ARKADELPHIA – Pierre Strong showed off his speed as the Little Rock McClellan Lions flexed their offensive muscles in Monday’s 76-50 victory over Dallas Parish Episcopal at Ouachita Baptist University’s Cliff Harris Stadium.
RELATED ARTICLES
http://www.arkansas…">Senators start fast, rout Ramshttp://www.arkansas…">Sophomores lead the way for McGehee
Strong scored six touchdowns — five rushing, one receiving — as the Lions routed the visitors from Texas in a contest that took 3 hours and 52 minutes.
Strong, a 6-1, 185-pound senior, ran 15 times for 214 yards, scoring on runs of 30, 8, 60, 51 and 53 yards. He also caught two passes for 65 yards, including a 52-yard TD reception from senior quarterback Dalvion Childs.
“He scored six touchdowns for us, but I think if we would have needed 10, he would have given us 10,” McClellan Coach Maurice Moody said.
There were five lead-changes in the first half, but the Lions took the lead for good with 8:22 left in the second quarter on Tyrese Lair’s 94-yard kickoff return. Mc-Clellan led 36-29 at the half.
“Our offensive line played well, but our defense was weak,” Strong said. “We didn’t get the stops we needed. We needed every point we could get tonight.”
McClellan, last season’s Class 5A runner-up, rolled up 554 total yards on 42 offensive plays. The Lions had seven scoring drives that took three plays or less.
Episcopal ran 42 more offensive plays than McClellan and held the ball for 13 more minutes than the Lions. The Panthers also held a 25-16 advantage in first downs. But the Texas team was penalized 13 times for 160 yards and was sacked twice for a combined loss of 18 yards.
Junior Tommy Crumpton caught touchdown passes of 46 and 35 yards for the Lions. Senior Andre Campbell scored on a 82-yard run and Kyreek Lair added a 54-yard touchdown run.
The Lions rushed for 407 yards; Childs completed 4 of 12 passes for 147 yards with 1 interception.
One thing McClellan didn’t do well was stop Episcopal on fourth down. The Panthers were successful on four of five fourth-down plays, scoring on three of them.
“We’ve got a ton to work on,” Moody said. “It wasn’t just fourth-down plays, it was every down. We just didn’t play well defensively. But we’re going to fix that. Trust me, we’re going to fix that. I guarantee we won’t give up 50 points the next time out.”
Episcopal, which finished 10-2 last season and won a Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools state championship two years ago, ran up 554 yards of total offense with quarterback Jeremy Hodge completing 16 of 40 passes for 269 yards. He scored three times.
Junior Corey Mayfield led the Panthers in receiving, catching six passes for 153 yards. He caught a 78-yard pass to set up one Episcopal touchdown and caught a 32-yard scoring pass.