Watson Chapel mauls Dumas 32-2

August 29, 2011

Bruce Guthrie ArkansasVarsity.com^[1]

PINE BLUFF - Watson Chapel Wildcats head coach George Shelton hadn't won in three tries at Golden Lions' Stadium. That streak came to a screeching halt on Monday. Chapel scored every point on the board including Dumas' pair in a 32-2 victory over the Bobcats in the nightcap of the Simmon's First Hooten's Classic on the campus of UAPB prompting some to believe that Shelton's Wildcats may be a little further along than he anticipated going into Monday's opener.

"I don't know about that," Shelton said. "They are pretty good about what they do as far as the talent they have. Very proud that they were able to deal with the training part of it in the heat of the summer. We made some very cautious training decisions and I was a little worried about our conditioning, but thank God for the facilities that we have."

The Wildcats got going immediately after forcing a Dumas turnover to set up their first touchdown.

On Dumas' first play from scrimmage, Willie Sargent stepped in front of a Trey Winchester pass and ran to the Dumas 32. An illegal block in the back penalty put the ball back to the 42.

Sargent got those yards back and much more when he took a hand-off and made his way to the three. Two plays later, junior running back Marquis Handley^[2] piled into the end zone for a quick 6-0 lead at the 10:16 mark.

Sargent scored again in the second on a 12-yard run at the 7:40 mark of the second quarter.

Two-plus minutes later, the defense got in on the act. Defensive end Demetrius Dukes forced a fumble deep in Watson Chapel territory and Cedric Burnett scooped it up at the 21 and outran the Bobcats to end zone extending the Wildcats' lead to 20-0.

"Everybody wants to have a fast start no matter what level you are at," Shelton said. "That was a big play. I been thinking all along that our defense had the ability to make big plays. We do have a degree of quickness so we were able to do that."

Dumas head coach Mark Courtney said Burnett's scoop and score was a bit of a back breaker.

"We are already down a little bit," said Courtney, "it's the first game and everybody's out of shape a little bit and trying to fight and that took the last bit of air of them."

While mistakes were few for Chapel, quarterback Jerome Eason^[3] did throw a first half interception to counterpart Winchester. A bad snap in the waning minutes of the first half rolled out of the back of the end zone giving Dumas a safety. Penalties also plagued Watson Chapel in the first half committing 11 for 98 yards causing Shelton to raise an eyebrow.

"90 yards of penalties in the first half," Shelton said. "We talked about wanting to clean up some of the things we were doing in the second half."

Shelton said he felt like his team had a leg up in depth.

"We kinda felt like we had a man advantage," Shelton said, "in terms of the number of kids we were going to be able to play versus the number they were going to be able to play."

Courtney agreed.

"We were out-manned at several positions," Courtney said.

Travon Savage ended the game with a 69-yard touchdown run on the game's final play.

Sign up for premium access to ArkansasVarsity.com with a 30-day free trial!^[4]

Keep checking with ArkansasVarsity.com^[5] The Authority In Arkansas Prep Sports!

References

1. ^{^} ArkansasVarsity.com (ArkansasVarsity.rivals.com)
2. ^{^} Marquis Handley (highschool.rivals.com)
3. ^{^} Jerome Eason (highschool.rivals.com)
4. ^{^} Sign up for premium access to ArkansasVarsity.com with a 30-day free trial! (arkansasvarsity.rivals.com)
5. ^{^} ArkansasVarsity.com (www.arkansasvarsity.rivals.com)