RISON - It's always been said that momentum can change on a dime, and the Rison Wildcats learned that first hand in their 83A opener against the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots Friday night at George Walker Field of Champions.
When Wildcat quarterback Kyson Walker scored on an eight-yard run with just 9:58 left, Rison seemed to have it in hand up 34-14.
However, just 4 minutes and 15 seconds later, it was the Patriots on top, 35-34, thanks to a quick score after Walker's TD and two Wildcat turnovers. But Rison went back to its dominanting run game as the 'Cats used a 10-play, 80-yard drive that put the Wildcats back on top, 40-35, when Jaquis Rauls dove into the end zone from a yard out with 1:26 left. Still, the victory wasn't secure until Patriot quarterback Brody Parker's fourth-down heave into the end zone fell incomplete with 7 seconds left.
"At the end of the day, we could have folded right there at the end and lost, but the kids rallied and found a way to score and then found a way to stop them on defense," Rison Coach Chris Vereen said after the game.
The Wildcats improved to 1-0 in conference play and 2-2 overall with the win while the Patriots suffered their first loss of the season to drop to 0-1 and 3-1 overall.
Walker's touchdown at 9:58 mark of the fourth quarter came at the end of yet another timeconsuming Wildcat drive that covered 60 yards in 10 plays. It came on the heels of a quick score by the Patriots when Parker found junior receiver Maddox Hoggatt behind the defense for a 77-yard touchdown with 3:05 left in the third. Andrew Knowlton's point after made it 28-14 at that point.
That combination of Parker to Hoggatt seemed to spark the Patriots as they would find a lot of success with it the rest of the way. Palestine-Wheatley had 299 yards passing in the game, most of it coming from the Parker-Hoggatt combo.
After Walker's fourth quarter TD pushed the Wildcats lead to 20, Rison's onside kick attempt went out of bounds at it own 49. Three plays later, Park…