A difficult week for the Bryant Hornets ended with a joyous celebration Friday night after a 37-13 victory over arch-rival Benton at War Memorial Stadium.
Bryant overcame a 13-10 halftime deficit in front of a Salt Bowl crowd of 34,086, and Coach Paul Talley said some of the Hornets' problems had to do with keeping their emotions in check after a moment of silence was held for sophomore defensive tackle Ray Davis, who died earlier this week.
"We settled down and played football in the second half,'' Talley said. "It was an emotional first half but our seniors did a great job leading."
The Hornets scored three third-quarter touchdowns to turn the game around.
Gunnar Burks threw two touchdown passes in the third quarter, a 9-yard score to tight end Jaret Jacobs with 7:57 left in the quarter. Hayden Ray's extra point gave the Hornets a 17-13 lead.
Bryant got the ball back at its 36 after forcing Benton to punt from its 24. Sevante Turner broke free around the left end and went 64 yards for a score. Ray's extra point made it 24-13 with 5:14 left in the quarter.
Bryant's Devin Alpe recovered a fumble at the Panthers 42 and seven plays later Deamonte Terry scored from the 1 on fourth down at the 1:54 mark. It was 31-13 after the extra point.
Cameron Coleman completed the scoring on a 55-yard run in the game's final minute.
"We came out in the first half and played well and we had some negative happen to us and we were not able to hold up," Benton Coach Scott Neathery said. "We came out in the third quarter and just kinda imploded a little bit."
Benton led 13-10 near the end of the first half and the Panthers were looking for more when a pass completion inside the Bryant 15 was nullified by a penalty. A fumbled snap, one of four on the night, and 20 more yards in penalties pushed the Panthers back to their 37. A sack followed and Benton was faced with a fourth-and-60. The Panthers ran out the half on the next play.
"That was key and every time we seemed to get a big play we got a flag,'' Neathery said. "It was just wasn't our night. Now we have to go back and work on fundamentals and work on composure."
Benton led 6-0 on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Nate Beck to Colten Nix with 6:37 left in the first half. The extra-point attempt failed. Bryant answered on its next play with a 65-yard scoring pass from Burks to Aaron Orender. Ray made it 7-6 Bryant with the PAT.
Benton retook the lead when Beck connected with Grayson Morrow on a 78-yard scoring pass. Matt Warrick's extra point made it 13-7.
Ray drilled a 30-yard field goal with 5:35 left in the half right before the Panthers' unraveling drive.
Sports on 09/05/2015