The Benton Tigers dug themselves a deep hole early and couldn’t climb out in a 30-16 loss to the Booker T. Washington Lions Friday night at Newman-Mason Field at Tiger Stadium.
Benton dropped to 1-1. BTW improved to 2-0.
The Tigers gave up three touchdowns in the first quarter and trailed 18-0. The Lions added another touchdown in the second for a 24-0 halftime lead.
Penalties hurt the Tigers in the first half. Benton was forced to punt on its first four possessions and the final one ended with a sack on the last play.
Benton tried to rally in the third quarter. The Tigers drove from their own 33 to a first down at the BTW 12. A penalty moved the ball back to the 17. On fourth down from the 13, quarterback Malachi Zeigler was dropped for a loss.
Benton did score on an 82-yard drive later in the quarter. Drake Perkins ran for 14 yards on the first play. Madden Raymond gained 6 yards on fourth-and-2 from the Tigers 40. Zeigler completed a 16-yard pass to Nicholas Gray to the BTW 19. Raymond ran twice to the two and scored on the next play. His two-point conversion run cut the deficit to 24-8.
But BTW’s Davion Stewart threw his third touchdown pass of the game to put the Lions up 30-8 in the fourth quarter.
Zeigler completed a 35-yard touchdown pass to Raymond late in the game.
Benton hosts Woodlawn Friday night. The Knights (0-2) fell to Richwood 36-22 Thursday night.
Lakeview 35, Plain Dealing 0: At Plain Dealing, the Lions trailed just 7-0 late in the second quarter.
But the Gators got a safety on a high punt snap out of the end zone and then scored on a pass to go up 16-0 at the half.
Lakeview scored on its first possession of the second half. The Gators hit some big passes later in the game.
Except for a long run on Lakeview’s first possession of the game, the Plain Dealing defense did a good job of shutting down the Gators’ ground game.
The Lions were simply unable to generate any offense with several negative plays.
Head Coach Jerry Byrd dressed about 20 players. For the most part, the same 11 stayed on the field on offense and defense.
Lakeview, which snapped a 27-game losing streak, had 30-plus players dressed out.
Plain Dealing travels to New Iberia Friday to play Acadiana Christian. The Lions (0-2) lost to Springfield 46-8 Friday night.