By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editorJust about everything was decided except the outcome of Friday’s game, and Lonoke did its best to keep that in doubt.
Clinton, already assured a share of a 2-4A Conference championship, beat Lonoke 35-20 at James B. Abraham Field to win the title outright. Lonoke was already all but eliminated from the postseason, but the Jackrabbits turned in a stout performance.
“They didn’t give up,” Lonoke coach Doug Bost said. “That’s supposedly the best team in the conference and we played with them and a couple breaks here and there we could have easily had a victory.”
After giving up an early touchdown, Lonoke adjusted to Clinton’s running game and stayed in it until Clinton’s leading rusher Dylan Toney broke free for a 17-yard touchdown run that capped the scoring with 59.7 seconds left in the game.
“Even if we lost we would have been conference champs but we wanted it,” Clinton coach Chris Dufrene said. “We didn’t want to be in a three-way tie, these kids wanted to be outright champs and they fought hard to get there.”
Lonoke (6-4, 3-4) fought to a 14-14, halftime tie and then Clinton stopped Lonoke on the first possession of the second half and drove 77 yards to take the 21-14 lead.
The big gain was 61 yards on a long run by Toney plus penalty yardage for a horse collar tackle by Wes Plummer. The touchdown came on Toney’s one-yard run with 8:39 left in the third quarter.
Clinton (9-1, 6-1) surprised Lonoke with an onside kick that quarterback Park Parish recovered to set up the Yellowjackets at the Jackrabbits 47. But Plummer redeemed himself with a shoestring tackle on fourth down to stop Clinton short as Lonoke took over at its 39.
The Jackrabbits punted, but D.J. Burton got the ball right back with an interception to set up Lonoke at the Clinton 30 and the Jackrabbits drove for T.J. Scott’s one-yard touchdown run set up by a 14-yard completion from Tarrale Watson to Plummer.
Scott’s kick failed to leave it 21-20 Clinton and that’s the way it stayed for the rest of the third quarter.
Clinton made it 28-20 with 7:24 to go in the game when Parish completed a three-yard touchdown pass to Forrest Ivey on fourth and goal, and the score held up until Toney’s late run.
It was a disappointing finish for a Lonoke team that reached last year’s 4A state championship game, but Bost took heart in the number of young players he expects back next year.
“We only started three seniors on both sides of the ball so we knew were young,” Bost said. “We just told them to go out there and fight hard and they did.”
Clinton charged out of the opening kickoff with an eight-play scoring drive that featured gains of 11 and 16 yards by Hunter Treece and a 14-yard touchdown run by Toney.
Levi Baugh intercepted Watson to end the Jackrabbits’ first possession and Lonoke appeared to already be on the ropes.
But the Jackrabbits got a fourth-down stop and then put together a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive. Eric Williams began the drive with a 19-yard gain, picked up 20 hard-fought yards on a screen pass and scored on a 16-yard run to tie it 7-7 with 11:48 left in the second quarter.
