PREP FOOTBALL: Lloyd, Wyatt Take Flight for Southside

FORT SMITH -- Seniors Dmitri Lloyd and Luke Wyatt provided the momentum boosts the Fort Smith Southside Mavericks needed on Friday night.

Lloyd returned an interception 50 yards for a touchdown for Southside's first score, and Wyatt returned a kickoff 99 yards for the second touchdown to propel the Mavericks to a 50-28 win at Rogers Heritage.

"It got us going," Southside Coach Kim Dameron said. "We weren't hitting on all cylinders on offense at the beginning. Dmitri gets the pick, makes their quarterback miss and gets in the end zone. Then when Luke returned the kickoff, it kind of exploded from there."

Southside received the opening kickoff and punted after just three plays. With Heritage driving close to midfield, Lloyd picked off a pass right to him across the middle and returned it for the score with 6 minutes, 44 seconds left in the first quarter.

"It helped us a lot," Lloyd said. "The offense had a three and out, and then we just rolled with it. They were driving on us and got a couple of first downs."

Heritage scored on its next possessions to draw within, 7-6. Wyatt gathered in the ensuing kickoff right the goal line and returned it 99 yards for the touchdown with 3:54 left in the opening quarter.

"Those are big momentum plays, and they kickstart the game for everybody," Wyatt said. "The whole game just goes better."

It marks the second year in a row for Wyatt to return a kickoff for a touchdown after taking one 90 yards against Fayetteville last year.

"You've just got to trust the guys on the kickoff return team," Wyatt said. "If you see a hole, you've got to hit it as hard as you can and run as fast as you can."

After Wyatt's return on Friday, Southside added a 27-yard field by Jackson DeLassus in the first quarter and scored three touchdowns in the second quarter.

"It's amazing how momentum works," Dameron said. "Both of those kids just made big plays."

They've both been big playmakers for the Mavericks this season.

Lloyd has made the biggest impact the last three weeks after moving from slot receiver to middle linebacker. Lloyd was approached about the possibility after the conference-opening loss to Rogers.

"I came on that Sunday and they told me we needed a middle presence and that I was the guy for it," Lloyd said. "I was a little worried at first, but at the same time I knew I'd get to run around and hit people, and have fun doing it. I like it a lot."

He had four solo tackles and five assists on Friday with a tackle for loss in addition to the interception. The week before against Fayetteville, he led the team in tackles with six solos and seven assists with another interception. Lloyd got his indoctrination to linebacker against Bentonville and had three solos and four assists.

"That was a big first game," Lloyd said. "Bentonville has a good offensive line. It's easy to understand the position, but the physical aspect of it took a minute."

Lloyd definitely provides an intimidating presence as the middle Southside's defense.

"Dmitri was making plays as an offensive player, but he's really helped out football team the last couple of weeks since we moved him to linebacker," Dameron said. "He just makes more of an impact on the game on the defensive side. He can still play both. At the next level, he can play both. It's fun to watch him get better and better each week."

Lloyd is filling the gap left by the graduation of Landen Chaffey, who is playing at Harding University.

"He's given us that punch, that explosiveness in the middle of the defense that we were missing early," Dameron said. "We had that with Chaffey last year. That's why he's playing college football now."

Lloyd even watched some film on Chaffey as a crash course on the position change.

"He was a great middle linebacker," Lloyd said. "I watched film on him. I like playing like him."

Wyatt started the first two games of last season at quarterback before moving to receiver when he caught touchdowns of 75 and 21 yards. Then during a four-game stretch against Bentonville, Fayetteville, Heritage and Springdale Har-Ber, he scored seven touchdowns. Against Fayetteville, he ran for a touchdown, caught two touchdown passes and returned a kickoff for a score.

Friday, Wyatt caught touchdown passes of 7 and 70 yards, the latter that invoked the Arkansas Activities Association's Sportsmanship rule for a 50-14 lead with 6:09 left in the third quarter on Friday.

"Luke has been making big plays all year long in the kicking game and at receiver," Dameron said.

Quarterback David Sorg also threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Kent Carlisle. Isaac Gregory and Amari Tucker ran for touchdowns on Friday.

It marked the first time in 18 years for Southside to score a rushing touchdown, a passing touchdown, a defensive touchdown and a special teams touchdown in a game. The last time Southside did it was in a 42-10 win over Rogers in 2003 when John Thomas threw touchdown passes to Ben Bracken and Scott Eady, who also ran for a touchdown, and Slick Shelley returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, and Wade Pressley returned a fumble 67 yards for a score.

Southside hosts Springdale Har-Ber today, and Wyatt knows the key to Southside's offense is the receiving corps playing consistently as it did against Heritage.

"We just went out there and made plays," Wyatt said. "We didn't drop a lot of balls on Friday night. We made plays. We have four seniors out there, and we just need to make plays."