GRAVETTE — GRAVETTE - The Lions came up short in the season finale between the Lions and the unbeaten Prairie Grove Tigers, falling 28-7 in the 4A-1 Conference battle held in Lions Stadium on Friday night.
Prairie Grove jumped out to a 14-0 lead less than halfway through the fi rst quarter on a pair of Nick Sugg touchdown runs.
Sugg rambled 55 yards through the middle of the Gravette defense on the game’s first play. After Gravette turned the ball over on downs at the Tigers’ 45, Sugg scored on a 23-yard run. Clement Geatrean kicked the extra point for a 14-0 lead with 6:50 left in the fi rst quarter.
The Lions came back with an 80-yard drive, scoring on a 29-yard pass from Wyatt Banta to Cody Heaton with 2:58 left in the quarter, cutting the lead to 14-7.
J.D. Speed scored on a 23-yard run for the Tigers with 11:28 left in the first half, one play after Jamison Huckaby recovered a Cedric Duarte fumble.
The Tigers twice reached the Gravette 18 in the second quarter without scoring.
Ahead 21-7 with a minute left in the third quarter, Prairie Grove stopped Duarte on a fourth-andone run from its 12.
Speed ran 63 yards on the last play of the third quarter, setting up his 14-yard touchdown runwith 10:43 left to fi nish the scoring.
Speed (158) and Sugg (157) both topped 150 yards and scored two touchdowns.
Duarte led the Lions with 123 yards on 24 carries.
The Tigers (9-1, 7-0) suffered two turnovers and turned the ball over on downs twice in the victory at Lion Stadium.
The Tigers go on to a first-round playoff game Friday at home against Pulaski Robinson. Gravette (3-7, 3-4) also qualifies for the playoffs as the No. 5 seed from the conference and will travel to Valley View on Friday.
“We could’ve been right in there this year,” Gravette Coach Bill Harrelson said. “We were twoplays away from having five wins coming in andwe just didn’t fi nish tonight.”
Mickey Doyle contributed to this report.
Sports, Pages 9 on 11/13/2013