Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Eighth grade squads square off

On Thursday, Aug. 30, the football season officially kicked off in Prescott with a double-header against Southwest Arkansas rival Hope and their junior high teams. Prescotts 8th grade Cubs started the season with the combined Jr. High Cubs playing the night cap.

Prescott s tailback Daniel McCoy was a busy young man in the opener as his number was called often by Quarterback Jesse Glass. The Cubs kept the action on the ground early and McCoy and fullback Timmy Marks pounded away at the oversized defensive squad.

Hopes 8th grade squad scored first after a fumble recovery and five running plays for an 8-0 lead with 36.4 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Prescott s second possession found Glass opening up with swing passes to McCoy for good gains, and then a sweep pass from McCoy to receiver Cody Woodley for a 45 yard gain. Four plays later McCoy punched in off right tackle and Prescott tied the game 8-8 with 1:35 to play in the half.

Hope got a great return to their 48, and with a short field started off with three consecutive runs of 12, 20 and 23 yards to be stopped short by the Cubs defense on the five yard line as the half ran out.

The second half opened up as Prescott kicked off to Hope. Heads up play on the tackle allowed a Cubs defender to strip the ball and cause a fumble. Marks recovered and rambled 20 yards to the Hope 10 yard line. Marks got the call again to get to the 3 yard line, with Glass running the quarterback sneak in for the go ahead score. The two-point conversion was no good and Prescott took a 16-8 lead.

On the ensuing kick off, Hope fumbled again, with Prescott taking possession at the 44 yard line. McCoy got the call on most of this drive and had apparently scored , but a holding penalty put the ball on the 23 yard line. McCoy took the swing pass to the left for a 16 yard gain, but Prescott lost a fumble on the next play.

Hope took possession on their own 12, and nine plays later scored from the Prescott 33 on a reverse. The two-point conversion was good and Hope tied the score at 16 with 3:26 to play in the game.

Bad luck struck Prescott when, two plays into the potential winning drive, they lost yet another fumble. Hope recovered on the Prescott 21, and punched it in two plays later.

With Hope leading 22-16, Prescott got the ball back with 1:22 to play in the game. Prescott took possession at the 39, and gained two first downs. But the clock and untimely penalties stalled the drive at the Hope 39 with time running out on a grand effort by the Prescott team.