
"It started off bad. It got worse," Newport Coach Don Harrison said. "If it could go wrong, it went wrong. But I'm not going to take anything away from Sylvan Hills. They played a great game. They have an awesome scheme. We saw it all week on film. We told our kids this was going to be a good football team."
Senior quarterback Gunnar Bullard completed 7 of 18 passes for 93 yards and 1 touchdown. McCabe Cordell caught a 18-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter, which was Newport's only offensive touchdown.
After Newport went three-and-out to start the game, Sylvan Hills drove 64 yards in seven plays and Williams capped the drive with an 18-yard run down the left sideline for a 7-0 lead.
Bullard found Cordell in the left end zone on a fade pass to tie the game at 7-7 with 4:34 left in the first quarter, but Sylvan Hills outscored the Greyhounds 41-2 from that point.
Doss scored on runs of 23 and 9 yards to give Sylvan Hills a 21-7 lead with 10:07 left in the second quarter.
On Sylvan Hills' next offensive possession, a pass interference penalty on the Newport secondary set up Williams' 4-yard touchdown run with 2:34 left in the second quarter to extend the Bears' lead to 28-7, which was the halftime score.
In the third quarter, Clemmons' 46-yard run set up Williams' 9-yard scoring run that made it 35-7 with 10:54 left. Senior running back Tyler Davis scored from a yard out with 7:42 left in the third quarter, but a missed point-after attempt left the score at 41-7.
Sylvan Hills senior linebacker Jonathan Hicks recovered a Newport fumble, which set up Doss' 9-yard scoring run to make it 48-7 with 4:11 left, which allowed the clock to run continuously the rest of the game.
Sylvan Hills opens 5A-Central Conference play Friday against Mills, but Withrow is guarding against his team getting too overconfident after a 3-0 start.
"I feel good. We've done everything we needed to do," Withrow said. "We've gotten better each week. You can't be complacent. If you get complacent, somebody is going to pass you up at some point."
ASHDOWN 40, DE QUEEN 14
DE QUEEN — Brandon Northcross had a hand in three touchdowns and Ashdown returned two fumbles for touchdowns in a rout.
Northcross ran for a 25-yard touchdown int he first quarter and a 30-yard touchdown in the second quarter to put Ashdown (2-1) up 14-7 at halftime. His 27-yard pass to Lomontrek Turner made it 21-7 in the third quarter before Ashdown’s defense got involved.
Kirkland Threadgill and R.J. Powell each returned fumbles for touchdowns in the second half, and Taschnick Bishop capped Ashdown’s scoring with a 92-yard run. Cameron Soleman had two interceptions, and Montarick Brown also intercepted a pass.
Jakobi Whitmore scored two touchdowns for De Queen (0-3).
CAC 49, VALLEY VIEW 28
VALLEY VIEW — Braylon Harris ran for three touchdowns and Stephen Flanigan ran for two more to lead CAC (2-1) over Valley View (1-2).
Harris opened the scoring for the Mustangs with an 11-yard run in the first quarter and closed it with a 6-yard run in the fourth quarter. He added an 8-yard touchdown in the third.
Flanigan’s touchdowns came on runs of 11 and 8 yards, both in the second quarter.
Quarterback Noah Evans tossed an 18-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Corbell and Josh Johnson added a 2-yard touchdown run for CAC.
DARDANELLE 48,
CLARKSVILLE 0
CLARKSVILLE — Kristian Thompson passed for 195 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead Dardanelle (3-0) over Clarksville (0-3).
Jerardo Hernandez added a 22-yard touchdown run for Dardanelle.
Coaches
Please call the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with football game reports before 10:30 p.m. each Friday night this fall. Please call 1-800-272-4650 or (501) 378-3411. We need records, score by quarters, scoring plays and top rushing, passing, receiving and defensive performances.
Scores also can be tweeted using the hashtag #arpreps.
The Democrat-Gazette also will publish statistics each Friday throughout the regular season.
E-mail statistics to
jmuck@arkansasonline.com
Sports on 09/20/2014