Catholic jumps on Sylvan Hills early

Little Rock Catholic Coach John Fogleman said he wasn't trying to rub it in on Sylvan Hills Friday night during a crisp 35-point first-half onslaught at War Memorial Stadium.

"The kids were playing good," Fogleman said after Catholic's 35-15 victory, "and I wasn't going to slow them down."

Second- and third-teamers played for Catholic in the second half with a running clock.

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"You'd like to have a complete game, but we can ill forward to have injuries," Fogleman said of the Rockets, who had several injured during last week's 18-13 loss at Jonesboro. "We improved in the areas we wanted to improve on."

Fogleman said the Rockets (1-1) needed to run better and do a better job of protecting quarterback Jordan Edington, who was sacked seven times against Jonesboro, and they did.

Edington completed three touchdown passes to three different receivers Friday and ran for a touchdown.

"We finished the game last week well, even though we didn't win," Fogleman said. "We've been working on picking up where we left off, and I thought the kids did a good job of that."

Catholic's defense allowed two first-half first downs -- on Sylvan Hills' first and sixth possessions of the half -- and forced the Bears' Matthew Riley to punt five times.

Catholic drove 90, 75, 54, 40 and 22 yards for touchdowns.

Catholic outgained Sylvan Hills 281-27 in the first 30 minutes, ran more than twice as many plays (41-20) and put up 15 first downs to 2 for the Bears (0-2).

Edington threw touchdown passes of 6 yards to Brian Alsbrook, 35 yards to Nathan Johnson and 30 yards to Robert Bavon, on a stop-and-go pattern to make it 28-0 with 4:04 to play in the half.

Alsbrook scored Catholic's first touchdown on a 2-yard with 6:13 to play in the first quarter.

Catholic scored its fifth touchdown after a 22-yard punt return by John Henry Duce put the Rockets at the Sylvan Hills 18 with 2:43 to go before halftime.

Edington scored four plays later on a 2-yard keeper to make it 35-0.

Rockets' reserves took over after the starters played the first series of the second half.

Sylvan Hills, which scored three touchdowns in a season-opening 47-22 loss to defending Class 4A state champion Arkadelphia last week, scored against Catholic reserves after 6-4 sophomore Corey Washington took over for starter Emil McCoy late in the third quarter.

There was weaving 30-yard touchdown run by DJ Smith with 6:37 to play in the fourth.

Later, Washington reversed field on a 31-yard run and completed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Shaquan Esteen. A two-point conversion pass from Washington to Smith made it 35-15.

"We've just to keep working at it," Sylvan Hills Coach Jim Withrow said. "We do have talent, but we just got to keep working at it, and we're going to get there."

Sports on 09/07/2019

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