EL DORADO, Ar. — It appeared pretty simple, Lake Hamilton could not match up with El Dorado’s speed Friday night at Memorial Stadium.
From the word go, everything seemed to go wrong for Class 6A’s third-ranked Wolves. Schools used onside kicks to deal Lake Hamilton missery all season, and that didn’t change against El Dorado. The Wildcats recovered the game’s opening kickoff, and scored 28 points in the first quarter en route to their 48-27 victory.
El Dorado now gets to host Marion (6-6) in next Friday’s semifinals. Marion upset top-ranked Benton Friday night. The other semifinal features second-ranked and defending champion Greenwood against Little Rock Parkview.
“El Dorado beat us at the line of scrimmage, and our outside people didn’t tackle well,” a disappointed Lake Hamilton coach Tommy Gilleran said. “We’ve got to work on these things if we’re going to beat people like this in the future.
“El Dorado changed things up a bit, and we struggled until figuring it out. We’ve got to do a better job of adjusting on those type of things. There was nothing we could do about their speed. We’ve simply have to tackle better in space, and we have to move the ball offensively. We didn’t do that tonight.”
Senior quarterback Shamon Rester picked the Wolves’ secondary apart. He finished with four touchdown passes, completing 14 of 26 passes for 391 yards. The Wildcats also rushed for 109 yards. Junior Shadaroius Plummer rushed for a team-high 90 yards and a touchdown. Plummer also caught a 22-yard TD pass in the first quarter.
One thing that the Wolves did do exceptionally well was to hold Rester to a minus-6 yards on the ground. He did score in the fourth quarter on an 8-yard run.
Senior wide receiver Jackie Washington caught six passes for 168 yards and two TDs. Kamron Bibby contributed four receptions for 145 yards.
While Rester was scorching the Wolves, two Lake Hamilton quarterbacks completed 1 of 11 passes for two yards.
Senior fullback Tevin Hughes finished his schoolboy career on a positive note with 131 yards and three TDs. Senior Noah Tiernan danced 22 yards for six points with 12 seconds left in the game for the Wolves’ final six-pointer.
Game officials flagged both teams a combined 23 times for 208 yards. The Wildcats had 14 of those penalties for 118 yards.
El Dorado’s defense dominated most of the game. Junior Justin Crutchmer rushed for more than 1,100 yards this season. He managed only eight yards on 13 carries in the first three quarters. Crutchmer had a 54-yard run in the final seconds, and finished with 60 yards on 16 carries. Junior Kendrick Martin had 90 yards on 12 totes.