Booneville pounds past Gravette

GRAVETTE — Cody Harrel did not complete a pass for Booneville on Friday. But he did a lot of damage with his legs.

Harrel rushed for 141 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead the Bearcats to a 25-7 win over Gravette in a game that was delayed 40 minutes because of lightning in the area.

Booneville (1-1) used a punishing run game to pile up 361 yards, all on the ground. Bryson May also went over 100 yards for Booneville, finishing with 101 yards. Four Booneville backs had more than 50 yards rushing.

Although Booneville dominated the second half, scoring three touchdowns, the Lions did not help themselves with costly mistakes. But none was bigger than a fourth down offside penalty on the opening possession of the second half. The Lions (1-1) had Booneville backed up to its own 26 on fourth down when the Lions were flagged for jumping across the line of scrimmage. The result was a first down, and the Bearcats made the Lions pay dearly, driving the length of the field for a touchdown when Harrel raced 20 yards to give theBearcats the lead for good, 13-7.

Booneville’s offense ground down the Lions from that point on, while the Bearcats defense pitched a second half shutout. Gravette managed just two first downs in the second half - none until under four minutes remained.

Booneville scored first when the Bearcats drove 83 yards in seven plays. Booneville’s Matthew Berry and Harrel tore off huge gains to get the ball inside the Gravette 10, and May scored from the nine with 7 minutes, 30 seconds left in the first quarter.

Gravette bounced back to tie the game after the Lions forced a fumble at midfield. Cedric Duarte broke off a 41-yard run on a toss sweep, setting up Chase Brody’s 5-yard run that tied the game at 7-7 with 10 seconds left in the quarter.

The Bearcats ran one play before the quarter ended and before the game was halted for 40 minutes because of lightning.

When play resumed, a bizarre series of plays occurred in the second quarter on what at first looked to be a Gravette fumble. Booneville’s line crashed through and knocked the ball loose from Brody and the ball rolled backward inside the Lions’ 20. TheBearcats batted the ball toward the Gravette end zone before finally recovering it for an apparent touchdown.

However, the play was negated and Booneville was penalized 15 yards for batting the ball backward and Gravette kept possession. But the play did not result in a first down. In the confusion, the Lions turned the ball over on the next play whenBrody went to a knee to field a low snap on what was ruled as fourth down. Booneville took over at the Lions’ 41.