Little Rock Central outlasts West Memphis
Blue Devils fall 24-18 to Tigers in Kickoff Classic
WM School District LITTLE ROCK — After watching his team miss opportunities on both sides of the ball in Tuesday night’s disappointing 24-18 loss at War Memorial Stadium to Little Rock Central, Billy Elmore can take consolation in that his team has the next 17 days off before it plays again.
Little Rock Central, 1-8 a year ago, played relentlessly on defense, holding West Memphis to just 68 yards rushing and picking off two Blue Devil passes.
“I’m disappointed in the way we performed,” Elmore said, bluntly. “Now, give Central some credit for that, but I’m really disappointed.”
Defensively, the Blue Devils gave up 265 yards rushing and 386 overall.
Missed opportunities and muscle cramps were among Elmore’s biggest concerns from Tuesday night.
After heading to the locker room at halftime down 17-6, the Blue Devils scored on their first possession of the second half as senior running back Cedric Loving, who led his team with 47 yards on the ground, scored a 1-yard touchdown with over eight minutes left in the third quarter to make it 17-12.
Soon after, the Blue Devils had the Tigers backed up inside their own 5, where the hosts faced a third and 8 from the 6.
Central quarterback Lawson Gunn, however, dug his team out of the hole by completing a 31-yard pass to Toine Westbrook to the 37.
Gunn completed 10 of 16 passes for 97 yards.
“Honestly, we lead the world in giving up third and 15’s,” Elmore said.
“We did not handle that very well.”
And then the cramps kicked in.
Several Blue Devils were on and off the field in the second half due to muscle cramps. It caught Elmore’s attention.
“We pride ourselves in being in being in shape and being physically tough,” he said. “Cramps are just not preparing your body the way it should be.
I’ve never had that many guys cramp in 25 years of coaching. I felt like we were in better shape than that, but obviously we’re not. As head coach I’ll own that.”
The Blue Devils’ inability to run the ball against the Tigers wasn’t exactly offset by their passing game.
West Memphis quarterbacks Owens McConnell, a senior, and sophomore Tevin Carter, both of whom played equally, combined for only 5 completions in 19 attempts for 142 yards.
McConnell, last year’s Most Valuable Player in the Bank of England Mortgage Kickoff Classic presented by 103.7 The Buzz, gave the Blue Devils some early hope after Central took an early 7-0 lead.
McConnell connected with Draylon Brown for a 54-yard touchdown pass with 1:12 left in the first quarter to cut the Tigers’ lead to 7-6.
McConnell finished 3 of 10 passing for 75 yards.
Carter was 2 of 9 for 67 yards, the last completion of which came on the last play of the game when he found Jamual Crayton for a 43-yard touchdown pass.
Another area Elmore took issue with is his defensive front’s problems with stopping the Central ground attack.
“If you would have told me before game that Little Rock Central was going to have as much success running the ball as they did on our defensive front seven, I would have told you you were crazy,” Elmore added. “But they did. We’ll go back and regroup. We’re not going to hit the panic button just yet.”
One of the two interceptions West Memphis gave up led to a Central touchdown.
After Keeling Baker hit a 28-yard field goal to give Central a 10-6 lead in the second quarter, a Blue Devil pick led to the Tigers scoring on a 2-yard touchdown by Samuel Franklin with 53 seconds left before halftime.
Franklin led all rushers with 175 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries.
The effort earned him the game’s Most Valuable Player award.
The Blue Devil defense was led by Davion Eason, who recorded 8 solo tackles and 8 assisted while senior Tulane University commit Kendarious Moore had 6 solos and 3 assists.
Moore had two tackles for lost yardage.
The Blue Devils will have plenty of time on the practice field the next 17 days before hitting the field again on Sept. 13 in the home opener against Blytheville.
