Sports

BULLDOGS STRUGGLE TO PULL AWAY FROM PESKY CRIMSON LIONS

By Josh Tinker/COMMERCIAL SPORTS EDITOR
Saturday, October 24, 2009 2:12 AM CDT

LITTLE ROCK — After his game Friday night, White Hall coach Mike Vaughn admitted that his opponent wasn’t who he thought they were.

Playing a team with only one victory on the season, Vaughn might have half expected a mercy-rule beating. Instead, what he got was a game where his team struggled to pull away from an ever-improving Little Rock McClellan Crimson Lion squad in a 40-28 Bulldog victory Friday night at Lions Stadium.

“We knew they had talent, we just didn’t know how much talent,” said Vaughn of McClellan, whose only victory has come against a winless Little Rock J.A. Fair team. “We didn’t expect them to throw it and run it like that. We’ve seen them on film and they hadn’t done any of that stuff. They mostly ran the football. You’ve got to give it to them, they did a heck of a job”

What the Bulldogs did get was a pesky effort from the Crimson Lions.

White Hall entered as one of the best teams in the 5A-Southeast Conference, but McClellan (1-7, 0-5 5A-Southeast) was not intimidated, matching nearly every score by the Bulldogs with one of its own. After White Hall opened with a long scoring drive on its first possession, McClellan answered with one of its own.

When the Bulldogs answered back on a 5-yard touchdown run by Larry Walls with 1:25 remaining in the first quarter to take a 15-6 lead on the ensuing possession, the Crimson Lions again answered back when, two possessions later quarterback Terrance Ingram connected with Calvin Moore for a 5 yard touchdown pass that brought the Lions within a point with 2:11 remaining in the half.

Things were so tight for White Hall that it needed a 23-yard field goal from Heath Heinrich with four seconds left to take an 18-14 lead into the half.

“He (Ingram) is starting to drop back and throw the football, and he can run like a deer,” said Vaughn of Ingram, who accounted for 205 yards of offense. “(McClellan) has some weapons, and they’re young. They’ve got some talent, and they use it well.”

In fact, things became so tight for the Bulldogs that they were only able to put the game away with two big pass plays in the third quarter. The first came on their first possession of the second half when Nathan Lee connected with Reese Patton on a halfback pass that led to a 5-yard TD run by Walls with 8:27 left in the quarter, and the second came when Walls connected with Phillip Ethridge from 67 yards out.

That play came from the Bulldogs’ Wildcat formation where Walls lines up at quarterback in the shotgun formation and can either handoff to a running back coming in motion or pass. The Crimson Lions expected a run, as Ethridge was 20 yards behind the defense and nearly walked into the end zone.

McClellan coach Anthony Chambers said the two big gains through the air surprised his team.

“They’re really not a throwing team. They don’t throw the ball much,” Chambers said. “They want to spread you out, but they want to run the ball, so it did catch us by surprise.”

And while Walls’ touchdown pass put White Hall ahead 33-14 with 6:26 left in the third period, McClellan still wouldn’t go quietly, scoring on its next possession when Ingram connected with Devante Lanes for a 39-yard scoring strike. Ingram appeared to be sacked on the play, but he eluded several Bulldog defenders, including one defensive linemen who had grasped his jersey, before rolling to his right and connecting with Lanes for the score.

“I’m proud of our kids,” Chambers said. “They kept fighting. Even when they got down.”

White Hall again added to its lead on its next possession when Patton scored from 3 yards, and again the Crimson Lions battled back.

After stalling a Bulldog drive deep in their own territory, Ingram scampered 78 yards for a score on the fourth play of McClellan’s next possession, on a play in which he started up the middle, cut left then outran the defense for the score that made it 40-28 with 9:07 left in the game.

McClellan had a chance to cut the deficit even further, but Ingram’s pass on second-and-goal from the 4 was intercepted by White Hall’s Brad Bethea.

Walls led White Hall in rushing, and his 92 yards on the ground broke the White Hall career rushing record.

Etheridge also had two interceptions to go with his 73 receiving yards.

Cleo Gray added 95 yards on the ground for the Crimson Lions.

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