7A-CENTRAL
NO. 2 NORTH LITTLE ROCK 66, LR CATHOLIC 24
[HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD: Full results + recaps, photos and more]
Little Rock Catholic defenders were in the right spots at times Friday night at War Memorial Stadium. But when North Little Rock's Alex Day had the ball, it didn't matter much.
"He's a bulldozer," North Little Rock Coach Jamie Mitchell said. "People just melt off of him."
The Rockets can relate.
Day rushed for 307 yards, many of them gained after first contact, on 17 rushes and scored touchdowns of 13, 80 and 61 yards in the Charging Wildcats' 66-24 7A-Central victory Friday night.
Day's night was complemented by teammate Wynton Ruth, who caught touchdown passes of 62 and 41 yards, ran for scores of 6 and 36 yards and gained 211 total yards for the No. 2 Charging Wildcats (7-0, 4-0), who gained 444 yards on the ground and 632 yards of total offense.
The combined effort on offense -- Darius Austin and Kalen Turner also scored rushing touchdowns -- helped North Little Rock score a season high for points while winning for the fifth time this season by at least 40 points.
"You know what they're going to do and you know they know and they're going to say, 'Stop us,'" Catholic Coach John Fogleman said. "They're that good right now."
Even so, there was a point in the third quarter that Fogleman thought his team could still challenge.
Samy Johnson scored on a 62-yard run on the game's first play to go up 7-0 and the Rockets (1-6, 0-4) went into halftime trailing 28-17. Later, it was 35-24 after Trey Cox found Ruth for a 62-yard touchdown pass and Catholic's Taylor Price connected with Thompson Olaimey for an 83-yard touchdown.
Then, on North Little Rock's next play, Cox was intercepted by Catholic's Jared Allison, giving the Rockets the ball at the Charging Wildcats' 41. But, on the third play, Price was sacked, stripped by Trevon Sadley and the fumble was recovered by Travoris Akins. Two plays after that, Cox found Ruth for a 41-yard score and a 42-24 lead.
North Little Rock scored on its next four drives, while Catholic, which gained 333 yards, punted twice and fumbled once.
"We played a great first half," Fogleman said. "Size and speed just took over."
That was mostly referring to Day and Ruth.
Day scored North Little Rock's first touchdown from 12 yards out, then Ruth scored on a 6-yard run. Then, in the second quarter, Day's 80-yard run made it 21-10 and Austin scored on a 1-yard run to make it 28-17 at halftime.
Ruth scored three touchdowns in the third quarter, a 62- and 41-yard pass and then on a 36-yard run, before Day capped his night with a 61-yard scoring run. Mitchell, watching from the sideline, felt his two backs were almost competing with each other.
"Both of them don't want to be out-shined by the other," he said. "They're great teammates, very reserved, they're just a ton of fun to have. Absolutely, you better believe it's a competition."
North Little Rock clinched a spot in the Class 7A playoffs with the victory, but Mitchell doesn't want his team looking forward to that point just yet.
"Now that we're in, now we really start working on seeding and every win helps," he said. "Obviously, we'd like to win the conference but we've got three tough ones left."
Sports on 10/15/2016