FOUNTAIN LAKE -- Malvern shut down the Fountain Lake offense in the second half as the Cubs put up 20 unanswered points to defeat the junior Cobras, 27-18, at Allen Tillery Field Thursday.
The Cobras (5-2, 4-2 4A-7) started off strong, finding the end zone on each of their first three possessions to erupt for an 18-7 halftime lead, but Malvern (7-1, 5-1) made some strong adjustments at halftime, taking advantage of a pair of turnovers to shut out the home team the rest of the way.
"They did a great job adjusting at halftime," said Fountain Lake coach Josh Wesson. "They came out and loaded up the box and started spying (Caleb) Lacy, started spying the quarterback. Give them all the credit in the world. They did a great job and made their adjustments.
"We just couldn't throw the ball around enough to get the job done. I'm still proud of my guys; I still love them. That's a good team. They're a one-loss team, too. They've got athletes all over the field. We're a pretty good team as well; we just couldn't get the job done tonight."
While the loss hurt the junior Cobras' chances of winning the conference title, as many as five teams could tie for a piece of the title following next week's games.
Currently, Arkadelphia, Nashville and Ashdown all sit at 4-2 with Fountain Lake. Arkadelphia defeated Ashdown, 55-26, on Thursday.
The junior Cobras will travel to Haskell Harmony Grove on Thursday for their final game of the season, Malvern will travel to Nashville and Arkadelphia will also be on the road at Bauxite. Ashdown will finish the season at home against Joe T. Robinson.
After taking a 6-0 lead with 2:48 left in the opening quarter on Thursday, the junior Cobras could not stop Malvern's Marquez Johnson, who ran for a 55-yard touchdown on the Cubs' opening play on offense. Kevin Cardona then kicked the point-after, giving Malvern its only lead until the second half.
Steven DeArmon scored the junior Cobras' second touchdown on a 12-yard run to give Fountain Lake a 12-7 lead with six seconds remaining in the quarter.
"It's no secret to what we do offensively," Wesson said. "Him and Lacy both, we put those guys back there, and we depend on those guys to run the ball for us. I'm proud of Steven. He ran hard tonight. He had a great game.
The Cobras recovered an onside kick that ended up leading to their final score of the night, again by Lacy, to make it 18-7 with 2:38 left in the first half.
Malvern started out the second half hot, scoring on its first two possessions, the second drive starting on a fumbled handoff the Cubs recovered. They needed six plays to go 24 yards for the score.
"It was a good game for us," Malvern head coach Daryl Baker said. "Our kids played good. I was proud. We showed a lot of heart and were able to come back. We had a couple of scores called back, but we just kept plugging.
"A couple of weeks ago, we had the same thing happen to us at Ashdown, and we kind of tucked our tails, and we ended up getting beat. We preached about it. We came out and kept battling tonight, and things worked out for us."
Baker said the Cubs are primarily a run-based offense, but they passed for 142 yards in the Thursday's win.
"We had to throw the ball more," Baker said. "We usually don't throw it, but they made us throw it tonight. We were fortunate. Our kids made some plays, and it worked out for us tonight."
Eighth-grade quarterback Cedrick Simmons was 9-for-12 passing with a pair of touchdowns to lead the offense while rushing for 22 yards on nine carries and a score.
"He's a heck of a runner," Baker said. "He does a lot of good things. Early in the game, he was trying to improvise on a lot of stuff. Sometimes that's OK because he's so athletic, but he wasn't letting the play carry out, and he was trying to rush things. Once he settled down and got into a groove, I thought he did a really good job for us."
Marquez Johnson led the Cubs' ground game with five carries for 70 yards and a touchdown while Kaylon Brown had four catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns.
"We've got some other good weapons back there," Baker continued. "Marquez Johnson is a heck of a player, and Kaylon Brown made some great catches tonight. It's a team effort. There's some things we've got to get better at. Hopefully, we'll continue to try to get better."
Sports on 10/20/2018