1-3 A CONFERENCE : Hawks run out of gas in 2nd half
Posted on Saturday, September 22, 2007
SPRINGDALE — Pea Ridge senior Josh Simmons had the game of his young receiving career Friday, catching 9 passes for 195 yards and 2 touchdowns against Shiloh Christian.
It wasn’t enough.
Shiloh Christian’s no-huddle offense finally wore the Blackhawks down in the third quarter, and the Saints cruised to a 41-24 victory.
“We have nine guys going both ways,” Pea Ridge Coach Mark Laster said. “To try and keep up with that and run this field, it’s tough on us.
“ I knew at some point we were going to get tired. I was hoping we could hang on, but we couldn’t. They ran it out of us about the end of the third quarter.” Pea Ridge took the lead at 24-20 with 2: 55 left in the third quarter but couldn’t hold it.
Just 39 seconds later, Shiloh quarterback Blake Roberts threw to his little brother, sophomore Mitchell Roberts, on a 39-yard middle screen that gave the Saints the lead for good.
In the fourth quarter, the Saints returned to their previously sputtering running game and pushed the exhausted Blackhawks around.
“It helped us win the game,” Saints Coach Josh Floyd said. “That may not be our philosophy, always. We still ran the no-huddle, but we tried to eat up the clock.” Pea Ridge fumbled on its first two possessions of the game and missed two first-half extra-point attempts. Otherwise, the first half went about as well as the Blackhawks could have hoped.
Shiloh Christian scored first, thanks to a Pea Ridge fumble on the first snap of the game. Four plays later, Blake Roberts tucked the ball under his arm and ran for the corner of the end zone for a 3-yard score.
Pea Ridge fumbled again, but the Blackhawks defense held. Shiloh attempted a pass on fourthand-14 from the Blackhawks’ 41-yard line, which was intercepted by Simmons at the 21-yard line.
Simmons ran 68-yards to the Shiloh Christian 8-yard line. Three plays later, Blackhawks quarterback Kip Kelly found Simmons in the end zone for a touchdown. A missed extra point left Pea Ridge trailing by one, 7-6.
“He’s either going to have a great catch or it’s going to bounce off his frigging hands,” Laster said. “He’s a good athlete.... It’s like he’s a freshman learning to catch instead of a senior, because we’ve never thrown to him.” The Saints scored again, on Blake Roberts’ second scramble for a touchdown, a 39-yard keeper in which he smashed through several would-be tacklers.
Pea Ridge answered with a seven-play, 70-yard drive that culminated in a 12-yard pass from Kelley to Denver Bell. A failed two-point conversion left the score 14-12.
Dustin Woodward intercepted a Blake Roberts pass at the goal line to derail the Saints’ 72-yard drive.
Pea Ridge mounted a 13-play, 90 yard drive that culminated in a 12-yard pass from Kelly to Ben Peters with 32. 7 seconds remaining, giving the Blackhawks a 18-14 lead.
Shiloh used a hurry-up offense to move the ball in position for a 31-yard field goal by Trevor Tumlinson as the half ended. He added a 21-yard field goal in the third quarter.
Pea Ridge left 18-17 at the half.
Kelly finished with 284 yards passing, completing 20 of 39 passes. Blake Roberts completed 25 of 37 passes for 278 yards and 2 interceptions. CEDARVILLE 27, WEST FORK 19 WEST FORK — Dustin Wells scored four touchdowns to lead Cedarville (3-1, 1-0 1- 3 A ) past West Fork (0-3-1, 0-1 ).
Wells finished with 94 yards rushing. He scored on a 29-yard fumble return in the fourth quarter. MOUNTAINBURG 35, ELKINS 21 MOUNTAINBURG — Sam Collette ran for 115 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead Mountainburg (4-0, 1-0 1-3 A Conference ) past Elkins (1-3, 0-1 ) in the conference opener for both teams.
Richard Dyer added 103 yards rushing for Mountainburg, while Ben Brewer had 68 yards rushing and scored on a 70-yard kickoff return. Chance Gagliano added 65 yards rushing.
Drew Clark passed for 290 yards for Elkins.
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