RIVER VALLEY PREP FOOTBALL REPORT

PREP FOOTBALL: Dragons beginning to heat up

Zac Walker (left), Noah Johnson and the Mountainburg Dragons visit Bigelow on Friday night. The Dragons have won two consecutive games after losing their first two games of the season.
(NWA Democrat-Gazette file photo)
Zac Walker (left), Noah Johnson and the Mountainburg Dragons visit Bigelow on Friday night. The Dragons have won two consecutive games after losing their first two games of the season. (NWA Democrat-Gazette file photo)

MOUNTAINBURG – The climb has been a steep one for the Mountainburg Dragons to even their record after opening the season with two straight losses.

The Dragons had their best offensive performance of the season last week in a 37-0 win at Magazine.

More importantly, the win was the second-straight in 2A-4 action for the Dragons (2-2, 2-0) after beating Johnson County Westside, 12-8, the week before.

"We made a lot of improvement last week from where we were against Westside," Mountainburg coach Tom Harrell said. "We simplified a lot of things. I think that helped us. We're just looking to improve weekly."

Senior Noah Johnson had 13 carries for 100 yards and two scores. Dillon Alexander had 10 carries for 91 yards and two touchdowns. Gustavos Ramos added 60 yards on seven carries.

"We changed our offense a little," Johnson said. "I can tell we're getting better."

Johnson plays tailback mostly but quarterback in some formations. He stepped in and played quarterback last year when the Dragons lost Ethan Gregory to an injury. Johnson also plays outside linebacker, where he's a three-year starter.

Altogether, Mountainburg had 46 carries for 313 yards against Magazine, which was a big improvement after being shut out by Lavaca and Hackett to open the season in nonconference play.

Officially, Johnson threw incomplete on his only attempt. He did complete a pass to Ramos for a long gain, but it was wiped out by a penalty.

Isaac Cowett also plays quarterback, and moves to receiver when Johnson takes over the offense.

"Last game, our offensive line really showed up," Cowett said. "We're finding out what we need to do and who we are."

Cowett also starts at safety.

Mountainburg did lose senior tackle and noseman Zach Jones with a knee injury two weeks ago, but he could be back before the playoffs. Jones missed his sophomore season with a collarbone injury.

"It happened in practice, and somebody just blocked somebody into my knee," said Jones, who plays football, basketball and baseball. "It's hard. I just have to listen to the doctors.

Johnson and Cowett are part of a nine-player senior class that will go out with Harrell, who announced his retirement prior to the season after 32 seasons as Mountainburg's head coach.

"I think it's pretty cool that we're going out together," Johnson said.

Mountainburg's winning streak will be challenged this week as the Dragons visit Bigelow, which is undefeated and has outscored its five opponents by a 217-69 margin.

"They're extremely good," Harrell said. "The defense is unreal. Offensively, they have some great talent. It will be a tough job just to keep their quarterback contained much less stop all of it."

TIGERS FEROCIOUS

Charleston's 40-20 win at Cedarville on Friday means the 3A-1 championship goes through Charleston.

Charleston (5-0, 2-0) had 338 yards of offense, and the defense tossed a second-half shutout but special teams had the biggest play of the night.

Right after scoring to open the second half for a 27-20 lead, Charleston attempted and recovered an on-side kick and added another touchdown to extend the lead to 34-20 with 4:40 left in the third quarter.

Special teams coordinator Tyler Reese saw the possibility.

"We'd been working on it," Charleston coach Ricky May said. "Coach Reese does a great job and saw that in the film. We knew it was there if we wanted it and felt like we could after the score. We struggled stopping them the first half and felt like it might give us another score up on them. It worked out well."

The kick wasn't to Hice's side, but the senior hustled across the field and covered the kick.

"I just followed the ball all the way across," Hice said. "We had to get the ball back to our offense."

Charleston's offense scored on its first six possessions of the game on Friday, but they only had three possessions in the first half. The Tigers then scored 20 third-quarter points to take control of the game.

