CAMDEN -- Mount Ida's undefeated Lions earned their second straight trip to the 2A state football championship game Friday with a 27-14 win on the road against Camden Harmony Grove.
Mount Ida (14-0) opened the game with a time-consuming drive. Junior running back Jonathan Lagrange finished off a 19-play, 75-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown run to give the Lions an early lead.
Harmony Grove (9-4) tied the game at 7-7 in the second quarter after Kentrell Hill scored on a reverse from 36 yards out. The Hornets' only other score came in the third quarter on a 58-yard touchdown pass from Gannon Bearden to Shaun Lucas.
Mount Ida coach Mike White said he was wary of Harmony Grove's speed before the game. He said his defense handled the Hornets' offense extremely well and played disciplined throughout the game, save for the two long scoring plays.
"One of them was a busted coverage, but, overall defensively, I felt like we swarmed the football well enough that when we did miss a tackle, we had others there to make the tackle," White said.
Mount Ida answered Hill's touchdown with an 11-play, 3:37 drive to take the lead. Lagrange scored from three yards out for his second touchdown of the night.
The Lions were forced to drive 80 yards on their next possession. Senior Luke Forga put them ahead 21-7 in the first half.
White said his team played well in the first half. The Lions' offense gained more than 300 yards on the ground in the first two quarters, while holding the Hornets to less than 200 yards in the game.
Harmony Grove had not lost since Sept. 15. The Hornets were 0-3 after their first three games, with losses at the hands of Class 3A teams Smackover, Prescott and Glen Rose, who finished the season with a combined record of 26-9.
They averaged more than 46 points per game while giving up less than 14 points per game over their 2A-8 conference schedule, which included Rison (10-2), Hampton (7-4) and Bearden (7-5). Harmony Grove had a bye in the first week of the playoffs and won in the next two rounds 58-14 over East Poinsett County (8-4) and 40-14 over Hazen (9-3)
"In the third quarter, they stiffened up on us," White said.
Lagrange added his third score of the second half and finished with 138 yards on 37 carries. Mount Ida relied on Lagrange to lead its running attack throughout the game.
"In these big games, he is going to be our bell cow," White said. "The whole offense revolves around him first and then everything else comes off of him. He can handle that kind of load and also play linebacker for us."
The Lions had 432 yards on 83 carries. Junior quarterback Cade Jackson ran 19 times for 112 yards, and senior Cade Helms also ran 19 times for 104 yards.
The Class 2A title game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday at War Memorial Stadium. The 2A playoffs were delayed a week after Earle was disqualified for using an ineligible player throughout the season.
The Bulldogs averaged 54.5 points per game on offense while only giving up 12 points per game in their 10 wins this season. Earle's only loss came in the opening week of the season 22-14 against Class 4A Helena-West Helena.
New Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Chad Morris made contact with Earle quarterback Gerry Bohanon, who passed for more than 2,00 yards this season. The senior boasts offers from Arkansas, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Louisville, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and others.
Earle was replaced in the playoffs by Salem, who entered the playoffs as the No. 5-seed from the 2A-3 conference with a record of 4-5. The Greyhounds beat Hector (8-3) 41-35 in the first round of the playoffs and Palestine-Wheatley (8-3) 37-25 in the second round.
Their 50-31 loss to the Bulldogs marked Earle's second-smallest margin of victory this season. Salem bowed out in the semifinals to Mount Ida's conference foe, the 12-1 Foreman Gators, by a score of 41-14.
"We are going to try to keep everything pretty similar to what we have been doing and what we did before against them," White said.
The Gators' only loss of the season came in Week 7 at Mount Ida. Foreman was undefeated in their first five games, scoring an average of 50 points per game and giving up only seven points per week.
"They were dominating everybody," White said. "Things went right early in our ballgame against them. We jumped out to a three-touchdown lead -- we blocked a punt right before halftime and punched in that third score going into halftime. We just jumped on them early and that set the tone for the game, but I knew they were definitely capable of making it to Little Rock."
White said Foreman is very similar to Hampton, Mount Ida's final opponent in 2016. He said the Gators run a similar offense and feature an athletic quarterback akin to Monta Thomas, who led Hampton to an undefeated season until a championship game loss a year ago to Mount Ida.
Sports on 12/11/2017