RISON - After suffering their second consecutive loss Friday night with a 28-24 setback to the Class 5A Joe T. Robinson junior varsity at Little Rock, Rison Coach Chris Vereen was quick to remind his Wildcats on the field afterwards that the real season begins this week when they open of 8-3A conference play.The Wildcats will host the unbeaten Palestine-Wheatley Patriots at 7 p.m. Friday night at George Walker Field of Champions in the league opener for both teams.Vereen's remarks were in part an effort to erase the bad taste of suffering back-to-back non-conference losses to Class 4A Haskell Harmony Grove (25-0) and Class 5A Joe T. Robinson (28-24). Looking back, those losses may not have been as bad as they first seemed.After pitching the shutout at Rison the previous week, Harmony Grove delivered four more scoreless quarters last Friday night in a lopsided 41-0 victory over Jessieville.Meanwhile, Vereen said he learned Saturday morning from his friend, former Robinson football coach and current athletic director Todd Eskola, that the Senators had five starters in the junior varsity game who regularly play on Friday nights. Robinson is 3-0 and ranked no. 1 or 2 in Class 5A in most polls.While he said Eskola wanted to apologize, Vereen said he told him there was no apology needed since the Senators provided just the test his 'Cats needed heading into league play.After generating 65 yards of offense and three first downs in the loss to Harmony Grove, the Rison offense bounced back against Robinson, picking up 260 yards on the ground and 12 first downs. And as Vereen pointed out, that was with a Rison offense that had nearly every player going both ways.While the 'Cats outgained the Senators 260 to 219 yards, the did suffer four turnovers - two fumbles and two interceptions - that played a key role in the loss.Rison will need all the offense it can muster this Friday night when the undefeated Patriots come to...
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