Little Rock Christian shocks Pulaski Academy in blowout

The Warriors ran past the Bruins 55-13

Author:
Jeff Halpern
Publish date:
Sep 22, 2023 11:04 PM EDT

LITTLE ROCK — A matchup of two premier private schools in Arkansas turned into a blowout in Little Rock Christian Academy’s favor.

The Warriors won for the first time over Pulaski Academy since the 2019 regular season with a 55-13. PA has won four consecutive state championships in Class 5A and 6A.

Walker White, an Auburn commitment, completed 18-of-31 passes for 243 yards and 4 touchdowns and rushed for a 7-yard touchdown. Tate Collins caught 7 passes for 107 yards and 1 touchdown. Cade Bowman caught 4 passes for 145 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The Warriors turned three fourth-down failures by the Bruins into touchdowns along with two turnovers and put the Arkansas Activities Association’s ruling clock into work after Bowman caught a 20-yard touchdown with 10:40 left in the third quarter.

3 Takeaways

1

Pulaski Academy is known for going for it on fourth down regardless of the distance and field position and many times has been able to overcome a turnover on downs. Friday night, the Bruins converted 2-of-11 fourth downs. In the first half, the Warriors took a 14-6 lead when Brandon Cobb to Walden Culpepper on fourth and nine was only good for one yard. Five plays later, the Warriors were in the end zone won a 3-yard pass from Walker White to Cade Bowman. On their next possession, facing fourth and six from their 24, Cobb’s pass to William Svoboda was incomplete and three plays later, Peyton Brown ran 2 yards for a touchdown to make it 21-6. In the third quarter, trailing 27-6 and facing fourth and five from their 25, Cobb’s pass was tipped by Cooper Jones, giving the Warriors the ball. Two plays later, White threw 20 yards to Bowman to make it 41-6.

“Defensively, we set the pace by stopping them so many times,” said LRCA head coach Eric Cohu. “They are prolific and a high scoring machine. When you can stop them on those fourth downs, it really gives you a short field.”

White said it was nice to be able to make the Bruins pay for their fourth-down gambles. “That’s the risk in what you do,” he said. “When you don’t capitalize on fourth downs, you have to capitalize, and our guys made plays.”

2

In addition to the fourth-down gambles, turnovers hurt the Bruins. They turned the ball over four times with three being converted into touchdowns. Cam Mitchell intercepted Cobb and ran it back 14 yards to the Bruins 13 at the 3:14 mark of the first quarter which set up White’s 7-yard touchdown run at the 2:25 mark to make it 27-6. Chance McKindra’s fumble at the 11:51 mark of he second quarter set up White’s 1-yard touchdown run on fourth down at the 9:21 mark which made it 34-6. Jake Field ran an interception back 30 yards for a touchdown with 8:30 left in the third quarter to make it 48-6.

3

Blowout losses are rare for the Bruins. In 2003, Springdale beat Pulaski Academy 62-0. Warren drubbed them 46-0 in 2005 and Lipscomb Academy (Tenn.) beat them 64-28 in 2021. Pulaski Academy head coach Anthony Lucas credited LRCA for the way they played and hopes this loss will make them better.

“They came ready to play,” said Lucas. "Congratulations to them and their coaching staff. They had them ready to play. They played harder than we did. They literally outplayed us. They out-coached us. It starts with me. Being the leader, I didn’t do a good job of getting our kids ready to play.

“I’m a big believer in doing the little things. We didn’t play well. I din’t have them ready to play. They did a lot of things we do as far as blitzing and changing things up and tonight. I felt like we didn’t have an answer.”