RISON - Weston Phillips rushed for 131 yards as the Rison Junior Wildcats held off the McGehee Junior Owls, 38-36, to hand them their first 8-3A loss of the year last Thursday at George Walker Field of Champions.
Rison never trailed and used some early McGehee turnovers to build a two-score lead.
The Junior ‘Cats took the opening kickoff 60 yards in eight plays with a 26-yard run from Phillips setting up a first-and-goal at the McGehee 10. Three plays later, Phillips found Isaiah Robinson for an 11-yard touchdown pass. Mason Johnson ran in the conversion to give Rison an 8-0 lead with 3:22 left in the first quarter.
McGehee fumbled it away on its next two possessions with the second one coming at the McGehee 5. Phillips took it in from there and Rison was up 16-0 with 6:06 left in the second quarter.
The Junior Owls recovered Rison’s onside attempt on the ensuing kickoff, and then put together a five-play scoring drive that ended on a 20-yard run. A successful two-point attempt cut Rison’s lead to 16-8.
The Junior ‘Cats answered with a five-play, 57-yard drive highlighted by a 50-yard pass play from Phillips to Trent Pickett that put the ball at the McGehee 1. Bryant Branch punched it in on the next snap and another Johnson conversion run made it 24-8 with 1:50 left in the second.
It didn’t take the Junior Owls long to respond as McGehee scored on a 44-yard run with 38 seconds left. Rison snuffed out the two-point attempt to leave the Junior Wildcats with a two-score lead at halftime, 24-14.
McGehee received the second half kickoff and put together an eight-play, 57-yard scoring drive. The Junior Owls had two touchdowns called back - one on a 57-yard TD run - because of penalties. They still managed to get it in the end zone, but the conversion was stopped leaving Rison with a 24-20 lead.
As had been the case throughout the first half, Rison answered.
Taking over at the Rison 43 after an onside attempt, the Junior ‘Cats used an 11-yard run by Johnson followed by a 26-y…