By Jason King
Leader sportswriter
Beebe survived a slugfest on the road Friday to beat Forrest City 41-33 and improve to 2-0 in the 5A-East Conference.
Senior fullback Colby Taylor led the ground charge for the Badgers with 22 carries for 167 yards, and was one of three ball carriers to break the 100-yard barrier for Beebe.
Taylor, senior quarterback Scot Gowen and halfback Jay Holdway all had over 100 yards rushing and contributed tw
o touchdowns each.
“We played pretty good,” Beebe coach John Shannon said. “We were just clicking on offense. The best thing about tonight was that we were able to keep our heads up when we were faced with adversity.
“For the first time this year, we were able to find a way to win.”
Holdway did most of his damage in the third quarter with touchdown runs of one and 49 yards.
His 49-yard score came with 3:44 left in the third, and gave Beebe its first lead since the start of the game. Gowen added another touchdown with 10:12 left to play that put the Badgers up 41-27 after Jordan Goss’ successful extra-point kick.
“I felt like the offensive line did a really good job tonight,” Shannon said. “We made some mistakes in the first half, or otherwise we would have been way ahead. They returned a kickoff for a touchdown, but we came out in the third quarter and held the ball for nine of the 12 minutes.”
Taylor broke the game open early with a 55-yard touchdown run with 10:51 left in the first quarter, but the Mustangs answered with a 13-yard touchdown off a sneak by senior quarterback Leslie Parker, and they took the lead with four minutes left in the first on a 62-yard fumble return for a touchdown.
Gowen tied the game with a seven-yard scoring run with 8:58 left in the half.
The road victory makes Beebe a contender in the 5A-East after the Badgers suffered an 0-3 start in non-conference play.
“We knew if we could get a couple of wins that would help us get some confidence and maybe get some things to go our way,” Shannon said. “We’ve been able to do that. We’ve got another big game next week. Wynne won tonight, so now they’re 2-0, so it’s going to be another big ballgame.”
