DeWITT - A pair of touchdowns in the early moments of the third quarter gave Rison all the separation it needed, as the Wildcats pulled away from a slim seven-point halftime lead to dispose of the flinging DeWitt Dragons, 48-20, in the season-opening football game last Friday night.
In a contest where DeWitt wanted to rely on a pass-heavy offense, Rison made the Dragons pay with its contrasting ground assault clicking for over 400 yards behind solid blocking in the trenches.
And once Rison began to apply defensive pressure, including three take-aways in the second half, the Wildcats dominated down the stretch in the non-conference clash.
Wildcat Coach Chris Vereen said the offensive line played a big role in the run game that grinded out 406 yards on the ground. Quarterback Logan McGarity and running back Aidan Bitley both eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark.
“Usually, the first grading (of the year for the offensive line) is not great… but the front five, every one of them graded 80 percent or higher,” Vereen said. “That’s huge.”
Those linemen included Darion Wells 96 percent, Rowdy Phillips with 85 percent, Brayden Kelly with 83 percent with three pancake blocks, Dedrick Wells with 82 percent and Gibson Terry 80 percent with one pancake block, and “They did a lot of blitzing and we did a really good job of picking that up,” he said.
The victory gave Rison a 3-2 series lead over DeWitt, the first meeting between the teams since 2011. Due to a malfunction, Friday night’s game had to be played without an operating scoreboard or play clocks, time being kept on the field which led to a spike in the intensity of the non-conference contest.
And adding more intensity to the game was the Dragons coming right out of the gate to test a shaky ‘Cat secondary with 41 pass attempts, any semblance of a ground game not to be detected. But the Rison defense made some timely tips and deflections on DeWitt aerial attempts before providing big plays in the second half …