Pulaski Academy is known statewide and nationwide for its high-powered offense and onside kicks.
[HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD: Full results + recaps, photos and more]
But on Friday night at Little Rock Christian's Warrior Field, it was a defensive play that helped propel the Bruins.
Linebacker Wesley Wise's interception helped preserve Pulaski Academy's eight-point lead in the middle of the third quarter, and the Bruins went on to beat Little Rock Christian 73-35 in a 5A-Central Conference game.
Little Rock Christian had cut Pulaski Academy's lead to 36-28 with 10:10 left in the third quarter on quarterback Jackson Bowersock's touchdown pass to Austin Guymon. Chris Hightower then recovered the onside kick, giving the home Warriors the ball at their own 45.
But the momentum of the game turned on one play.
Wise intercepted Bowersock on the Warriors' first play of the drive and ran 27 yards to the Little Rock Christian 18.
"He's not even reading, he's just throwing it to the guys," Wise said of Bowersock. "I saw him coming. He just threw it and I picked it."
A defensive adjustment by Bruins Coach Kevin Kelley and his staff at halftime helped put Wise in position to make a play.
"There's two kinds of teams," Kelley said. "One, take everything away and let them have their thing. Or, make sure they don't beat you that way. They made some big plays on that in the first half. So we got together as coaches and said, 'Do not let them beat us on that again.'
"Wesley is a smart football player. He dropped back and expected it to come. We all know that turnovers are big game-changers and that was as big as any play in the game."
The two-time defending Class 5A state champions then let their offense take care of business.
Quarterback Layne Hatcher threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Brett Lynch and the Bruins extended the lead to 44-28 with 9:52 remaining in the third quarter.
The Bruins (5-1, 3-0 5A-Central) outscored the Warriors (1-5, 1-2) 37-7 after Wise's interception. During the final scoring run, Hatcher threw two more touchdown passes -- a 27-yarder to Tra Johnson and a 7-yarder to Hayden Cobb -- and Jaren Watkins and R.J. Anderson each had touchdown runs of 5 and 4 yards, respectively.
Pulaski Academy led 36-21 at halftime and had a 23-0 advantage with 2:50 left in the first quarter. But Little Rock Christian got three touchdown passes by Bowersock to get within 15 points before the half.
Hatcher completed 29 of 38 passes for 463 yards with 6 touchdowns and 1 interception. Watkins rushed for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns on 21 carries and caught 5 passes for 81 yards and 1 touchdown.
Ray Jackson led the Bruins' receivers with 8 catches for 158 yards and 1 touchdown.
For the Warriors, Bowersock was 23-of-37 passing for 257 yards with 4 touchdowns and 1 interception. Henley Bland caught 7 passes for 92 yards while Guymon had 5 catches for 78 yards and 2 touchdowns.
One year after going 12-1 and winning the 5A-West title, Little Rock Christian Coach Jeff Weaver isn't ready to dismiss his team's chances of getting back to the Class 5A playoffs yet.
"The teams we've played have been great teams," Weaver said. "We still have a lot to play for. We'll come back Monday morning and go back to work."
Sports on 10/08/2016