MONTICELLO - With about 8 minutes left in the first half of last Friday night's 6-3A Conference clash at Mike Pennington Stadium, Rison appeared to be in total control of its crucial game with Drew Central. Before things were over, though, the Wildcats were literally hanging on by a thread, as they escaped the determined Pirates' upset bid, 27-24, in the regular season finale.
Clinging to a 3-point lead with only a few minutes to go, the matter wasn't finally settled until Ayden Laws pounced on a red-hot line drive onsides kick at the Rison 48, followed shortly by a third down double handoff, executed by quarterback Owen Morrison and backs Steven Shaddock and Jeremiah Marshall, the latter carrier gaining 11 yards to move the chains that enabled the Wildcats to run out the remaining time on the clock.
It was Rison's 10th win in the 10-game series with the Pirates, none of the previous 9 contests decided by less than 28 points. In fact, the 'Cats had won the previous 9 games in the series by an average margin of 40 points.
The Wildcats, who had numerous chances to assume total command of the game before being able to exhale in the end, improved to 3-7 overall, with their third straight victory sending them to 3-2 in the conference, and more importantly securing a homefield first round playoff game with Jessieville this Friday. Drew Central, which had not played since Oct. 13, shook off the affects of being stale from a 20-day layoff, but slipped to 2-7 and 1-4, the Pirates now facing a long road trip to Booneville for a first round playoff game.
Commenting about the apparent "flip of the switch" in the game's turnaround, Rison head coach Caleb Carmikle said, "I'm just glad to get out of there with a win. We knew they (Drew Central) were either going to be very, very ready to play, or ready to get it over. You could tell they had over two weeks to prepare. I was impressed with them, especially their defensive tackles and lineb...
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