Junior And Senior Tigers Take Field For Black And Gold Game

Prairie Grove Football Stadium Improvements On Display

BEN MADRID ENTERPRISE-LEADER Prairie Grove’s senior Black defense takes the field awaiting the Gold offense during the annual Tiger intra-squad football scrimmage on Friday.
BEN MADRID ENTERPRISE-LEADER Prairie Grove’s senior Black defense takes the field awaiting the Gold offense during the annual Tiger intra-squad football scrimmage on Friday.

PRAIRIE GROVE -- The thermometer outside may be dancing near triple-digits, however Friday fans of the Prairie Grove Tigers got a glimpse of their hometown boys of fall and with it the cool breeze of expectation when both the junior and senior high football squads took the field for their annual Black & Gold scrimmage/pie-auction marathon.

Not only did the Tiger faithful get a glimpse of their Thursday and Friday night gridiron stars as well as the corresponding Cheer and Pom squads, but they also got to see all the improvements that were made to Tiger's Den stadium over the summer. A new concession stand and bathrooms as well as a brand new entrance are just a couple of the changes that greeted the fans as they walked into the stadium.

The crowd was first introduced to the 2014 junior high football squad, who took the field after the auctioning of a gazillion pies, pastries and baskets of cookies. The junior Tigers finished the 2013 season near the top of the 4A-1 standings with a 7-2 record and have the look of a squad who will once again battle for the conference crown.

The junior Tigers scrimmage boasted many big plays as well as a few impressive performances. Quarterback John David Elder completed a pair of touchdown passes to Jacob Pruett, the first going for 65 yards and the second one covering 10 yards. DeMarkus Cooper also pulled in a pass from Elder on a 2-point conversion.

In the ground game returning starter Anthony Johnson displayed his impressive wheels, the highlight being a 70-yard touchdown jaunt before halftime. Johnson had numerous other big runs which were stopped before he made it to the end zone.

"We did some good things, and I think these guys can be really good this year, but we have a long way to go before we're ready for the season," said junior Tigers coach John Elder.

After auctioning a container ship filled with baked goods (and one impressive steak dinner which was served at a table near the end zone) the senior Tigers took the field. With the squads split up equally there were fewer fireworks than in the junior contest, but still a few impressive performances.

Ryan Marrell tossed a couple of good looking long balls for the Black team, one for 55 yards to Jamison Huckaby and then a 37-yard touchdown strike to a Blake Faulk.

On the White squad quarterback Sam Dodd displayed his running ability with a couple of big runs and he also tossed a 34-yard pass to Dylan Soehner. Fullback Reed Orr breached the goal line with a 10-yard touchdown run for the White team and Cole Walker followed with a 2-point conversion. "It (the scrimmage) went like I expected it would go," said Tigers' coach Danny Abshier;. "We split them up as even as we could and were able to score some points on both sides. We hit a couple deep balls that surprised me some, but we are about where I thought we would be. It was a good night, it was a long night with all the pies we sold, but we had a lot of fun and the auction was a big success."

Sports on 08/27/2014