A tough season for Benton Academy continued on Friday night with a 36-26 loss to Deer Creek School, bringing their record to 0-7 on the season.
But it wasn’t from a lack of effort on the part of the Raiders.
According to Benton Academy head coach Kenny Burton, the Raiders fought and fought, but what happened after the touchdowns proved to be the difference in the game.
Benton Academy head coach Kenny Burton believes the biggest difference in the game was what happened after the touchdowns were scored.
“Our kids came out and played hard,” Burton said. “They’ve done that all year, and they did it on Friday night. We were pretty evenly matched-up this week. The difference really came down to the 2-point conversions. They got five of them, and we only got one. That was a big factor in the loss for us. But the kids gave me everything they had. That’s all you can ask out of a group of guys.”
An early turnover allowed Benton the opportunity to take a lead in the first quarter, and they did just that with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Arion Warren to J.B. Middleton.
But they simply couldn’t stop the onslaught by Deer Creek.
The Raiders put up 122 rushing yards and 129 passing yards in the win.
The second touchdown of the game was a 44-yard touchdown pass to Cody Prescott from Warren.
Warren made it three touchdowns with a 21-yard touchdown run.
The final touchdown for the Raiders was a 1-yard touchdown run by Shelton Appleton. Prescott followed that up with a 2-point conversion to make the final 36-26
Appleton also led the way defensively with nine tackles.
Caden Alexander had seven tackles and a sack in the loss.
Josh Dearman had six tackles, while Dustin Porter had five tackles.
Injuries have dropped Benton’s high school team from an already miniscule 14 players to a bare-boned 12 players.
It’s the smallest team Burton has ever been asked to coach, and another injury or two would make it essentially impossible to field a team.
“This is by far the smallest team I’ve had,” Burton said. “When you only have 12 high school players, it is tough. We’re starting two ninth graders on both sides of the ball. We can’t handle any more injuries.”
While the situation is somewhat grave on the high school side of things, there’s still plenty for the Benton faithful to be excited about in the future.
The two aforementioned ninth graders are only a couple of standouts on a large, talented junior high team that is on the brink of winning the conference championship.
“Our junior high team is 5-2 and will play for the conference championship this weekend,” Burton said. “We have 28 kids on the team. It’s a big team. It’s the first time since I’ve been here that I can put two squads against each other in practice. That’s huge. They’re a talented group, and the future looks very bright for us.”
The Raiders will try to get that elusive first win when they travel to face Brookhaven Academy on Friday night.
Brookhaven’s Cougars are 4-3 on the season after defeating Centreville Academy 23-22 on Friday night.
Burton believes the game will be a difficult one, but with the strength of their schedule, they’re virtually all difficult ones.
“We’ve got Brookhaven this Friday, and they’re another good team,” Burton said. “Our competition hasn’t exactly been light this year. Almost every team we’ve played this year will be in playoff contention. We’re fighting for that first win, and we’ll keep fighting.”
Kickoff at Brookhaven is set for 7 p.m.
