MOUNTAIN PINE -- On the whole, "Arkansas Fight" was heard more often at Stanley May Field Friday night than the "Notre Dame Victory March."
Centerpoint (2-1) had more opportunities to strike up the band than Mountain Pine (1-2), especially in the second half of a once-tight game that ended 48-18.
Centerpoint scored two touchdowns late in the second quarter for a 27-12 lead, then took the game by the throat on the second-half kickoff. Mountain Pine's spirits sagged noticeably in the 14 seconds it took junior Landon Way to burst 78 yards up the middle, untouched to the end zone, for his third score of the night.
Seniors Owen Bright and Kolten Carver finished off Mountain Pine with two shots through the air. Bright, a starter since late in his sophomore year, passed 51 and 38 yards to Carver, a newcomer from Fountain Lake listed at 6 foot, 8 inches by Maxpreps.com. The first strike, which Carver caught over the middle, set up a 4-yard touchdown run by senior Blake Crawford with 3:56 gone in the third quarter.
Carver scored on the second deep ball, getting open downfield after Bright tracked down a high snap and, to his credit, kept the play alive.
"The only thing I was worried about is if we had an ineligible receiver downfield," Centerpoint coach Cary Rogers said. "It was a called pass play, and some of Mountain Pine's players were in pass coverage and didn't know there was a high snap. We might have been in a little trouble if it had been a called running play."
With the score 48-12, the Arkansas Activities Association's mercy rule kicked in with 15 minutes of clock time remaining. Mountain Pine junior quarterback Collin Smith set the final numbers with a 59-yard run late in the third quarter. Sophomore quarterback Kaden Bryant and other Centerpoint reserves played the fourth quarter, the Class 3A Knights improving to 2-1 before their conference opener Friday against visiting Smackover (3-0).
Way's kickoff return, Rogers said, "took away any momentum (the Red Devils) might have had coming back after halftime." Beating Murfreesboro (1-2) on the road after a home loss to Haskell Harmony Grove (2-1), "we've gotten better," the coach said. "Our running backs were able to turn the corner tonight."
Way ran 71 yards for his first of two second-quarter touchdowns after senior Daniel Forsythe's nine-yard run and freshman Hayden Rogers' kick put Centerpoint ahead 7-6. Crawford ran 12 yards for a 20-12 lead with 1:23 on the clock, after which the Knights held on downs and Way broke loose 59 yards for the first of two dagger-shot scores by the Pike County visitors.
"Our kids faced some adversity tonight and didn't handle it very well," Mountain Pine coach Sam Counce said, his Class 2A squad now 1-2 before its conference opener Friday against Cutter Morning Star (1-2). "We ran up against a bigger, faster team with a little more depth. But our kids know they can play better."
Coming off a road win over Dierks, Mountain Pine scored first on Smith's 22-yard pass to Josh Walpole, then pulled within 14-12 on a 12-yard pass from Smith that was deflected into the end zone.
Musically speaking and in other ways, it became a Centerpoint showcase with "Arkansas Fight," a favorite of Razorback fans, played often in the second half.
Sports on 09/16/2018