There was no doubt Friday night who North Little Rock was giving the football to with four seconds remaining.
Alex Day capped off his 278-yard performance with a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Charging Wildcats a come-from-behind 70-64 victory over Jonesboro in 7A/6A-East Conference game at Charging Wildcats Stadium in North Little Rock.
The junior running back carried the ball 31 times and scored 5 touchdowns. He scored on runs of 4, 10, 51 and 41 yards, but it was his final score that was the difference for North Little Rock (2-4, 2-1 7A/6A-East).
"He's done it all year long," North Little Rock Coach Jamie Mitchell said of Day, who has rushed for 856 yards and 11 touchdowns this season. "He's a beast running the football. We want him to have the football when it's on the line."
North Little Rock trailed 64-62 with 1:06 left after Jonesboro had taken the lead with a 12-yard touchdown run by Kyron Tate and a two-point conversion catch by Jonathan Adams. But the Charging Wildcats marched down the field, going 78 yards in 11 plays in 1:02.
Corvasea Cooney's 16-yard run got the Charging Wildcats to the Jonesboro 36. Two plays later, Cooney threw a 15-yard pass to senior tight end Tyrell Robinson to set up a first down at the Jonesboro 20.
Day's 19-yard run gave North Little Rock a first-and-goal at the 1 with seven seconds left. With the way Day was running, Mitchell said, a field goal wasn't an option despite having no timeouts left.
On Friday, Day averaged 8.9 yards per carry as the Charging Wildcats rushed for 517 yards, finishing with 625 total yards of offense.
"It was one of those nights," Jonesboro Coach Randy Coleman said. "When you've got a great athlete like Alex Day and you find a weakness [in the defense], you keep putting it in there. It was hard to stop."
The Charging Wildcats started 0-4, but have rebounded to win their past two games, at Mountain Home 62-6 last week followed by Friday's wild victory over Jonesboro (4-2, 2-1).
"We were a program that was flat on our backs at 0-4," Mitchell said. "We just fight on. No matter what happens, we fight forward. That's all we can do. We're a growing program that's got young players who are trying to find their way. I couldn't be prouder of our kids."
North Little Rock led 49-35 at the start of the fourth quarter, but Jonesboro tied the game at 56-56 in a span of 47 seconds. Tate's 5-yard run cut the lead to 56-49 and after Jonesboro kicker Collin Crawford recovered a fumble by North Little Rock on the ensuing kickoff, Princeton Pitts scored from three yards out to tie the game at 56-56 with 8:14 left.
Day's 41-yard touchdown, his fourth of the game, put the Charging Wildcats back on top, 63-56 with 4:22 left.
Also for North Little Rock, Jalen Grisley and Wynton Ruth had touchdown runs of 86 and 43 yards, respectively, in the first half to help the Charging Wildcats take a 35-28 lead at halftime.
Adams led Jonesboro offensively, catching 11 passes for 196 yards and 3 touchdowns. Tate had 64 yards and 3 touchdowns on 15 carries. Tyson Williams passed for 221 yards and 3 touchdowns while A.J. Aycock had 234 passing yards and a touchdown.
TEXARKANA 38, EL DORADO 31
EL DORADO — Texarkana’s Ladreliaun Taylor took a short hitch pass 51 yards to the end zone with 41 seconds left to propel the previously winless Razorbacks past El Dorado Friday at Memorial Stadium.
The pass from quarterback Keaundre Banks put the final smear on an ugly night for the Wildcats (4-2, 2-1 6A-South).
On Texarkana’s game-winning drive, Banks completed a 13-yard pass to Sylvester Henderson to convert a thirdand-10 situation. On third and 4, Banks threw the short hitch route to Taylor, who turned on the speed and raced untouched to the end zone.
The Wildcats returned the ensuing kickoff to the 24 with 33 seconds remaining but never got the ball past midfield.
Banks completed 17 of 27 for 219 yards and rushed for 78 on 13 attempts.
Sports on 10/10/2015