By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Jacksonville Red Devils turned in their best performance to date Friday night, going on the road and shutting out Mountain Home 27-0 to earn their second straight win and open 6A East Conference play with a big victory.
Mountain Home sophomore quarterback Drake Walker had dominated in the Bombers first three games of the season and led the team to its first 3-0 start in school history.
Jacksonville was not intimidated, and shut down the sophomore phenom, holding him to 11 completions in 29 attempts for just 89 yards and two interceptions.
Jacksonville coach Rick Russell said the key to the game was the early pressure on Walker.
“We saw on film that nobody really tried to put a lot of pressure on him,” Russell said. “We wanted to do that because he’s a sophomore. We were able to get pressure on him early. Michael Thornabar got a really good hit on him in the first quarter. We were able to get him out of rhythm and took him out of the game as a running threat.”
Conversely, Jacksonville quarterback Tirrell Brown had his best game so far. Brown completed 15 of 24 attempts for 242 yards and a touchdown.
The two teams traded a few possessions early in the game, but Jacksonville finally got the scoring started when senior Dvone McClure ran five yards with 2:12 left in the first. A failed fake extra point attempt left it 6-0.
Jacksonville got a break on its second score. The Red Devils drove down the field and had first and goal at the 6-yard line. Cortez Brown picked up two yards, but fumbled into the end zone where junior lineman Carter Grandison covered it for the touchdown.
Another missed extra point made it 12-0 with 3:46 left in the second quarter, and that’s how it stayed until halftime.
The Bombers got it to start the second half, but another defensive stand gave Jacksonville the ball back, and the Devils went right to work.
Jacksonville thought it had scored immediately when McClure took a screen pass to the right side back across the field for a 64-yard touchdown, but the play was called back for an illegal block.
It was still a good thing for the Jacksonville coaching staff to see McClure’s speed returning after his injury against Benton.
“To see him cutting back against the grain and out running people was nice to see,” Russell said. “He’s still not at full speed, but he showed a lot of progress tonight. That was a pretty severe sprain.”
Jacksonville had to punt after the penalty and Mountain Home mishandled it.
Jacksonville covered on the Bomber 37 and went that distance in just three more plays. All three were completions by Brown. The first and last of which were to McClure, whose 10-yard reception and the ensuing extra point made it 19-0 with 5:17 left in the third quarter.
A little over halfway through the fourth quarter, Jacksonville’s defense got on the board. A Brown punt pinned the Bombers on their own 1-yard line.
On the first play of the drive, the entire Red Devil defensive interior penetrated the line of scrimmage and tackled Walker in the end zone for a safety.
After the ensuing kickoff, Brown ran it three straight times, once for eight, once for one and again for 50 yards and the touchdown. He also got the two-point conversion, which set the final margin with 5:10 left in the game.
“The offense played well for the most part,” Russell said. “We left some points out there in the red zone and that was a little disappointing. We were pretty balanced. Overall it was pretty good team effort.”
Brown led Jacksonville’s rushing attack with 105 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries. McClure led the receivers with five receptions for 83 yards.
Jacksonville held the advantage in total yards by a large margin. Jacksonville gained 400 while Mountain Home had just 194.
The win evens Jacksonville’s overall record at 2-2. The Red Devils stay on the road next week, traveling to Jonesboro. The Hurricane beat Little Rock Parkview 56-28 on Friday.
