Even for Pulaski Academy, Friday's offensive onslaught was eye-opening.
The Bruins scored 54 first-quarter points on their way to a 68-21 victory over the White Hall Bulldogs at Hatcher Stadium in Little Rock.
Sophomore Joe Himon returned the game's opening kickoff for a 76-yard touchdown to give PA (8-2, 6-1 5A-Central) an 8-0 lead. After a successful onside kick, senior Mason Kolb scored on a 5-yard run to put PA's lead at 16-0.
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White Hall (6-4, 4-3) responded with a 46-yard touchdown run by senior running back Donte Buckner to cut PA's lead to 16-7 with 10:19 left in the first quarter.
After Himon's second kickoff return for a touchdown, this one from 78 yards, PA's lead was 24-7. Another successful onside kick set up senior Braden Bratcher's 43-yard touchdown pass to senior Andrew Cobb that gave PA a 32-7 lead. The result of the next onside kick also went PA's way, and its lead was 40-7 with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Bratcher to senior Myles Marotti with 8:11 left in the first quarter.
Forty points in less than four minutes is a lot for any team, even PA under Coach Kevin Kelley.
"I know we scored 29 in the first couple of minutes against Cabot one year, but other than that, this was a pretty good job," Kelley said. "A coach is going to be happy if you're scoring on kickoff returns, if you're scoring on defense, and scoring on offense. That's what you want to do going into the playoffs against a really good playoff team."
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White Hall's second possession was stopped on downs, after which Bratcher's 91-yard touchdown pass to junior Jayln Witcher put PA's lead at 47-7 with 5:29 left in the first quarter.
With 54 seconds left in the first quarter, a 10-yard touchdown pass from Bratcher to junior Dylan Allison gave PA a 54-7 lead.
PA settled for two second-quarter touchdowns, the first on a 47-yard interception return by senior linebacker Chris Connell followed by junior Izarius Woods' 3-yard run.
"We gave up two kickoff returns, a pick for a touchdown, and everything went bad early in the game," White Hall Coach Bobby Bolding said. "We kind of got out of it. They attacked our sophomores on defense and, you know, they whupped us. They're a better team than us."
White Hall used a 55-yard touchdown run by Buckner to put the halftime score at 68-14.
"[Buckner] is fantastic," Kelley said. "We watched him on film against [Little Rock] Christian and some other teams, and their line does a good job of clearing the path, and he hits it and makes some cuts in some confined areas. He does a great job."
Bratcher completed 20 of 24 passes for 333 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Sports on 11/09/2019