Stories from Thursday, September 20, 2012

Zac Burchfield scores Trumann's first touchdown against Newport during NEA YFL football action in Trumann. (DT Photo/Anthony Cossey)

Trumann's Junior Wildcats fell to the visiting Junior Redskins of Pocahontas this past Thursday night 24-6. Trey Moody led Trumann with 85 yards rushing and a touchdown. Nick Elrod led the team on defense with six tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. The Junior Wildcats will travel to Westside for their game this week. The EPC Junior Warriors travelled to Cherry Valley to take on the Cross County Junior Thunderbirds in junior high football action this past Thursday. Cross County claimed a 36-12 win over their visitors. Kyler Gordon led EPC with 48 yards rushing and a touchdown. Des Barnes rushed for 33 and a touchdown before leaving the game midway through the first quarter with a knee injury. Clay Malone was 4 for 10 passing for 74 yards. Trevor Walker had one catch for 38 yards. Malik Monk led the defense with seven tackles. The Junior Warriors host Augusta this Thursday. Deangelo Griffin had a huge game for the Marked Tree Junior Indians as they defeated the Junior Red Devils of Augusta at Augusta this past Thursday night. Griffin rushed for 237 yards and five touchdowns in the game. Griffin scored four rushing touchdowns and returned an interception for a touchdown. Jaleel Lott also had a score for Marked Tree. Marked Tree will travel to McCrory for junior high action this Thursday.

The Rivercrest Junior Colts were hosts of the Harrisburg Junior Hornets this past Thursday night in junior high football action. The visitors jumped out early and cruised to a 34-6 victory. Less than a minute into the game the Junior Colts found the end zone on a long run from their running back. Rivercrest added the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead with 7:04 left in the opening period. Harrisburg was forced to punt on their first series and with an unsportsmanlike like conduct foul against the home team, Rivercrest had the ball on the Junior Hornets 38 yard line. The Junior Hornets defense stiffened and held the Junior Colts on downs with 50 seconds left in the first quarter. Harrisburg gambled early in the second quarter going for it on fourth down from their own 25-yard line. Rivercrest held and took over possession of the ball. The Junior Colts wasted little time capitalizing as they score on the next play with touch down run. Rivercrest's point-after kick was good making the score 15-0 with 7:47 left in the second quarter. Harrisburg was forced to punt on their next possession. Rivercrest struck again with a rushing touchdown with 5:49 left in the half. The point after was no good leaving the score 21-0 Rivercrest. Harrisburg put together a nice drive only to see in end as they turned the ball over on downs with 1:57 left in the quarter on the Rivercrest 34-yard line. The Junior Colts have two touchdowns called back due to penalties before scoring as time expired in the half. The extra-point was no good leaving the score 28-0 Junior Colts at the half. Connor Haag fumbles the ball on the Junior Hornets first possession of the second half with Rivercrest recovering on the Harrisburg 25 yard line. The Harrisburg defense held Rivercrest on downs to take over the ball on their own 35 yard line. Haag found Dillon Russell behind the Rivercrest defense for a 55-yard touchdown pass with 3:44 left in the third period. The two-point try was no good leaving the score 28-6 in favor of Rivercrest. Rivercrest fumbled the ball with 4:33 left in the game with Junior Hornet Walker Hammond recovering the ball. Harrisburg's Malik Versie coughed up the ball with 3:32 to play with the Junior Colts recovering. The Junior Colts added another score with 2:40 left in the game. The point-after was no good making the score 34-6. Russell led Harrisburg in rushing with 45 yards and touchdown catch. Hammond recorded six and a half tackles on defense with Haag and Russell each having four tackles. "We didn't make the plays we needed to in the first half," Harrisburg Sean Hammond said after the game. "The second half we made those plays and player better football," Hammond added. The Junior Hornets host Osceola Thursday night.

