By ANN THARP
Special to The Leader
The Lonoke Jackrabbits kept their playoff hopes alive Friday night as they traveled to Mustang Mountain in North Little Rock and defeated the Central Arkansas Christian Mustangs 32-21. It was a beautiful night for week eight of high school football, and the Jackrabbits took advantage to raise their conference record to 2-3 and overall record to 3-5. The Mustangs are now 3-2 in conference and 5-3 overall.
“We knew this is one we had to have,” said Lonoke head coach Doug Bost. “We knew we had to come in and run the ball. We kind of got a different look on offense, put Justin Meadows back there, and he had a heck of a night. The line was blocking, Josh Coleman was lead blocking on a lot of those long runs, so I’m real proud of the offensive line and Josh.
“Ethan Holland had two big interceptions to stop drives for them. Being able to put offense and defense together, that was important. We gave up the one kickoff return, but other than that, special teams played good. We said we had to have all three phases coming in here tonight.”
Lonoke had 421 yards of offense while holding the Mustangs to 326 yards from scrimmage. Meadows led the Jackrabbits with 281 yards rushing and two touchdowns, Coleman had 70 yards, quarterback SaVonte Roundtree rushed for two touchdowns and passed for one. Braylon Harris had 206 yards for CAC.
After help from a Lonoke pass interference call, CAC scored on its second possession of the game, with Harris carrying the ball in from 6 yards out. The extra point was good by Justin Flanigan for a 7-0 lead with 4:25 to go in the opening quarter.
The Jackrabbits answered right back, with Meadows going 77 yards for a touchdown on the second play of the possession. The two-point conversion by Coleman gave Lonoke an 8-7 lead with 3:46 to go in the quarter.
Meadows broke free again for 57 yards on the next Jackrabbit possession, and the drive was capped off by a 20-yard touchdown pass from Rountree to Logan Dozier. This time the two-point conversion was no good, and the score was 14-7.
CAC took advantage of an interception by Cade Huckaby, a 36-yard pass completion from Noah Evans to Stephen Flanigan, and a 6-yard touchdown run by Harris to even the score at 14-14 after the successful PAT.
Lonoke turned the ball over again by interception with 1:47 to go in the half, but CAC turned it right back as Evans was picked of by Holland to the Mustang 18-yard line.
The Jackrabbits took advantage of the turnover as Rountree took the ball in on a keeper with 33 seconds to go in the half.
CAC tried to score quickly, but Holland intercepted again to end the half with the visitors ahead 20-14.
On CAC’s first drive of the third quarter, a bad snap over the head of the quarterback on fourth and 5 gave Lonoke excellent field position on the Mustang 28-yard line, but the Jackrabbits came up just short on a fourth and short, and were unable to capitalize on the mistake.
Neither team scored in the third, with the next score coming with 9:19 to go in the game when after a 30-yard pick up and another 8-yard carry to the 1-yard line by Meadows, Rountree leaped into the end zone for the touchdown. The two-point conversion was no good and the lead remained 26-14.
The Mustangs immediately answered as Zac Lilly returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, cutting the lead to 26-21. After forcing a Lonoke punt, CAC drove the ball to the Jackrabbit 15-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.
Coleman ran for 15 yards and a first down before Meadows broke free yet again for a 75-yard touchdown to set the final score at 32-21 with 2:21 to go in the contest.
Lonoke will visit Stuttgart next week. The Ricebirds lost 26-7 to Helena-West Helena.
