The Pea Ridge Junior Blackhawk football team kept their unbeaten streak alive and well with a 28-0 pounding of Gentry on the road last week.
The ’Hawks’ domination of the Pioneers was so complete that towards the end of the third quarter, Gentry total yardage equalled zero while Pea Ridge was well over 200.
For the game, the Pioneer ground attack was -44.
The tone was set early when Logan Johnson stopped the Pioneers’ first rushing attempt for a 4-yard loss. Kamden Boyd sacked the quarterback for a 10-yard loss on third down, forcing a punt.
Starting from the Gentry 33, two runs by tailback Zaine Holley gave the ’Hawks a fi rst down on the 22. Quarterback Jakota Sainsbury kept for 8 yards with Drew Winn dashing for 5 more on the next play, and another fi rst down. Two runs by Holley punched the ball in at the 3:06 mark of the opening
beriod with Pea Ridge leading 6-0.
The Pioneers took the kicko◊, then gained their initial first down on a 12-yard run by a Gentry back.
However, the ’Hawks gang tackled the running back on the next play 4 yards deep to put Gentry in the hole. Two pass completions left them 3 yards short to force another Pioneer punt.
Holley ran three times for 16 net yards following the punt, but an incompletion, pass for a loss and a short run forced Pea Ridge to punt for the only time in the contest. However, the defense allowed the hosts just 3 yards in their next series to regain possession fairly quickly.
Holley ran for 10 yards on first down, then broke the big one, dashing 65 yards, changing directions twice and breaking tackles all the way to the Pioneer end zone. Holley also ran in the 2-point conversion to boost the lead to 14-0 with 2:18 left in the half.
Britton Caudill led the charge to drop the quarterback twice behind the
line of scrimmage. A third down pass was sni◊ed out by Joseph Ortiz who held the receiver for no gain, to force still another punt.
Pea Ridge received the ball to start the second half but fumbled after gaining 18 yards on three plays. Tanner Flippo broke through to stop the Pioneers 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage on first down, and a host of ’Hawks buried the quarterback 2 yards deep attempting to pass on the next play. Forced to punt again, a bad snap and a block gave the ’Hawks great scoring position on the Gentry 18.
After a holding call pushed the ’Hawks back 10 yards, Holley gained 9 yards with Winn going the rest of the way on a 19-yard scoring run. Sainsbury connected with Dalton Harwell for the 2-point PAT, inflating the lead to 22-0 with 3:54 left in the third quarter.
The Pioneers showed some signs of life when they finally got a big gainer, a 32-yard pass play to Pea Ridge territory in the 44.
After a short gain on fi rst
down, ’Hawk defenders flooded through to nail ball carriers for losses of 6 and 16 yards, forcing the fi nal punt of the evening for Gentry.
Holley started the drive from the ’Hawk 15, with two runs for 10 yards. Sainsbury picked up 16 yards on a keeper, and then threw 10 yards to Hayden Holtgrewe for another fi rst down.
Winn then scampered down the right side for 43 yards and a score, but a holding call wiped out the e◊ort. Two plays later, however, Winn broke through for 24 yards for a first down on the Pioneer 19. Sainsbury made the last two carries of the game for Pea Ridge, going 15 yards before bulling it over from the Gentry 1-yard line. The score was the last of the game and the fi nal score was set at 28-0.
Holley led the o◊ense with 132 yards on 14 carries. Winn picked up 70 yards on seven forays while Sainsbury had 35 on four tries. Caudill chipped in with 19 yards on three attempts. Wyatt Weber had 2 yards on one attempt.
News, Pages 12 on 10/16/2013