BRYANT -- The Bryant Hornets scored the game's first 23 points, sputtered a bit, but held on for a 26-14 victory over Little Rock Central in a nonconference game Friday night at Hornets Stadium.
"It was a tale to two halves,'' Bryant Coach Paul Calley said. "The first half I thought we played pretty well, had momentum."
The Hornets jumped on Central (0-3) early when Madre Dixon brought down a scrambling Jordan McArthur in the end zone for a safety on the Tigers' second play.
Bryant (3-0) made it 9-0 when Gunnar Burks hit Aaron Orlender, who caught 6 passes for 96 yards, on a 28-yard fourth-down touchdown pass with 5:16 left in the first quarter. Hayden Ray added the extra point.
Bryant added two more scores before the second quarter was halfway complete -- Cameron Coleman's 14-yard run with 10:19 to go in the second quarter and Sevante Turner's 2-yard run with 6:44 to play in the half -- and Bryant led 23-0.
Central scored when senior Cavan Polite took a direct snap and ran 31 yards with 2:36 left before halftime. Jack Bryant's extra point made it 23-7.
Bryant almost added more in the first half, but Central's Ryan Dickerson intercepted a third-down pass in the end zone.
Central tried to make a game of it in the third quarter.
Terryl Humphrey recovered a short kickoff to open the second half to set up Polite's second touchdown, a 26-yard run. Bryant's extra point made it 23-14 with 30 seconds gone in the third quarter.
Polite finished with 102 yards on 13 carries. He also caught a pass for 12 yards and had a 33-yard kickoff return.
"We gave up the long run right there before the half, and we don't fair-catch the kickoff in the second half ," Calley said., "and they get the ball down there and punch it in and it is a ballgame."
Central could never get any closer.
"We kinda got behind the 8-ball there, but I think we kinda grew a little bit tonight,'' Central Coach Ellis Register said. "Things did not start out well ... but our kids fought hard. This is a tough environment. We came out the second half, got the kick and scored and made a game out of it."
The Hornets' only second half score was on Ray's 41-yard field goal.
"We never can relax, we are not going to let ourselves relax," Calley said. "We will keep making mistakes. We have some guys out there playing their guts out, and we have some who aren't paying attention."
NO. 4 CABOT 42, LITTLE ROCK FAIR 6
CABOT — Braxton Burton scored two rushing touchdowns and Cabot (3-0) took advantage of seven turnovers by Little Rock Fair (0-3) at Panther Stadium. Burton scored on runs of 45 and 1 yard in the second quarter as the Panthers built a 42-0 halftime lead. The War Eagles lost five fumbles and an interception in the first half. Fair had one first down in the half, but lost a fumble on the play. Cabot, which did not attempt a pass, also had touchdown runs of 6 yards by Austin Morse, 2 yards by Kolton Eads and 9 yards by William Niles. Corey Shock also returned a Fair fumble 5 yards for a touchdown. Barry Sykes had a touchdown reception for Fair in the third quarter.
Sports on 09/19/2015