River Valley Report: Van Buren defense, special teams combine for big play

Van Buren needed a defensive stop, and they got even more than that in a key time in a 31-20 win on Friday night.

The Alma Airedales had just capitalized on an interception in the end zone by Conner Stacy, put together a 14-play scoring drive that took five minutes, 41 seconds off the clock to get within, 24-14, early in the fourth quarter and then forced Van Buren to punt.

"We were in a punt safe mode," Van Buren defensive coordinator Moe Henry said. "We got in our regular defense and brought pressure off the edge."

Travis Holman maintained containment from the outside of Van Buren's punt rush, and Dakota Lowry blocked the kick.

"With them having the ability to get the ball back after they had scored and make it a one-score game, defensively, to hold them to three-and-out, attempt a punt and then to block a punt that was huge momentum for us," Henry said. "That last series, things may happen a little bit here and there. We were able to get them to the sideline and make some adjustments. We don't want those 14-play drives, but if they do have them then how are we going to respond."

Six plays after the blocked punt, Andrew Hammond caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Bryce Perkins on fourth down to push Van Buren's lead to 31-14 with 5:23 left.

Defensively, safety Dylan Barlow had 11 tackles, including one for loss, and two pass breakups.

"Three of those were on a few slants and routes, but a lot of the tackles were fitting the gaps and the runs," Barlow said. "We were keying in on their run game early."

The win gave Van Buren a 4-year winning streak over the Airedales.

"There was a lot of pressure coming in to keep that four-peat, all four years we were in high school," Barlow said. "Alma's a really good team, but we executed and put trust in our coaches."

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Big-play Chi

Malachi Henry set a single-game Pointer record on Friday night with 260 receiving yards in the 31-20 win over Alma.

A big portion of that was a 97-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter.

Van Buren cornerback Zach Cranor stopped a fourth-and-nine Alma try with a tackle of Alma's Stacy after a two-yard gain to turn the ball over to Van Buren at its own 19.

Van Buren lost 16 yards on a bad shotgun snap, but on the next play, Perkins completed a pass across the middle to Henry, who slipped a tackle and went the distance.

"We had the bad snap and a really negative play, and a lot of defensive coordinators after a bad play will try to stack big plays on top of each other," Van Buren offensive coordinator Jon Brooks said. "I thought they might try to bring some pressure and be aggressive down tight and try to get something on us in the end zone. We gave them play action and tried to get something out quick. We still got hit but got it out in time and took it to the house. It was a big-time play for us."

Henry earlier converted a 70-yard touchdown play and finished with seven catches.

Short night

The Paris Eagles improved to 2-0 with a 34-6 win at Johnson County Westside on Friday night.

With a 27-0 lead late in the first quarter, the clock started running continuously for what turned out to be a quick mercy-rule victory.

Paris had just 28 offensive plays for 237 yards.

Chase Watts threw touchdown passes to Blake Martines and Duke Walker, who also ran for a score.

Nate Henderson and Maddox Watts ran for touchdowns.

Mason Bradley had nine tackles and two sacks to lead the Paris defense, which held Westside to 86 yards.

Paris hosts West Fork on Friday.

Buzzing

The Hackett Hornets opened their season with a 36-22 win at Pocola, Okla., on Friday with the offense taking up where it left off last season, sort of.

Quarterback Ethan Slavens threw for 328 yards and four touchdowns with two of them going to Peyton Hester, who caught seven passes for 202 yards.

Pocola took a 6-0 lead after returning an interception for a touchdown, and Hackett had two penalties on its next drive that forced a three-and-goal from the 38 but the Hornets scored four touchdowns in the second quarter.

"It was a good start," Hackett coach Michael Meador said. "I was pleased with how we played our first game, but there are lot of things we need to improve for us to compete in our conference."

Dawsyn Clay and Kamron Elkins also caught touchdown passes.

Hackett had 426 yards of offense in all.

Slavens only completed 13-of-31 passes, but that is a little misleading.

"We left a lot of points on the board," Meador said. "We dropped nine passes, but still had those stats. We could execute a little bit better. First time out, we expected some issues and need to get some things fixed."

Hester also paced the defense with 10 solo tackles, three assists, four tackles for loss, and two sacks.

Hackett hits the road across the state line again on Friday, traveling to Panama.

How about that

Greenwood set a team record on Friday, mounting a 720-yard offensive attack in the 54-48 win over Southside.

"A lot of that was based off tempo," Greenwood coach Chris Young said. "At times we were really good offensively, and at times we didn't execute and made some mistakes."

Southside had 14 possessions, with two extra off onside-kick recoveries, and scored six touchdowns. Greenwood had 12 possessions and scored eight touchdowns.

Greenwood's L.J. Robins covered an on-side kick with 2:04 left after Southside had scored to close to within a touchdown. Southside still had two timeouts remaining, but Greenwood converted a pair of first downs to run out the clock to the win.

On its way to a record night, offensively, the Bulldogs ran 54 times for 370 yards and five touchdowns and threw for 350 yards and three scores.

Hunter Houston completed 22-of-32 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns, and Slade Dean completed his only pass attempt for 31 yards.

Dylan Tucker ran 21 times for 135 yards and two touchdowns while Jake Glover also ran for a score.

All of that helped withstand a four-touchdown barrage by Southside in the final quarter when the Mavericks had 193 of their 510 yards.

"It was 48-20 with one minute left in the third quarter, and we're one touchdown away from running the clock," Young said. "Those guys didn't quit. They kept playing. They've got some really talented players."

Greenwood travels to Northside on Friday.