PEA RIDGE -- The majority of Harrison's starting lineup this fall won't be around when Pea Ridge makes the jump to Class 5A next year.
This year's senior-laden Goblins, however, didn't show their Class 4A counterpart any mercy Friday night. Gabe Huskey ran for three touchdowns, and Rilee Jones hauled in two touchdown passes to lead Harrison to a 42-7 victory at Blackhawk Stadium.
"They came through," Harrison Coach Joel Wells said. "They played the way I expected them to play. We didn't play as clean as I wanted to, and I don't think our players are satisfied with the way they played.
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"But, like I told them, it's Week One. We have to get better every week. Sometimes when you have a veteran group that has gone a long way, they expect every play to be a first down or every play to be a touchdown. They have to remember how hard it is to win football games again."
Harrison (1-0), with nine returning offensive starters, took advantage of mistakes by Pea Ridge to build a 28-7 halftime cushion. Huskey bolted 16 yards for a score on the Goblins' first offensive play after the Blackhawks had a 13-yard punt after a three-and-out deep in their own territory.
Jones caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Cole Keylon -- one of two quarterbacks Harrison alternated for most of the game -- after Pea Ridge couldn't convert a pass on a fake-punt attempt late in the first quarter. The Goblins defense added a score when Bryant Ulrich jarred the ball loose from Blackhawks quarterback Tate Busey, and Landen Stephens scooped up the loose ball and ran 36 yards for the score.
"To be honest, I thought we played well against them," Pea Ridge Coach Stephen Neal said. "We did shoot ourselves in the foot early. We had three passes that were dropped, and two of them would have been for first downs. Then we had the flub on the punt, which you can't do against great teams without paying for it.
"We'll learn from that. I'm pleased with our effort and our competitiveness, but they are a really good team. We'll get to that point eventually."
Pea Ridge did answer Huskey's touchdown with a 12-play, 80-yard drive that was aided by a number of Harrison penalties. Samuel Beard ran the ball seven times on the drive, including for the final 2 yards for the score. Luis Reyes' kick made it a 7-7 with 4:41 left.
The tie didn't even last a minute as Harrison drove 53 yards in four plays. Huskey picked up his second touchdown on a 4-yard run to give the Goblins the lead for good, then Jones and Stephens picked up their scores to make it a 28-7 game with 10:33 left before halftime.
Harrison didn't score again until Jones scored on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Ben Johnson with 4:39 left in the third quarter. The Goblins' final score came on Huskey's 1-yard run with seconds left in the third quarter.
"We still didn't do a very good job," Wells said. "We had too many penalties. We talk about no penalties and no turnovers, and we didn't do a very good job in that area. The good thing is that we won, and we still have a lot of improving to do."
Although Huskey scored three touchdowns, he was limited to 97 yards on 14 carries, including just 5 yards on 6 carries in the second half. Pea Ridge became the second team to hold Huskey under 100 yards in his career, with Mountain Home doing it twice.
Sports on 08/31/2019