Sports

WILDCATS ROLL PAST COUGARS

By Stan Sadler/SPECIAL TO THE COMMERCIAL
Saturday, October 24, 2009 2:12 AM CDT

RISON — Generating over 450 yards of offense on a sloppy gridiron, the Rison Wildcats tuned up for the stretch run of the 7-3A Conference race by routing the Lafayette County Cougars, 49-6 on Friday night.

It was Rison’s sixth straight win, as the Wildcats improved to 5-0 in the conference and 7-1 overall. The loss dropped Lafayette County to 1-4 in the conference and 2-6 on the season.

The Wildcats will finish the regular season with two crucial conference games, the first one next Friday at Parkers Chapel, followed by Prescott at home.

“Every game from here on out is important,” Rison coach Clay Totty said. “I thought our defense played better tonight. We bowed up a couple of times when our backs were to the wall. There’s been times this year when we haven’t done that.”

Offensively, the Wildcats tallied touchdowns on seven of eight possessions. It took the Wildcats less than two minutes to score their first touchdown, when A. J. Smith darted through a big seam in the middle of the line and rumbled 31 yards to the end zone, capping a 59-yard drive. On a two-point conversion, holder Randall Fox lofted a pass to Smith to give Rison an 8-0 lead with just 1:41 gone in the game.

After the Cougars reached as far as the Rison 25-yard line on their first possession, quarterback Tyler Downs threw incomplete three straight downs to end the march.

Then the Wildcats drove 70 yards in 11 plays, ended by Raphael “Rock” Caldwell’s nine-yard touchdown run. Christian Uhl’s first of six PAT kicks extended Rison’s advantage to 15-0 with 2:51 remaining in the opening period.

Aided by a pass interference penalty against Rison, Lafayette County responded with a touchdown drive that ended on a 15-yard run by Trenendez Frazier just one minute into the second period. On a try for two points, Justin Wilson and Jerry Marshall smothered Downs before he could get off a pass, leaving the score, 15-6.

Just over a minute later, Rison’s only pass completion of the game resulted in a touchdown, when quarterback LaJuann Jones fired a 49-yard scoring strike to Caldwell, who outran the secondary to the end zone to give the Wildcats a 22-6 cushion.

The only time Rison’s offense failed to score in the game came shortly after the Wildcats blocked a punt that Marshall returned to the Cougars’ 26. On third and long the Wildcats turned the ball over on a lost fumble at the 30.

With Downs completing a 40-yard pass to Daniel Carter on a fake punt and a 15-yard personal foul penalty against Rison, Lafayette County advanced to the Wildcats’ 19. But that was as close as Lafayette County could get and the Cougars never made it across the midfield stripe again until the closing seconds of the game.

A pair of short touchdown plunges by fullback Zack Crouse with 40 seconds left in the half and with 6:55 remaining in the third quarter pushed Rison’s lead to 36-6.

Caldwell, on his final carry of the game with 56 seconds to go in the third period, broke a couple of tackles and dashed 75 yards for a touchdown to send the Wildcats’ lead to 42-6.

Rison scored its final touchdown with 6:41 left in the game on a 21-yard run by Marquis Walker to make it 49-6.

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