The EPC Warriors rushed for 583 yards as a team as they rolled to a 41-8 victory at Hazen this past Friday night. Trevor McDaniel led three EPC runners going over 100 yards on the night with 139 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Byron Scales added 102 yards rushing with Mookie Sturdivant going for 101 yards on the ground with a score. Aaron Scales added 82 yards rushing and two scores while completing all five of his passes for 60 yards and a touchdown pass. Tristan McDaniel led the team in receiving with 48 yards on three catches and touchdown. EPC's defensed held Hazen to 206 total yards on the night. Byron Scales led the defense with 12 tackles. Paul Pilgrim added eight tackles, two of those were sacks and Tristan McDaniel recorded eight tackles. Trevor McDaniel added an interception. The Warriors will host Cross County this Friday night. Harrisburg hosted Riverview this past Friday and lost to the visitors 19-7. The Hornets will travel to Rivercrest for their game this Friday. Marked Tree fell to Gurdon this past Friday by a score of 52-6. Marked Tree will play at Salem this Friday night.

The Earle Bulldogs came to Trumann last Friday night for varsity football action. The Bulldogs started slow but rebounded for 60-13 victory over the Wildcats. Trumann forced Earle to punt on their first possession with the big play coming from Austin Jones with a sack on third down. Earle faked the punt but was stopped short of the first down mark as Trumann took over with 10:03 left in the opening period on their own 46 yard line. Trumann put together a nice drive ending in Cameron Jones hitting Nathan Maxwell for the 15-yard touchdown pass. Cameron Wright adds the point-after with 5:09 to go giving the Wildcats a 7-0 lead. Earle scored with 2:14 left in the opening period and with the two-point conversion makes the score 8-7 Earle. Earle capitalizes on a Cameron Jones fumbles as they score two plays later on a 15 yard run. The Bulldogs add the two-point conversion to push the score to 16-7 Earle with 10:57 left in the second quarter. Trumann has a bad hand off exchange as the ball comes out and Earle recovers on the Wildcats 35 yard line with 9:01 left in the quarter. Earle scores on a six-yard run and adds the two-point conversion to go up 24-6 with 8:04 left before half. Cameron Jones was ejected from the game after the two-point play. Justin Liles, replacing Jones at quarterback, has his pass intercepted with 5:28 left in the quarter. Earle adds another score on a 71-yard pass play with 5:01 left before half. The two-point conversion extends the lead to 32-7. Trumann turns the ball over on downs with 1:26 left to play before Jay Ryan Woods intercepts a Bulldog pass with 55 seconds left before half. Earle takes a 32-7 lead into half time. I spoke with the head referee at half and was told that Cameron Jones was ejected for kicking a Earle player in the chest after the point after play on their last touchdown. This ejection will also cause Jones to miss the next football game too. Trumann is forced to punt on the the opening series of the third period with 9:37 left in the quarter. Trumann's defense forces Earle to punt the ball back to them with 8:41 left in the quarter. Josh Evans breaks through the line and bolts 56-yards for the touchdown with 8:20 left in the third to make the score 32-13. The extra-point try is no good. Earle responds with a touchdown pass with 7:54 left to put the score at 38-13. Trumann fumbles the ball on their next possession and Earle throws another touchdown pass and adds the two-point conversion to go up 46-13 with 7:27 left in the third. The team exchange fumbles on each of their next series with Trevor Heckman recovering for Trumann. Earle took advantage of a Bulldog punt hitting a Trumann player and Earle recovering as they score on another touchdown pass and successful two-point play to lead 54-13 after three quarters of play. Earle finished the scoring with 6:45 left in the game to set the final score at 60-13. Evans led the Wildcats in rushing with 147 yards and a touchdown. Austin Jones had nine tackles for the Wildcats with Maxwell adding eight tackles. "We ran the ball good early, but we have to give effort all the way to the end," Trumann Coach Greg White said after the game.

Team members are: T. Bateman, D. Halfacre, L. Thompson, R. Lewis, D. Adams, J. Bateman, L. Moye, G. Muse, R. Baker, J. Billingsly, G. Terry, D. Rose and S. Mitchell. The teams played 100 games in 2012 winning about half of them. (Photo submitted)