By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
Lonoke opened 4A-2 Conference play with a big win on the road last week, and on Friday, the Jackrabbits will play their first home conference game of the year against a speedy Newport Greyhounds team at James B. Abraham Stadium.
The Greyhounds (3-1, 0-1) have beaten the Jackrabbits (3-1, 1-0) in four of the past five meetings between the two teams, including last year’s 42-28 win at Newport in week five.
Jackrabbits coach Doug Bost said this year’s Greyhounds team lost four key players on the offensive and defensive lines, but said all of the skill guys are back, including playmakers Carl Turner and Kristen Crite.
Turner could very well be the best sophomore running back in the state. Last year as a freshman, he earned All-State honors after pacing the Newport backfield with 1,709 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns. He also caught two touchdown passes.
Crite is a senior who will line up at the inside slot receiver position and will also line up in the backfield to spell Turner. Like Turner, Crite earned All-State honors a year ago with 832 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns. He also led Newport’s receiving corps with 390 yards receiving and six touchdowns.
“They are loaded with skill guys,” said Bost of Newport. “They’ve got every single skill guy back from last year. That’s definitely their strength, led by running back Carl Turner, who’s probably the best freshman running back I’ve seen. He’s better than Michael Dyer when Michael Dyer was a ninth-grader.
“You’ve got him and you’ve got the Crite kid, which that kid probably runs a 4.4 (40-yard dash) – very fast on film. He scored a lot of touchdowns on the films we’ve seen. They lost four starters off of last year’s line, so hopefully we can exploit their linemen.”
Lonoke and Newport both run the Spread offense, and like the Jackrabbits, the Greyhounds will run the ball from that formation 60 to 70 percent of the time, according to Bost. Bost added that the stretch play is the Greyhounds’ favorite, and even though offensively they’ll be looking to run the ball the majority of the time, they can and will throw it when they feel the need.
Gunnar Bullard, a junior, returns at quarterback after throwing for more than 1,300 yards and 21 touchdowns a year ago. He also ran for 412 yards and two scores last season. With literally every single skill player back from a year ago, Newport is expected to make a lot of noise in the 4A-2 Conference this season.
However, after starting the season 3-0, the Greyhounds laid an egg last week in the conference opener against No. 3 Dollarway, losing 42-0 – a margin of loss that came as a surprise to those familiar with the two teams, including Bost.
“That just shows what kind of team they have,” Bost said of Dollarway, “but Newport I thought would’ve had a little bettering showing against them. It was a surprise.”
Defensively, the Grey-hounds will line up in a 4-2 front, and like Little Rock McClellan, who Lonoke played in the final nonconference game of the season two weeks ago; they like to blitz a lot and rely on the speed of their secondary to make plays.
“It basically turns into a 4-4,” Bost said of Newport’s defense. “They’re going to play you man and they’re going to run with you all over the field. They’re going to get in your face as soon as you get off the line of scrimmage, and we played McClellan two weeks ago and they blitzed us.
“It’s very similar to that. They’re going to send seven or eight every play, and like I said, they’re going to lock up man-to-man with your receivers, and try not to let them off the line of scrimmage.”
With Newport’s secondary playing man coverage, Lonoke’s standout senior receiver Blake Mack, an Arkansas State commit, could see single coverage consistently for the first time this year. Crite in all likelihood will be the guy covering Mack on Friday, and that matchup should be fun to watch.
As far as how Bost feels about the way his team is playing right now, he says he’s very pleased in particular with the way his offense executed in last week’s 63-34 win at Heber Springs.
“I think the execution of the game plan was excellent,” Bost said. “We had three rushers over 100 yards (Josh Coleman, Kody Smith and Mack), so we were able to spread it out and get it to different people. We used a lot of motion to try and confuse them, and that all starts up front with the offensive line, and those five guys did a great job all night long.
“They executed the game plan great and we’ll go over this week’s game plan, and hopefully we’ll keep trucking right along.”
Kickoff for Friday’s game is at 7 p.m.
