Tigers Lower Boom On Cards

FARMINGTON -- The highlight reel virtually belonged to Prairie Grove as the Tigers lowered the boom on their rivals beating Farmington 36-13 Tuesday, Aug. 29.

"Prairie Grove is too good not to execute offensively against," said Farmington coach Mike Adams. "We didn't throw and catch it nearly as well as we've been doing in the preseason. We missed some open guys and made some bad reads."

One of those bad reads came on a broken play as Farmington quarterback Trey Waggle bobbled a snap in the shotgun. He scooped the ball off the grass and tried to make a play. Tiger cornerback Collin Bryant picked off the pass and was off to the races. Collin Bryant ran outside the left hashmark, then cut across the grain and got past every Cardinal. His 74-yard touchdown return took what breath Farmington had left away. The defensive touchdown coupled with an extra-point kick by soccer player Ben Beason extended Prairie Grove's lead to 33-7 at the 9:21 mark of the fourth.

Prairie Grove coach Danny Abshier said he thought Collin Bryant was already cramping before the pick six.

"He reached down deep on that one," Abshier said of the long runback extended by going from hashmark to hashmark on his cutback.

"He just dug in. About the time he cut back against the grain I saw him take it to another gear."

Prairie Grove senior J.D. Elder started hot, completing 4 of 4 passes showcased by a 26-yard touchdown pass to Collin Bryant to culminate a 10-play, 80-yard scoring drive on the opening series. The conversion failed and the Tigers settled for a 6-0 lead.

Farmington wasted no time erasing that deficit. The Cardinals drove 70 yards with Caleb Williams running the ball in from the seven. Drew Sturgeon booted the P.A.T. giving Farmington a 7-6 lead, but that wouldn't last long.

Farmington burned all three first half time-outs on defense including back-to-back time-outs with Prairie Grove looking at a first-and-10 situation from the Cardinal 46. After the first time-out, Prairie Grove suddenly broke the huddle and lined up quickly while Farmington defenders were still on the sideline talking to coaches. Two plays later a Cardinal ran out onto the field at the last second and Farmington drew a flag for 12 men.

Tiger fullback Garrett Heltemes ran off left tackle for 5 yards and with the penalty added to the end of the run, Prairie Grove set up shop at the Cardinal 30. Anthony Johnson scored from 4 yards out and Prairie Grove retook the lead, at 12-7. The Tigers would not trail again.

"They used some motions and stuff to put us in bad situations," Adams said. "We didn't adjust very well on the fly."

Elder engineered another touchdown drive that started with Dustin Burton's 29-yard carry. Johnson ran for a dozen yards. Elder threw to tight end DeMarkus Cooper for a 19-yard score, then passed to Stone Bryant, Collin's twin brother, for a 2-point conversion. The Tigers led 20-7 with 11:51 showing in the second quarter.

The contest featured a rarity, one starting quarterback, Prairie Grove's Elder; sacked the other, Farmington's Waggle.

"He started coming in on that cramping," Abshier said. "We had guys that were cramping and we brought J.D. in. He comes in and does an excellent job on defense."

The sack on third and 11 played a role in building Prairie Grove's momentum. Farmington lost 15 yards on the play and attempted to punt from their 11. The snap went awry and Farmington punter Jacob Gray was forced to run.

"We had that snafu on the punt," Adams said. "Our back protectors were a little too tight. It went off of one of them."

Collin Bryant nailed Gray at the 15 and Prairie Grove took over on downs. Two plays later Anthony Johnson scored the second of his two rushing touchdowns and Prairie Grove went up, 26-7, with 7:56 left in the first half.

Aided by a roughing the passer penalty Farmington drove to the Tiger 20, but had a pass tipped at the line of scrimmage followed by a drop and an overthrow in the end zone. The Ball again turned over on downs. Farmington's defense forced a Tiger punt which rolled dead with 1:31 to go in the half at the Cardinal 47. Waggle twice completed throws to Xavier Staten, who was brought down at the Tiger five. Farmington ran four plays in the last 29 seconds, including a spike to stop the clock with one second remaining at the four, but Waggle was sacked to end the half and the missed opportunities proved costly.

In the fourth quarter, Beason kicked a 21-yard field goal for the Tigers and Reid Turner broke a 25-yard touchdown run for Farmington to cap the scoring.

With the win, Prairie Grove evens the all-time series with each school having 29 wins apiece.