Frequently buoyed by their opponent's mistakes, the Little Rock McClellan Lions dominated from the start of a 63-8 mercy-rule victory over the Little Rock Hall Warriors at Scott Field on Friday night.
"We just wanted to come out and set the tone early," McClellan Coach Maurice Moody said.
McClellan (2-1) turned a bad snap on Hall's first possession into a 6-yard touchdown run by senior running back Tyrese Lair with 7:16 left in the first quarter. Lair's points were the first of 34 for McClellan during a stretch that lasted less than five minutes.
A Hall fumble led to McClellan's next score, a 1-yard run by senior running back Tommy Crumpton.
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After a Hall punt, Crumpton scored on a 2-yard run to give McClellan a 22-0 lead.
Hall's second lost fumble, at the McClellan 21, led to a 7-yard touchdown run by Crumpton. McClellan turned the third fumble into a 1-yard run by junior running back Andre Campbell to take a 34-0 lead with 2:40 left in the first quarter.
Campbell led McClellan in rushing with 57 yards on five carries. Lair had 56 yards on 6 carriers.
Senior Bennie Kemp III started McClellan's first two games but sat out against Hall with a mild concussion, Moody said. He was replaced by junior Jaylon Williams, who completed 4 of 7 passes for 107 yards and 1 touchdown.
"I just try to stay focused," Williams said. "Whenever coach calls my number, I want to be ready."
"Jaylon did exactly what we asked him to," Moody said. "We asked him to come out and compete, play extremely hard, and take care of the football, and he did all of that."
A run of turnovers by both teams highlighted the first half of the second quarter. Hall (0-3) recovered a fumble at its 12 to stop a McClellan drive, then responded with its only true burst of offense as sophomore quarterback Braelon Adams hit senior receiver Malik Goggins for a 56-yard pass. That set up freshman running back Kavionne Rucker's 4-yard touchdown run with 6:44 left in the second quarter.
Adams completed 4 of 15 passes for 134 yards.
"When he's feeling well, and he's feeling positive, he can deliver the football," Hall Coach Kip VanHoose said. "He didn't have a great game in my opinion, but he's just a sophomore. He can get better. Everyone on our team can get better."
"We weren't too happy about that touchdown," Moody said. "We wanted to keep that goose egg up there."
McClellan coughed the ball up 3 times and had 7 penalties for 85 yards.
"We've got to take care of the football, our most prized possession," Moody said. "It's just focus. We got to make sure we focus a bit and take care of that part of the ball game, and we got to clean up the penalties, too. We'll take care of all that next week."
Sports on 09/16/2017