GRAVETTE — Prairie Grove survived poor play for the first 1 1/2 quarters against Gravette, but it couldn’t survive its own mistakes Friday.
Gravette took advantage of three turnovers and overcame two of its own for a 35-14 victory over Prairie Grove at Tiger Stadium.
Played Complete Game
“We played our most complete game of the whole year and that’s good to see at this time of theyear,” Gravette coach Bill Harrelson said.
Two of the Tigers’ three turnovers led to Gravette touchdowns, while Prairie Grove capitalized on only one of the Lions turnovers.
“Our defense played real tough,” Prairie Grove coach Danny Abshier said. “We just couldn’t get anything going on offense. If we got any little bite at all, we would nullify it and wekept doing it all night.”
The Lions rode the 134-yard rushing effort of Derrick Strzelecki, who ran for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put Prairie Grove away.
Strzelecki’s 15-yard run with 6 minutes, 1 second remaining gave Gravette a 28-7 lead after Prairie Grove had pulled to within twotouchdowns on a 1-yard run by Landon West.
Logan Hirsch intercepted a Cooper Winters pass on Prairie Grove’s next series and returned it to the Tigers’ 7. Strzelecki scored on the next play to extend the lead to 35-7. Jared Murphy added a 1-yard run for Prairie Grove with 57 seconds remaining after the Tigers recovered a fumble at the Gravette 35.
Strzelecki ran 29 times for 134 yards to lead Gravette. Quarterback Clayton Alexander passed for two touchdowns and ran for another.
“(Strzelecki)ran the ball hard all game,” Harrelson said. “He just kept pounding. Their defensive front was very tough and he kept pounding it at them and finally got a crease or two and broke some long runs.”
Prairie Grove had minus-3 yards offense in the first quarter and only 67 in the first half. But Gravette managed only a 14-0 half-time lead.
Alexander sidestepped a Prairie Grove defender at the sideline and scrambled 31 yards for a touchdownmidway through the first quarter.
Gravette’s Cody Montee missed a 43-yard field goal with 10:17 left in the first half, but Cody Bullock recovered a Winters fumble on the next play at the Tigers’ 11. Alexander passed 5 yards to Adam Roberts for a 14-0 lead with 8:57 remaining. Prairie Grove outgained Gravette 255-236.
Sports, Pages 9 on 11/10/2010