LAKE VILLAGE - Whether it was Halloween on the horizon, or maybe some homecoming distractions, last Friday night's 8-3A Conference matchup at Beaver Stadium was filled with some of the unusual - a little bit of it all, including fights off the field that scattered fans in the home bleachers. But when all things were finally settled on the field, the Rison Wildcats took care of their business by shaking off the inspired Lake Village Beavers, 42-12, to remain undefeated on the season and set up their conference title clash this week with the Fordyce Redbugs.The victory sent the Wildcats to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the conference, while the Beavers, not playing at times like a one-win team, fell to 1-7 and 0-5. It was Rison’s 10th straight win in the series with Lake Village, which the Wildcats now lead by a 14-9 margin.“I thought they played their best game of the year,” Rison head coach Chris Vereen said, commenting about the Beavers’ on-the-field effort. “We had seen them on film, and they had been turning the ball over a lot. But they had just one turnover against us, which we did score on. They typically don't have many fans in the stands, but they packed it for their homecoming, and I think they fed off that. They played hard all the way to the end.”As for the off-the-field stuff, Vereen said he thought his players did a good job of handling the delay in the game until order could be restored early in the third quarter when fights broke out in the Lake Village stands. In fact, after play resumed, Rison scored on the next offensive snap to build its lead to 28-6.While many Rison fans said they had never seen anything quite like the violence that unfolded on the home side, Vereen said he had seen it happen just once before, early in his coaching career when White Hall was at Helena, that also involving home fans there. Lake Village had a player ejected from the game for unsportsmanlike conduct when the fights broke out...
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