By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
It’s never the same way, but each week the Sylvan Hills Bears find a way to win one-point games. On Friday at nearby rival North Pulaski, the Bears made a pair of defensive stands to hang onto a 32-31 victory over the Falcons. The Bears two previous wins were 7-6 over Mills and 13-12 over Crossett.
Sylvan Hills got a few big breaks and made a couple of big plays to secure Friday’s victory.
The Bears put together their final scoring drive midway through the fourth quarter. Starting from their own 40, the Bears took nine plays to go that distance and caught a huge break when the Falcons were called for pass interference on third and 15. That moved the ball to the North Pulaski 14. The Bears got three yards on first down, then went to their biggest weapon. Tim Finley, 6-foot-3, 305 pounds, took the next two handoffs, and carried the second one six yards for the go-ahead touchdown.
“They scored and put us down and we answered,” Sylvan Hills coach Jim Withrow said. “I don’t know how we’re doing it. We have good kids. They just keep working and finding ways to win.”
Trailing by one, North Pulaski took possession at its own 28-yard line and made several big plays to stay alive, including converting a fourth down and six and a third and 11.
Once North Pulaski got to the Sylvan Hills 30, things went awry. It started with a delay-of-game penalty. On first and 15 with an empty backfield, quarterback Marvin Davis was forced out of the pocket.
Everyone on the Sylvan Hills defense left coverage to chase Davis, who spotted receiver Kevin Williams all alone at the five, but Williams dropped the pass. On third down, a Bear defender made a big hit on a receiver, knocking the ball into the air, where it was picked off and returned to the Sylvan Hills 35.
The two big breaks, the pass interference and the dropped pass, weren’t lost on the head Bear.
“You know we haven’t had a break the last couple of years,” Withrow said. “I mean nothing. Then these last few weeks things have just bounced our way.”
The Bears milked the clock down from 2:49 to just 52 seconds to go, but gave it back on downs at the Falcon 45.
North Pulaski got 14 yards on first down, but could only get two more from there. The Falcons went for it all on fourth and eight, but the pass was long and all that was left was for the Bears to take a knee.
North Pulaski coach Teodis Ingram couldn’t quite explain how the win got away.
“We’re just snakebit it seems like,” Ingram said. “I think we played our best offensive game of the year, but I don’t think we played well at all defensively. We’ve faced bigger, more physical offensive lines than this one, and played better than we did tonight. I was disappointed defensively.”
The defensive woes started early for North Pulaski. The Bears scored on the first play from scrimmage, a 74-yard pass from John David Miller to Jalen West, who was lined up the right slot of a five-wide set.
North Pulaski took the lead with 1:09 left in the first quarter with a seven-play, 80-yard drive. Hart scampered 19 yards for the score.
Austin Allen’s extra point put the Falcons up 7-6, but it was the last extra point NP would convert the rest of the night.
Miller fumbled the snap on the second play of the ensuing drive, and North Pulaski covered it at the Bear 28. This time it was the home team with a one-play drive. Davis hit Williams with 14 seconds left in the opening frame to make it 13-6.
The Bears caught another break on its next drive. The Bears lost a yard on first down to set up second and 11 from their own 45. It was the last play of the first quarter.
When the ball was moved to the other side of the 50-yard line, the officials put the chains on the 44 instead of the 46, meaning the Bears needed just eight yards for a first down instead of 10.
They converted on fourth down by a half yard. After the conversion Sylvan Hills got chunks of yardage at a time. Jaleel Henson went 12 yards, Anthony Featherstone got an 11-yard reception and Jarron Wade caught a 14-yard pass for the score to make it 13-12 with 8:23 left in the first half.
North Pulaski answered right back, driving 71 yards in nine plays to score with four minutes left. The key play of the drive was the first one, a 43-yard run by Hart. He also had the last, a six-yard scamper for his second score of the game.
But the Bears weren’t done in the half either. Sylvan Hills went 66 yards in eight play to tie the game at 19 with 12 seconds left in the half. Featherstone did most of the work on that drive, catching three passes for 51 yards, but Henson got the last four for the touchdown.
The Bears took the lead back in the third quarter with a nine-play, 53-yard drive. Demarcus Willis capped the drive with a 3-yard run, and the extra point made it 26-19.
North Pulaski scored the next two touchdowns to set up the exciting final minutes. The Falcons got some help with a personal foul penalty, and Courvoisiea Allen caught a 12-yard pass from Davis to cap the drive and make it 26-25 with 2:25 left in the third.
The Falcons got a big break of their own on the ensuing kickoff. West took the kickoff back for a score, but a block in the back well after West was free and clear nullified the return. It almost proved costly. The Bears failed to score on the drive, and NP too the lead moments later.
On second and seven from their own 26, David hit Hart on a receiver screen, and Hart took it 74 yards for the score.
“That guy (Hart) is the best back nobody has ever heard of,” Withrow said. “He’s got moves, speed and he’s a workhorse. I don’t know why no one talks about him.”
Hart finished the game with 262 total yards. He carried 15 times for 145 yards and two touchdowns, and caught four passes for 117 yards and one score.
Davis completed 12 of 23 attempts for 219 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, though there were four drops and one incompletion was a spike to stop the clock late in the game.
North Pulaski And Sylvan Hills each compiled 380 yards of offense.
Sylvan Hills was led by Anthony Featherstone’s 110 total yards. He had five carries for 40 yards and five catches for 70. Henson led the Bears on the ground with 19 carries for 87 yards. Finley had nine carries for 67.
The Bears improved to 4-3 overall and 3-1 in the 5A Southeast Conference. The Bears stay on the road to face Monticello next week.
The Falcons dropped to 0-7 and 0-4 and travels to Crossett next Friday.
