Buck James vs. Bryant: Hornets blow past Conway, former coach in second half

The Hornets defeat former coach Buck James and claim fifth straight 7A-Central Conference title

CONWAY — Bryant turned a 14-0 first-quarter deficit into a 52-33 victory over the Conway Wampus Cats before a record announced crowd of 7,568 fans at John McConnell Stadium on Friday night.

The matchup between Buck James’ former team which he led to five consecutive Class 7A state championships and his current team means the Hornets (9-1, 7-0 7A-Central) will have the No. 1 seed for the playoffs, while Conway (9-1, 6-1) will be the No. 2 seed. 

Bryant was led by Karter Ratliff, who caught 12 passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns. James Martin rushed 19 times for 190 yards and scored two touchdowns in the victory. Jordan Walker pasased for 365 yards and 4 TDs.

Bryant, which tailed 20-14 at halftime, took a 21-20 lead on a 3-yard run by Walker. The Hornets pushed it to 28-20 on a 22-yard pass from Walker to Ratliff. After a 28-yard touchdown pass from Conway’s Donovyn Omolo to Cris O’Neal, the Wampus Cats had a successful two-point conversion nullified because of an illegal-formation penalty and Omolo’s pass was incomplete, leaving Bryant ahead 28-26. Jackson Cook kicked a 25-yard field goal and Martin ran for a 63-yard touchdown to make it 38-26 to close the third quarter.

After a 10-yard touchdown run by Omolo, Mytorian Singleton caught a 22-yard touchdown pass from Walker and Martin scored from 14 yards to finish the scoring.

3 Takeaways 

1

Conway quarterback Donovyn Omolo completed 20-of-35 passes for 232 yards and 2 touchdowns with 2 interceptions and rushed 18 times for 168 yards and 2 touchdowns However, most of his damage was in the first half when he had touchdown runs of 51 and 52 yards in the first quarter and thew a 10-yard touchdown pass to Desmond Davidson.

After Omolo got the Wampus Cats off to the early lead, Bryant was able to adjust. Conway head coach Buck James said. He said on Omolo’s two touchdown runs, he was able to catch Bryant in man-to-man coverage which opened the field up. After that, he said Bryant had a defender spying on Omolo.

“I think we could realized he could run,” said Bryant head coach Quad Sanders. “That dude can run. He’s got wheels, and he can move and he’s tough to tackle and we had to focus in because he can make you pay either way.”

While Conway had 302 yards rushing on 50 attempts, 215 of those yards came in the first half and James said that is product of Bryant being bigger and strong than his team. “They were better than us tonight,” James said. “They’re bigger than stronger than us. We have to learn to be better at what we’re doing.”

2

Bryant had plenty of big-play makers in Ratliff, Martin, Singleton, who caught 5 passes for 88 yards and Walker, who passed for 365 yards and rushed 9 times for 55 yards.

Seeing that many players perform means good things for Sanders, who loves it when defenses can’t focus on one player.

“We’ve got to establish the run first like we did and then you’ve got to pick your poison,” said Sanders. “I think our guys did a good job in adjusting to what they were doing tonight.”

When asked about Ratliff, Sanders said, “That’s what he does in practice. He’s a big target and sometimes they lost him tonight.”

3

The victory which gave Bryant its fifth consecutive 7A-Central Conference title, was special for Sanders, who is trying to lead the Hornets to their sixth consecutive state championship, but he knows bigger games are ahead.

“It means we get to stay at home for two weeks and that’s something we’re used to doing. We’ve got to show up every week and refocus and figure out what to correct,” said Sanders. “All of them is a win to me. I’m concerned about another game and the game in two weeks.”

James said, “We have to go back to the drawing board. We can compete with those guys. We have to do a better job at what we’re doing.”

When asked about his emotions about playing a team he coached for the past seven years and led to five state titles, he said, “I love those guys. They’re good players. I was with them til June. I know them, and they played the way I expected them to play.”

--Jeff Halpern 

Photos by Jimmy Jones