GENTRY — Gentry may have sputtered at times early in Thursday night’s football scrim- mage against Decatur, but the Pioneers defi- nitely finished strong. Quarterback Jarod Cousins ran for two touch-downs to help Gen- try notch a 14-7 win in the two-quar- ter varsity portion of the scrim- mage in Pioneer Stadium. Cousins engineered a 17-play scoring drive in the second quarter to snap a 7-7 tie. The junior had several big plays in the drive.

He kept the ball for 14 yards on third-and-10, drew Decatur off sides with a hard count on fourth-and-3, then found Colby Bryant for a 12- yard gain on fourth-and- 7 from the Bulldogs 15.

Cousins, who started at receiver as a sophomore, picked his way into the end zone from 3 yards out on the next play, then added the extra point with four minutes, 4 sec- onds left in the second quarter.

The 6-foot, 177-pound junior threw for 73 yards and ran for 53 more and led the Pioneers into the end zone five times. Deca-tur coach Shane Holland said the Class 2A Bulldogs did some good things, but strug- gled to wrap up the ball carrier at times. Cousins was a key cul- prit.

“In space, we didn’t tackle very well,” Holland said. “But their kid No. 22 (Cousins), I was around him all spring in track. He’s a great kid and a very good athlete. I’d like to have him.

“We ran out of gas at the end there. The con- ditioning kinda caught us there at the end. We’ve come a long way from a year ago, but we’re not there yet.”

Decatur scored its only touchdown in the open- ing quarter as senior Evan Owens led a five-play, 80- yard drive. Owens hooked up with Mario Urquidi on a 25-yard gain, then later finished the drive with a 26-yard keeper for the score.

The Class 4A Pioneers definitely shined in the red zone portion of the event and gave Gentry coach Brian Little reason to smile.

“Confidence goes a long way with these kids,” Little said. “We’re a young team and being a little bit younger, confidence is really important. We can build on that, certainly.”

The Gentry defense stiff- ened on third-and-goal from the 5 as Austin Co- chran recovered a fumble to keep Decatur out of the end zone.

Offensively, the Pioneers scored three touchdowns in their 10 plays from the 20 to finish the event with a flourish.

Cousins closed out a five-play drive with a quar- terback sneak, then threw a pair of 20-yard touch- down passes to Bryant.

Sports, Pages 9 on 08/29/2012