"We just had to be ferocious," said senior offensive lineman Clay West, who's scored a 31 on his ACT. "Our coaches gave us a great speech at halftime and did a great job."

Charleston hosts Mansfield (13, 0-2) on Friday.

WALKING THE PLANK

Cedarville had a magnificent scoring drive to take a lead just before halftime on Friday in a 40-20 loss to Charleston.

The Pirates (4-1, 1-1 3A-1) took a 20-14 lead with 1:41 left before the half with a 13-play, 66-yard drive that took seven minutes, 52 seconds off the clock.

"That's exactly how we planned this football game, grind the clock down, move it on them and score," Cedarville coach Max Washausen said. "We kept the ball away them."

Cody Dickens completed his only two pass attempts on the drive, converting a fourth down with a 12-yard pass to Hayden Partain at the right sideline and throwing a 16-yard pass to Bradley Perkins to Charleston's 4.

Darryl Kattich had five carries for 20 yards on the drive.

Dickens capped the drive with a 1-yard sneak, and Kattich added the two-point conversion on a run around the right side.

Cedarville was shut out the second half and lost the emotional 3A-1 conference game.

"This game means so much to us, it's tough on our guys," Washausen said. "This one hurts, but we've got to rally back. There's a lot to play for; our two seed gets a home playoff game and our three seed gets a home playoff game."

Cedarville must rebound quickly with the high-powered offense of Hackett (4-1, 1-1) visiting Glen Wisely Field on Friday.

EAGLES SOARING

Paris remained undefeated with a 58-0 win over Two Rivers on Friday.

The Eagles were great in all three phases of the game.

The offense had 404 yards on 33 snaps with seven touchdowns.

The defense limited the Gators to 7 rushing yards on 23 tries, to two completions in 10 pass attempts for 11 yards, recorded a safety and forced three turnovers.

The special teams were solid as well with kicker James Yang perfect on all eight placements. Duke Walker returned the opening kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown. Beau Baine recovered a fumble on a kickoff that was forced by Nate Henderson.

Baine also intercepted a pass, and Ryan Post recovered a fumble at the 2-yard line that set up a touchdown.

Paris (5-0, 2-0 3A-4) hosts Baptist Prep (4-1, 1-1) on Friday in a key 3A-4 game.

HOW ABOUT THAT

Andrew Johnson intercepted three passes in Lavaca's 61-48 win at Hackett on Friday in a game that was otherwise very offensive.

The two teams combined for 1,173 yards of offense.

Lavaca (3-2, 1-1) quarterback Maddox Noel accounted for seven touchdowns and 334 yards of offense.

Dakota Hartsfield ran for 196 yards and touchdowns of 56 and 82 yards in the second quarter to stake the Arrow to a 21-0 lead.

Hackett (4-1, 1-1) quarterback Ethan Slavens threw for 414 yards and five touchdowns with Peyton Hester catching eight passes for 235 yards and three scores. Cogan Hester ran for 179 yards and two touchdowns.

BEARCATS TRAVEL

Booneville went 1-1 on Friday night.

The Bearcats made a solid showing in Texas, losing at Timpson, 57-40.

Booneville made the 5-hour trek after Danville forfeited its 3A-4 conference game to the Bearcats due to covid-19 concerns earlier in the week.

The Arkansas Activities Association's Board of Directors voted over the summer to allow teams to schedule a game in place of a forfeited game by an opponent. Both the forfeit and the rescheduled game will count in the official standings for the Bearcats, meaning they will play, officially, 11 regular-season games. They also receive the 13 maximum tie-breaking points for determining playoff seedings.

Friday, each team scored in every quarter. Each team punted once, Booneville was 1-for-2 on fourth downs, and Timpson converted its only fourth-down attempt.

Booneville had 29 first downs. The Bearcats ran for all 410 of their offensive yards.

Booneville (5-1, 2-0 3A-4) will travel to Mayflower on Friday.

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