Joe T. Robinson ended its regular season the same way it began -- with a dominating victory.
The Senators kept Mena on its heels from in beating the Bearcats 48-6 on a wet Friday night at Robinson Stadium.
"I'm proud of the kids," Robinson Coach Todd Eskola said. "They held their focus all week, and they really wanted to end the first of two seasons well. We start over Monday because a whole other challenge is coming."
The victory not only capped an unbeaten regular season for Robinson (10-0, 7-0 7-4A) but it also gave the Senators the outright 7-4A Conference title.
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The Senators, who've won 19 of their past 20 games in the regular season, are beating teams by an average of 32 points and haven't been tested since pulling out a 21-17 victory over Arkadelphia on Sept. 29. Eskola is hoping Robinson can carry that dominance into the Class 4A state playoffs.
"We're going to try to make a run at this thing," Eskola said. "We're going to go back to spring ball next week, and we're going to get after it against each other."
Junior quarterback Greyson Tackett completed 8 of 10 passes for 145 yards and 4 touchdowns for the Senators, who scored on 7 of their first 8 possessions to build a 48-0 halftime lead. Senior wide receiver Nathan Page caught 4 passes for 109 yards and had touchdown catches of 23 and 48 yards, and senior running back Renzo Simmons carried 14 times for 55 yards and 1 touchdown.
Mena (3-7, 0-7) was held to negative-25 yards in the first half and 27 total for the game. Robinson also had eight sacks.
Robinson finished with 301 yards and had six different players score touchdowns.
Senior running back Andre Bradley's 20-yard touchdown run with 7:51 left in the first quarter gave Robinson a 6-0 lead. Page's first touchdown catch with 4:24 remaining pushed the Senators' lead to 13-0 before junior wide receiver Traveon James hauled in a 7-yard touchdown pass 33 seconds later. Tackett then hit senior wide receiver Xavier Hardy for a 14-yard score on Robinson's next possession, and senior defensive tackle Shumar Blair recovered a fumble in the end zone with just over a minute left in the period to give the Senators a 34-0 advantage.
"Our defense has been great all year long," Eskola said. "Our offense hasn't played quite as well at times this year, but we try to play smart. We've got a lot of weapons on both sides of the ball, and we wanted to go out and jump-start us in the playoffs by getting after it early."
Page added his second touchdown on Robinson's first possession of the second quarter, and Simmons' 2-yard score with 2:13 left before halftime gave the Senators their 48-point cushion.
Mena avoided the shutout when sophomore quarterback Zane Stephens tossed a 17-yard touchdown pass to fellow 10th-grader Marc Wilson with 11:31 left in the game.
Sports on 11/04/2017