LAKE VILLAGE - “Finally, finally,” were the first words spoken by happy Rison head coach Caleb Carmikle just after the Wildcats had finished blanking the Lake Village Beavers, 35-0, last Friday night, as the Wildcats put an end to an 8game losing streak dating back to last year's state playoff semifinal loss to Charleston.
Rison, 1-7 overall and 1-2 in 6-3A Conference play, snapped the losing skid that had eventually equalled an 8-game streak by the Wildcats during the 196263 seasons, both the longest of its kind in the post World War II era of football at the school. On the flip side, the shutout enabled the ‘Cats to make it 57 out of the last 59 seasons in which they have blanked at least one opponent in a season. The loss dropped Lake Village to 1-5 and 0-3, as Rison assumed a 13-9 lead in the series, dating back to 1950; the Wildcats now owning nine straight wins over the Beavers.
Asked how big the victory was, Carmikle, in his first season at the helm of the Wildcats, said, “it was huge for us, because at some point you eventually reach a breaking point. I think that’s what a loss in this game would have probably done. It would have broken us. I know this, I will never take another victory for granted. The shutout is also a big deal, because that’s hard to do anymore against anyone. I think the defense showed a lot of resiliency after we had some turnovers on offense. We had some bad things, some mistakes, that happened to us on offense, but the defense stepped up against some good athletes.”
Lake Village finished with only four first downs, two of those by penalty, and the Beavers failed to move the chains at all in the second half.
One of the big plays by the defense came shortly after Rison had first down at the Beavers’ 11 late in the first half. However, following a Wildcat fumble, elusive quarterback Bryson Jones got loose around the left side on the final snap of the half, racing 56 yards to the ...
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