PEARCY — The Lake Hamilton Wolves hosted Jacksonville on Friday night at Wolf Stadium but second-half turnovers and a future SEC running back allowed the Titans to pull away for a 40-20 victory.
The Wolves fall to 1-2 in their non-conference schedule. They will begin 6A West conference play after a bye week coming up. Jacksonville finished their non-conference slate at 3-0.
“I love our kids,” Bigham said. “They show up and work their tails off every day. Effort is never an issue. We know there’s some growing pains and some things we’re going to work on. But we were just flat tonight. I have to do a better job of putting them in a position to be successful.”
He added that the Wolves missed a lot of opportunities and failed to capitalize on some big plays during the game. He estimated they left 42 points on the board. They have a lot of teaching points and they plan on using the bye week to get better.
The Titans grabbed two interceptions in the second half and forced a turnover on downs as the Wolves left a number of points on the board in the game. Jacksonville senior running back Mason Ball is committed to Kentucky and he dominated the second half and finished the game with 172 rushing yards on 22 carries and three touchdowns.
“He’s a really good football player,” Jacksonville head coach Reggie Swinton said. “Right now, he’s fighting through injury. He’s tough as nails. We can’t roll without him.”
The Wolves’ defense made their presence felt early on. Three of the first five passing plays that Jacksonville ran went for negative yardage. They also limited Ball to 37 first-half rushing yards.
The Wolves tried to get the running game going early but after falling behind in the second half, they had to lean on the passing game. They had five players rush the ball for a combined 124 yards in the game. Senior running back Braxden Schmidt led the way with 62 yards on seven carries.
Junior quarterback Jace Bohannan led the passing game by going 19-for-37 for 234 yards and a touchdown. Junior wide receiver/running back J.J. Johnson led the team with 89 receiving yards on five catches and a score. He also ran for 22 yards.
Senior wide receiver D.J Wilson added 71 yards on just three catches and junior tight end Brayden Goodale led the team in receptions with seven as he had 72 yards to go with it. Bohannan ran for 28 yards as well.
The Titans’ passing game had a slow start but got going late in the first half. Quarterback Kingston Burnett ended up going 16-for-21 passing for 182 yards and a touchdown with a lot of short and quick throws. Wide receiver Jaiden Hicks led the way for the Titans with 67 yards on four catches. Wide receiver Jakobe Boone had 54 yards on seven catches as well. Wide receiver/running back Maziah Davis had 44 receiving yards and 54 rushing yards on the night. The Titans ran for a combined 241 yards Friday night.
“It gets real nasty in (the trenches),” Swinton said. “The toughest team is going to win inside. Those guys did a great job inside, a great job. They’re a good coaching staff but our team fought and had resilience and I love them.”
The Wolves were down a few players on the line, Bigham said. Senior Connor Thompson stepped in at right guard for them and Bigham said he did a good job.
The first half between the Wolves and Titans was a physical ground-and-pound battle. Both teams started the game with a three-and-out. Then, the Wolves moved to the ground game for their second drive.
It was a slow, methodical drive that ate most of the first quarter’s clock. Bigham said he thought it was a 20-play drive, which is uncharacteristic for them. Goodale and Wilson each caught a pass for 17 yards on the drive but it was mostly a lot of short-yardage runs to work down the field for the Wolves. Junior running back/linebacker Blaine Sears capped the drive with a four-yard touchdown run, powering through the defense.
Ball got the drive going for Jacksonville with some runs of around 10 yards. A pass interference call moved the ball from the Wolves’ 45 to the 19-yard line for Jacksonville to get them in scoring position. Davis ran it in for a score from the 19 soon after.
Schmidt got the Wolves going quickly in the next drive with a 25-yard run. Johnson sliced through the defense for the score from the 12-yard line a few plays later.
Davis had a 20-yard run on the Titans’ next drive but the defense made a stand for the Wolves. Sophomore Owen Brewer broke up a deep pass on third down and then the Wolves forced a fumble on fourth down. The Wolves were unable to do much with the possession but their punt pinned the Titans to the 10-yard line with just over 100 seconds to play in the half.
Jacksonville finally got their passing game together on the drive after going backwards most of the half. Burnett completed a pass of 38 yards to Hicks as he was streaking down the sidelines and a pass of 33 yards to Davis over the middle on the drive to get the Titans to the four-yard line. Ball powered the ball through the defense for the touchdown with 31 seconds on the clock and took a 13-12 lead into the half.
The second half had an almost perfect start for the Titans. Ball had a big run of 24 yards up the middle to get them in close and Boone made a sliding grab over the middle for a 25-yard touchdown. He had three catches on the drive.
Then, early on the Wolves’ drive, Boone intercepted a screen pass and ran it down to the end zone. However, it was not a touchdown due to taunting before crossing the plane. After a delay-of-game penalty to start the drive, all it took was two runs by Ball for the Titans to score.
The Titans forced a three-and-out on the next Wolf drive as well. The Titans picked up a third-and-15 with a screen pass on the drive and Ball had a long run on the drive as well. Fullback Brett Wynne powered it in with a short touchdown at the end of the drive.
The Wolves answered with a quick touchdown to stay alive. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty spotted them 15 yards and then Bohannan found Johnson wide open on a wheel route for a 34-yard touchdown pass with 10:12 to play to make it 33-20.
The Wolves went for an onside kick and recovered it, however, the referees ruled the Lake Hamilton player touched the ball about a half-yard too soon. The Titans ran down and scored. Ball had a big run to get them inside the 10 and then after a holding penalty wiped a touchdown off the board, he ran it 16 yards to the one and scored two plays later with 7:25 on the clock.
The Wolves had two more opportunities to score, but both drives ended in turnovers after big plays early. The first drive had a 33-yard pass to Wilson, but four straight incompletions led to a turnover on downs. Then on the final Wolf drive, Johnson busted a screen pass for 42 yards but a throw that bounced off a receiver’s hands ended up in the hands of a Titan in the end zone to ice the game.
“It was a scary first half,” Swinton said. “It was a much better second half. We’re learning how to win. We’re learning how to overcome adversity. That’s a really good ball club over there. They’ve got a lot of good playmakers, but so do we so I’m happy.”
Following the bye week, Lake Hamilton will open the conference slate at Fort Smith Southside on Sept. 25. Jacksonville will play at Pulaski Robinson the same day.
“We had an awesome crowd here tonight,” Bigham said. “The community shows up. Every week is better than the week before. Super excited for our community. Our administration is second to none. They give us everything we need. We just need to be sure we’re putting out kids in the best position to be successful.”
A group of Lake Hamilton defenders tackles Jacksonville running back Mason Ball Friday night in Wolf Arena. (The Sentinel-Record/Braden Sarver)