It may not have seemed like it from Bryant Coach Buck James’ assertion, but the Hornets destroyed a once 2-0 Lake Hamilton Wolves team which was averaging 42 points per game through its first two contests. On Friday at Hornet Stadium, the Hornets were down 7-6 at early in the first quarter, but came back to score 50 unanswered points for the 56-7 rout of the Wolves to finish the nonconference schedule 3-0 going into 7A Central Conference play next week.
“They’ve been scoring 40 something points a game and for us to hold them to seven says a lot, but I’m still not pleased where we are defensively,” James said after Friday’s win. “We have to play better. We gave them too many conversions in the first half. We didn’t win first and second down as much as we should have and definitely gave up some stuff on third down and long that we’ve got to get cleaned up if we’re going to beat teams from this conference.”
The Hornets definitely have a tough road ahead in probably the toughest conference in the state, but they did defeat the rival Benton Panthers 49-42 in a shootout in the Salt Bowl in the season-opener and then came back to beat defending 7A champion Fayetteville Purple Dogs, ranked second in the state at the time, 38-37 in overtime, on the road no doubt, for their 3-0 record going into another road game next week against the Fort Smith Northside Grizzlies, a team which beat the Hornets 29-13 last season.