PEARCY -- Lake Hamilton advanced to the second round of the Class 6A playoffs for the first time since 2013 Friday night as the Wolves staved off the Sylvan Hills Bears, 14-7, at Bank OZK Field. Lake Hamilton will advance to face West Memphis next Friday.
With the score knotted at 7-all early in the second quarter, the Bears (4-7) worked their way down the field on an 11-play, 67-yard drive that burned 6:54 off the clock. With the ball at the Wolves' 3, Sylvan Hills' DeAngelo Smith took the handoff and was hit by the brunt of the Wolves' defense at the 1, knocking the ball loose where junior defensive end Baxter Dickson landed on it at the 2 with 12 seconds remaining in the break.
"That was a big play by the defense," said Lake Hamilton head coach Tommy Gilleran. "You know, we went and scored pretty fast. I go, 'Well, we'll be able to move the ball pretty good tonight,' and then just kind of shut down. Tevin [Woodley] got hurt last week, and he was a little hurt still. We moved Kendrick [Martin] up; Kendrick played OK. He didn't play great, but he's a ninth grader. I thought he blocked good for us."
Sylvan Hills head coach Jim Withrow admitted that the fumble was partially due to a miscommunication by the coaching staff.
"We had miscommunication," he said, "because we went there and said, 'Let's run the quarterback sneak.' We had called a lead in there, but then I told him, I said, 'Let's just run the quarterback sneak. What are we doing?' So we did have a miscommunication. It didn't have anything to do with the fumble, but we had a miscommunication. We should have just run the quarterback sneak."
The score remained unchanged until the 7:01 mark in the third frame when Owen Miller broke free on an 18-yard sprint, dodging multiple tackles, to find the end zone for the go-ahead score. Spencer Hillard's kick was the icing on the cake, setting what would eventually be the final score.
The Bears had a shot at pulling within 4 at the 2:35 mark when kicker Matthew Riley was called in to attempt a 35-yard field goal, but the kick went wide right.
"Our field goal kicker is an All State field goal kicker," Withrow said. "He missed a field goal that he's made all year. We just didn't play well. We just didn't play well. And they made enough plays to win.
"It was like we were kind of out of sync the whole game. I don't know why that is because we've played in plenty of big games."
Lake Hamilton got things going early, as Miller ran the ball in 46 yards on the Wolves' first drive of the night. The Wolves failed to get a first down despite gains of 6 and 5 yards by Miller and Martin separated by a 4-yard fumble that the Wolves recovered. Hillard split the uprights for the 7-0 lead with 2:33 off the clock in the game.
The Bears were held to just 4 yards on their first drive and 16 on their second before burning 3:02 off the clock on a nine-play, 70-yard drive that was capped by a 4-yard run to the end zone by Jessie Watson with 9:25 left in the first half, and the kick by Riley knotted the score.
Miller was a huge asset for the Wolves, rushing 20 times for 180 yards and both touchdowns while making key tackles as well as a pass breakup that would have left an open field for a Sylvan Hills receiver. The sophomore had to step up to play both ways in the final 24 minutes of the game due to senior defensive back Braden Broughton going down with an injury.
"That messed us up," Gilleran said. "We ended up playing Owen. Owen, he's a great football player. I said, 'You've got 24 minutes, so I need you to play both ways.' He goes, 'I've got it.'
"He broke up a pass, too, a long pass, and he actually got in front of one that the guy missed because he couldn't see it. He really didn't practice much this week there. So we're excited about his progress and what he's done."
Woodley finished with five carries for 14 yards, and Martin had four for 11.
Sylvan Hills was led by Smith with 10 carries for 40 yards as well as one catch for 27. Cole Bland had seven rushes for 36 yards, and Shajuan Esteen had two for 29.
Sports on 11/16/2019