Sylvan Hills scored its first touchdown on Friday night when senior cornerback DeAngelo Bell blocked a punt and walked a tightrope down the left sideline of Bill Blackwood Field for a 23-yard return.
The remainder of the contest for the unbeaten Bears was a cakewalk.
Quarterback Tra Doss accounted for five scores, slotback Marlon Clemmons scored three touchdowns and Sylvan Hills rolled up 35 points in the game's first 10 minutes on its way to a 63-21 victory over the Mills Comets in the 5A-Central opener for both teams.
Sylvan Hills (4-0, 1-0) blocked two punts and recovered a fumble in the game's first eight minutes allowing the Bears to put the game away early.
Mills senior Calen Peters, who scored four touchdowns in last week's nonconference game against Star City, gave the Comets a glimmer of hope early on with a 73-yard touchdown run, but his burst through Bears' defense only served as a wake-up call for Sylvan Hills.
"I think that kind of irritated everybody a little bit," Sylvan Hills Coach Jim Withrow said of Peters' touchdown run. "[Peters] is a good player. He's tough. There's no doubt he's a stud. ... When he got loose, it didn't surprise me, but it did upset me. We should have tackled him behind the line of scrimmage. If we get to the point where we're good tacklers, I think we'll have a chance to be a pretty good team."
Doss completed 5 of 6 passes for 180 yards and threw touchdown passes of 12 yards to sophomore Jordan Washington, 88 yards to Clemmons and 29 yards to senior Nathan Thomas. Doss also ran for two touchdowns, including a 52-yard run four minutes into the second half that ended his evening.
Clemmons' first two touchdowns came on runs of 28 and 2 yards, respectively.
Sylvan Hills finished with 496 total yards -- 280 rushing, 216 passing. Mills (1-3, 0-1) was good for 222 total yards, 155 of which came on the ground. Peters wound up as the game's leading rusher, running for 126 yards on 15 carries. Peters also returned a kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the third quarter.
Two blocked punts, however, set the tone in Friday's lopsided affair.
After Mills gained only three yards on its first three plays, Bell broke through Comets' line and batted down Rajon Ware's punt attempt. Bell chased down the loose ball, and managed to stay inbounds, tippy-toeing the sideline before regaining his balance and scoring with 9:52 left in the first quarter.
After Peters' touchdown run tied the game at 7-7 with 8:45 left, Sylvan Hills started a 4-play, 54-yard drive that ended with Doss jumping over the Mills' defensive line for a 1-yard run with 7:05 to play.
Mills fumbled on its next offensive play at its own 28 and Clemmons responded by scoring on the next play and the Bears had a 21-7 advantage.
The Comets' ensuing drive ended with a second blocked punt with senior Tyler Davis getting credit for the block. Four plays later, Clemmons scored from the 2 for a 28-7 lead.
Facing a fourth-and-2 from its own 12 on its next offensive series, Mills opted to forgo punting. After a failed run, Doss hit Washington in the right corner of the end zone to give Sylvan Hills a 35-7 lead with 1:35 left in the first quarter.
"We had no idea it would go down like that," Withrow said. "Our guys' whole job was to just make sure they kicked it away. I guess [Ware] held it because there was no doubt that we were going to block it. And on the second one, I think [Mills] just didn't block up front because there was no block on. We went through and no one got covered."
Doss wound up as the Bears' leading rusher with 66 yards on four carries. Fred Williams ran 10 times for 53 yards for the Bears.
Mills came up two touchdowns in the third quarter -- on the kickoff return by Peters and on a 32-yard pass from Race Rodgers to senior Allen Murphy.
There was no scoring in the final quarter.
NO. 4 BATESVILLE 34,
NETTLETON 3
BATESVILLE — Kenton Crawford threw for two touchdowns and 258 yards as Batesville (3-1, 1-0) blew past Nettleton (2-2, 0-1) in a 5A-East game. Crawford threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Riley Caraway in the first quarter and later threw a 54-yard scoring strike to Justin Gallant in the fourth quarter. Gallant finished with 137 yards receiving. Crawford also scored on a 32-yard run.
Also for the Pioneers, Osvalvo Espericueta kicked a school record 50-yard field goal. For Nettleton, Garrett Miller kicked a field goal.
NO. 5 CAMDEN FAIRVIEW 59, HS LAKESIDE 34
CAMDEN — Camden Fairview (3-1, 1-0 5A-South) scored 21 points in the third quarter to pull away from Hot Springs Lakeside (1-3, 0-1).
The Cardinals led 26-20 at halftime. Logan Reed threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Johnathan Walker, Kimonte Wilson returned an interception 73 yards and later scored on a 34-yard run to cap Camden Fairview’s 21-point run. Camden Fairview finished with 551 yards offensively, including 265 yards rushing. Reed completed 14 of 20 passes for 288 yards and 3 touchdowns. Walker caught 9 passes for 159 yards and 2 touchdowns. PJ Thrower had 4 catches for 106 yards and 1 touchdown and added a 73-yard kickoff return for another score.
Clint Smedley finished 9-of-18 passing for 182 yards, 2 touchdowns and 3 interceptions for the Rams.
MORRILTON 28,
NO. 6 GREENBRIER 20
MORRILTON — Terrence Minor ran for two touchdowns to spur Morrilton (2-2, 1-0 5A-West) to a 21-point, fourth-quarter comeback against Greenbrier (2-2, 0-1).
Minor, who ran for 187 yards on 33 carries, scored on runs of 23 and 25 yards in the final quarter. The two scores followed a 39-yard touchdown pass from Jalen Wright to Andrew Potter, as the Devil Dogs erased a 20-7 deficit.
Wright’s 7-yard, first-quarter touchdown run was Morrilton’s only score until the final quarter.
Greenbrier’s Will Drewry threw touchdown passes of 47 and 46 yards to Carson Matthews.
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
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Sports on 09/27/2014