BARTON - On about as bizarre a night as you could imagine, Rison's offense made the most of its only two second half possessions with a pair of long touchdown drives, capped by a pick-6, and the Wildcats literally escaped Frank McClellan Field last Friday with a headshaking 29-16 victory over the Barton Bears in a 6-3A Conference slugfest. Rison's winning points came with just 1:28 to go in the game.
The win for Rison secured a number one seed in the state playoffs and, for now at least, a share of the conference title - a victory needed this week to wrap up the league crown outright along with an undefeated regular season.
Forced to come from behind twice in a game where the penalty flags became all too common, along with two starters leaving the game due to injuries, the Wildcats improved to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the conference, a game ahead of second place Harmony Grove, while the very athletic Barton squad dropped to 4-5 and 2-3.
Along with over 20 penalties assessed in the game - 12 on Rison, 10 on Barton - the game was interrupted for roughly 45 minutes when stadium lights went out with 7:38 left in the first half. While lights on three of the four poles came back on, one comer of the field remained dimly lit for the contest that finally ended around 10:20. Through all of the dramatics, including injuries to linebacker/ end Thomas Wilson and running back/defensive back Treyvione Wainwright, Rison head coach Clay Totty had nothing but praise for the “fight” in his squad to rally twice for the win.
“I’m proud of the kids,” Totty said. “They overcame so much adversity, and to hold that bunch (Barton) to 16 points is something in itself. We had good senior leadership, and we had some big time players who stepped up and made some big time plays. Not only did we have injuries, but we had some kids sick with some kind of stomach bug. One was even vomiting on the field. Two of those players were (Avery) Hopson an...
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