PEA RIDGE -- Prairie Grove ran into a tough junior high opponent at Pea Ridge with the junior BlackHawks improving to 7-0 with a 22-6 win over the junior Tigers Thursday.
Prairie Grove coach John Elder wasn't making excuses, but said the junior Tigers missed Cade Grant on both sides of the ball.
"Cade Grant didn't play," Elder said. "It hurts when you lose a player like Cade, when you don't have him out there on offense and defense."
Pea Ridge took the opening kickoff and drove for a touchdown, using pass plays to advance the football. Pea Ridge coach Cody Alexander had high praise for receiver Tristan Hall, whom Alexander said had a breakout game, making some huge catches on the first two Pea Ridge possessions to keep both drives alive.
"He is a kid that is really growing up and getting better," Alexander said. "He's getting a little confidence and it showed Thursday."
Quarterback Tate Busey ran the junior Blackhawks' first touchdown in from 8 yards after two big catches by Hall moved Pea Ridge into scoring position. Leading 6-0, the junior Blackhawks then got the ball back without Prairie Grove running a single offensive play.
"The kickoff bounced off our returner, they recovered it and went down and scored again," Elder said, adding, "They pretty much controlled us the whole game."
Pea Ridge's second score came when Busey connected with James Fort on a 10-yard touchdown pass after Prairie Grove had forced them into fourth down.
"James went over a guy and took it away from him," Alexander said. "That was a big fourth-down conversion"
Hall caught a 2-point conversion pass over the middle from Busey to put the junior Blackhawks ahead, 14-0, a lead which they held at halftime.
Prairie Grove mounted a scoring drive late in the third quarter that extended into the final period. A key play in the drive was a 30-yard pass from quarterback Jayden Higgins to Josh Webber.
"That was a big pass play," Elder said.
Higgins scored the only touchdown of the game for the junior Tigers on a quarterback sneak from the one, cutting the Pea Ridge lead to 14-6; but things got sticky for the junior Tigers after that.
"We couldn't convert, we tried an onside kick, they got the ball back and went down and scored," Elder said.
Pea Ridge's third and final touchdown came from Luis Reyes from 14 yards out. He also ran in a 2-point conversion to push the junior Blackhawks' lead to 22-6.
"We couldn't overcome mistakes we had," Elder said.
The loss dropped the junior Tigers to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in conference play. Elder does see a positive aspect of the season, saying Higgins, who didn't play football last season, is growing as a signal-caller.
"He's way improved from when he started," Elder said.
The junior Tigers take on Gentry at home Thursday. The seventh-grade game begins at 5:30 p.m. followed by the junior high game.
Sports on 10/19/2016