After winning their first game of the season against Delta Streets, Benton dealt with a slew of injuries that led to them dropping four straight games.
That streak ended on Friday when the Raiders trounced Ben’s Ford 37-20.
Benton Academy head coach Kenny Burton was happy to get his team back in the win column, particularly since it was the opening game of district play.
“That was our first division game,” Burton said. “It’s important to start off on the right foot in the division. The first half of the schedule was to prepare us for the second half. They’re all important games, but the division games are what count towards the playoffs. We hurt ourselves in a lot of our early games, and we felt like we had a chance to win some of them. We hope that we’ve learned lessons from those losses.”
Ben’s Ford took the fight to the Raiders, driving down the field and scoring a touchdown to go up 6-0.
Benton struck back when Harris Dooley connected with Zac Nesbit for a touchdown to give the Raiders a 7-6 lead.
The Warriors came back and scored again to regain the lead. After a successful 2-point conversion, they led 14-7.
The Raiders showed a strong sense of resiliency before the half. They scored once more to tie things up at 14-14 at the half.
In the second half, Benton dominated the game, outscoring Ben’s Ford 23-6 to take the game 37-20 and end their losing streak once and for all.
Excitement, Burton believes, is paramount to his team’s success, and he felt he saw it grow this week.
“Our kids were excited about the win,” Burton said. “They want to win and be successful. We have to learn to be excited as a team. We can’t have one guy excited and yelling on the sidelines or three or four guys celebrating a touchdown. We have to be excited as a team in the locker room, the sidelines, and on the field. We have to have excitement in all aspects of the game. We had some of that on Friday.”
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however. In a season full of injuries, the Raiders took yet another blow on Friday night when their kicker went down.
According to Burton, the injury hurt their game plan and will force them to look at things this week.
“Our kicker, Tolar Purvis, broke his leg in the game, which is why we kept going for two in the second half,” Burton said. “These things just keep happening. It isn’t like there was a cheap shot or something. We may have to get some metal armor on these kids or something. We’ll have to work on it during practice this week to figure it all out. We’re going to get Hayden Middleton back, and we’ve got Cole Ables back, so it isn’t all bad.”
Benton Academy will try to keep their newfound momentum going on Friday and try to get a streak going in the opposite direction when they host the Warriors of Deer Creek.
The Warriors fell to 1-4 on the season after falling 33-0 to River Oaks this past Friday night.
Despite their losing record, Burton believes the Warriors, with their massive quarterback and throwback defense, will be a tough opponent.
“We have Deer Creek coming to town this week,” Burton said. “They’re 1-4. They have a big quarterback, about 6’1”, 220 pounds, and he likes to run the ball. They spread it out and let him run it. They run an old school defense with a 6-2. They sometimes bring a guy up and make what we call a 7-4 diamond. It will be a challenge for us. The key is to stay on track and see what happens.”
Kickoff at Benton is set for 7 p.m.
