RISON - The last thing Rison Coach Chris Vereen wanted to see last Friday night was for his Wildcats to get into a track meet with the Dumas Bobcats.
And while that ended up being exactly what he got, his ‘Cats were more than able to match the Bobcats’ high-powered offense as Rison came away with a 65-42 victory that moved the Wildcats to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in 8-3A conference play.
Dumas, meanwhile, fell to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in league play.
It was definitely track meet as the two teams combined for more than 1,000 yards of offense: Rison finished with 510 total yards (all on the ground) while Dumas had 525 (294 yards passing and 231 yards rushing).
The combined 107 points scored came within a touchdown of tying Rison’s school record of 113 total points, which was set in the Wildcats’ 77-36 win over Hermitage set on Oct. 2, 2015.
While the Bobcats had plenty of big plays, the Wildcats countered with a sustained rushing attack that Dumas struggled to stop. Rison has three players break the century mark in rushing: Kyson Walker had 209 yards on 22 carries with seven touchdowns, sophomore quarterback Logan McGarity rolled up 131 on 14 attempts and Aidan Bitely finished with 112 on 14 carries.
And almost as active as both offense were the game officials as Rison was flagged 10 times for 88 yards in mark-offs while Dumas was flagged 16 times for 125 yards. Those totals would have been higher had there not been some offsetting personal fouls that were waved off.
The game got testy at times, and there was even a brief dust up among some fans at the north end of the field along the visitor’s side after the game was over, but it was quickly handled.
While Rison ended up with a what would seem to be a comfortable 23-point win, there was always a sense that the Bobcats could explode at any moment.
And that sense was merited considering how the game played out.
Rison was marching down field on the opening drive of the game when the Wildcats fumbled it away at the Dumas 42. …