HARRISON -- The Morrilton Devil Dogs had their way with the Harrison Goblins in the first half Friday night in their 5A-West Conference matchup, building a 28-7 halftime advantage and cruising in the second half to a 42-14 victory to ruin homecoming at F.S. Garrison Stadium.
Morrilton (4-2, 2-1) had six first-half possessions and scored touchdowns on four, three in the second quarter, while Harrison (2-4, 1-2) sputtered offensively.
"We got off to a fast start and I thought that was really important because Harrison has been a team that has started fast this season," said Morrilton Coach Cody McNabb. "Just about every game they've had this year, they would score first and they probably should have even taken the lead at halftime last week against Little Rock Christian. We talked all week about how they are going to try to start fast and we needed to match them every time. And I thought our kids did a great job of jumping out on top fast and containing them from doing so."
Oshae Erby scored Morrilton's first two touchdowns, the first a 1-yard dive that capped an 80-yard drive to start the game and the second on a 13-yard run on the first play of the second quarter to give the Devil Dogs a 14-0 lead.
Harrison drove to the Morrilton 2 but the Goblins missed a 23-yard field goal. Morrilton quarterback Caleb Canady connected with Erby for a 56-yard pass three plays later to the Harrison 9. Lane Granberry scored on fourth and goal with 6:55 left in the first half to put the Devil Dogs up 21-0.
After another Harrison drive stalled, the Devil Dogs got the ball to the Harrison 17 within three plays. Morrilton made its only mistake of the half when Harrison's Kanon Kirkland intercepted a Canady pass at the 15 and went 85 yards for the Goblins' only first-half touchdown, cutting the lead to 21-7.
Morrilton answered with an eight-play, 65-yard drive which included a 33-yard pass from Canady to Delontae Duncan and was capped by a 3-yard touchdown run by Granberry to give the Devil Dogs their halftime advantage.
In the first half, Morrilton racked up 268 yards of offense to just 25 for Harrison.
Morrilton only needed two pass plays to reach the end zone for their lone score of the third quarter, a 21-yard pass from Canady to Laken Dillard to make it 35-7 with 9:55 left.
Harrison scored its second touchdown with 8:01 left in the game, going 80 yards in 15 plays that was capped by a 17-yard touchdown pass from Taner Edwards to Alex Wright.
The Devil Dogs answered with a 66-yard scoring drive, with Donte Pittman scoring on a 30-yard touchdown run.
Morrilton finished with 431 yards of total offense, getting 207 on the ground. Erby finished with 17 carries for 83 yards. Canady completed 12 of 18 passes for 234 yards.
Harrison finished with 105 total yards.
Sports on 10/10/2015