NLR SCORES EVERY WHICH WAY, WHIPS MCCLELLAN

Jamie Mitchell said he was never concerned about the direction of his running game without Alex Day. Day, a senior and preseason All-Arkansas Preps first-team pick, has yet to play for North Little Rock after he tweaked a knee in an August scrimmage. But Mitchell, the Charging Wildcats' second-year coach, said he always remained confident. Wynton Ruth and Darius Austin showed him why Friday night. Ruth took the first play from scrimmage 52 yards for one of his two scores and Austin scored on two short-yardage runs as the Charging Wildcats ran away from Class 5A Little Rock McClellan 52-20 in North Little Rock on Friday night. Five of Ruth's eight first-half carries went for first downs or touchdowns and he finished with 144 yards even while sitting much of the second half. Austin scored on a run of 3 yards in the first half and a run of 2 yards in the second half. "Two of the best out there," Mitchell said of Ruth and Austin. "Obviously, Alex is a big part, but we just believe we have two more, and I think that's very, very evident. Wynton is a dynamic football player and he can do so many things for us." Ruth and Austin led a North Little Rock offense that finished with 210 yards rushing and 356 yards total. McClellan Coach Maurice Moody said he was hoping his team could keep up in what he expected would be a high-scoring game. McClellan scored 76 points in a victory last week, and matched North Little Rock's big-play impact on its own first play when Pierre Strong took a run down the right sideline 88 yards to tie it at 8-8 just 29 seconds into the game. But Trey Cox threw touchdown passes on North Little Rock's next two drives, Deante Montgomery returned a punt 70 yards for a score and McClellan couldn't keep up. Austin's 3-yard run and Ruth's 12-yard run, both in the second quarter, made it 45-8 at halftime. "If it got into a scoring contest, so be it, we thought we were OK with that," Moody said. "But the credit goes to their defense. They can play, they can run. They're strong and they just made plays against us." Moody said he was impressed with Cox, North Little Rock's senior quarterback, who completed 9 of 15 passes for 146 yards and 2 touchdowns. Cox completed passes to five different receivers and threw touchdowns to Joseph Howard and David Chapple. "Trey had a great summer throwing it," Mitchell said. "We know that he can throw it, and we have some guys who can go get it a bit, too." Mitchell said he felt some frustration after Strong's 88-yard touchdown run, but had few complaints after that. Strong finished with 134 total yards. Moody said North Little Rock keyed on Strong, but that the Lions should have expected that. "We've got to get more guys involved," he said. "We've got to get their attention off of him as much as we can. As Pierre goes, so do we, so we've got to feed him. But we've just got to get other guys involved."

Little Rock School District Athletics

NLR SCORES EVERY WHICH WAY, WHIPS MCCLELLAN

Photo Credit: McClellan High School Athletics