JONESBORO — Forrest City needed two fourth-quarter touchdowns to put away Nettleton and post a 30-15 victory in a 5A-East game.
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Forrest City (6-2, 4-1) outgained the Raiders 391-150 but led 16-15 at halftime and didn’t score in the third quarter, leaving the outcome in doubt.
But Forrest City went up 22-15 on a 9-yard pass play from Randal Moore to Trajan Norment on the second play of the fourth. The two-point conversion failed.
Forrest City’s final score came on DeMarcus Flenoy’s run out of the Wildcat formation with 2:35 to play. Flenoy’s two-point run out of the Wildcat formation made it 30-15.
Norment caught 6 passes for 152 yards and 1 touchdown. Kendriel Johnson rushed for 149 yards and a score. Treunta Hunt added 88 yards for the Mustangs.
“It seems like this game is so big every year,” Forrest City Coach Rich Trail said. “To come up here, we knew they would be tough, but to come up here and win is big time for the playoffs, so I give credit to our guys for coming and getting a quality win up here.”
Forrest City outgained Nettleton 133-57 in the first quarter and led 8-7 after Johnson had a touchdown run and two-point conversion.
Detavion Turner scored for Nettleton (5-3, 2-3) in the first quarter on a 1-yard run on his 10th rushing attempt of the game. Turner finished with 65 yards on 22 carries.
Nettleton and Forrest City traded scores in the second quarter but another two-point conversion kept the Mustangs ahead 16-15 at the half.
Hunt scored on a 20-yard run and Norment caught a two-point conversion pass from from Moore.
“I was real proud of Norment tonight,” Trail said. “I thought he did a really good job and was hard to contain. They actually contained Kendriel for the most part.”
Forrest City outgained Nettleton 247-117 in the first half, but it was only good for a onepoint lead.
Nettleton scored on Turner’s two-point conversion run after a 38-yard scoring pass from Deondre Henry to Jaron Northern with 1:01 remaining before the half.
The teams combined for 5 punts, 3 by Nettleton, and an interception by each quarterback in the third quarter. The teams combined for 38 yards in the quarter, 21 of those from Forrest City. All of Nettleton’s 17 yards came on the ground.