RISON - On the verge of seeing their 30-point halftime lead completely evaporate, the Rison Wildcats got off the mat in the nick of time to snuff out a furious comeback by Dardanelle, defeating the Sand Lizards, 44-28, in a wild non-conference slugfest at George Walker Field of Champions last Friday night.
With only one game slated over the next three weeks, their 6-3A opener at Dollarway on Sept. 23, the Wildcats improved to 3-0. The Class 5A Sand Lizards, just up from the 4A ranks, fell to 2-1, as they head into a difficult conference schedule, beginning Sept. 23 at Shiloh Christian.
Here Friday night, what emerged from the visitors' lockerroom after halftime didn't appear to be the same team that left the field at the end of the second quarter, down by a surprising score of 30-0. The Sand Lizards, on the brink of being 'mercy ruled,' fought their way back into the game, and almost did the unthinkable of erasing the huge deficit.
Commenting about the Dardanelle rally, Rison head coach Clay Totty remarked, 'They are a good football team, so I'm certainly not taking anything away from them. I told the team they would come back. We might have started thinking mercy rule and became a little lazy on some stuff. I know we contributed to their comeback. I wish we had come out (the second half) with better intensity. We're not going to be a dominant team, that's just not who we are. So, we can't just go through the motions. We had some mental mistakes in the third quarter, you name it, like having only 10 men on the field for their punt return for a touchdown. I think that in the fourth quarter, we just wore them down on the line, and the backs ran hard. We imposed our will on them, and our execution got better. Anyway, we have to develop the attitude of going out to win, and not hope they (the opponent) give it to you.' Led by senior quarterback Drew Vega, the Sand Lizards gained momentum early in the second half to pull within, 30-28, le...
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