RISON - Three turnovers in the first five minutes of the game created a nightmare start for Rison in its rivalry game with Fordyce last Friday night at George Walker Field of Champions. And taking advantage of the miscues to score a couple of quick touchdowns, the Redbugs kept their foot on the gas pedal to build a big halftime lead in coasting past the Wildcats, 42-7, in the 6-3A Conference contest.
The Fordyce victory set up what should be the league championship game this week, when the 'Bugs host Camden Harmony Grove. Fordyce is now 43 overall and 3-0 in the conference, while Rison slipped to 0-7 on the season and 0-2 in the league.
Even after Fordyce grabbed a 14-0 lead before the game was five minutes old, the heavy underdog Wildcats never gave up and continued to fight and scratch until the very end, as they made offensive drives to the Redbugs' 16 and 12 in the first half and the 8-yard line in the second half, only to come up empty on each penetration. A fourth quarter touchdown by the 'Cats helped them avoid the shutout.
Commenting about his team's effort, Rison head coach Caleb Carmikle said, "we played hard, never gave up, and the fans stayed behind us. I thought the defensive line played well, and our tackling was much better. But we've got to find ways to eliminate momentum swinging plays and turnovers, and when we get in the red zone we need to convert. If we convert on one or both of our red zone trips in the first half and not have turnovers, obviously, we could have had a much closer, competitive game. Even after we got down by two scores after those turnovers, we responded with a really good drive (11 plays) when we got down to their 16. I think these drives should let the kids see we can do good things, even under adversity. Making those red zone trips shows the offensive line was playing well, and our backs (Steven Shaddock, 43 yards, and Jeremiah Marshall, 51 yards) ran hard. It's been tough, but we've just got ...
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