Ricebirds Move to 5-0

Crossett kicks off to the Ricebirds as they start the Homecoming game. The Birds march down the field and Tayquan Hall takes the handoff from Bradley Benton and moves in for a touchdown. Parker Ellis comes in and makes the PAT. 7-0 

Kickoff to the Eagles and Crossett has their first possession. Pressure from the Birds defense and Caleb Anderson picks off the pass. Ricebirds take over at the Crossett 37 yard line. Benton passes to Jordan Minor at the 17 yard line. Penalty marker before the snap against the Birds. Crossett defense holds and Parker Ellis comes out to kick a field goal and it is no good. Crossett is on the 14 yard line and pressure is on from the Birds defense. Quarterback is sacked by Chandler Chambers for a loss and they have to punt. 

Birds can’t capitalize on the good field position and have to punt. Crossett takes over and can’t get the first down and have to punt. The Birds start on the 12 yard-line. Benton keeps the ball and gets to the six yard-line, then Eagles hold and take over on downs. Crossett starts on their own four yard-line. With 20 seconds left in the first quarter Crossett punts. Keaton Byers returns to the 40 yard line. Handoff to Hall and he gets his third rushing touchdown of the night. Benton goes for two and passes to Beau Barnes who gets the conversion. 21-0 Ricebirds

Crossett can’t get anything going, on third and nine Antwon Berry and Tre Phillips sack the quarterback bringing up 4th and 20 and they go for it but don’t succeed and Birds take over on downs. Benton to Kymarin Wiley who gets to the 29. Hall gets to the one but it comes back. Two plays later, Tayquan Hall gets in for his fourth rushing touchdown. PAT is good. 28-0

With 2:27 left in the first half the Ricebird defense digs in and forces the Eagles to punt. Keaton Byers returns to the 28 yard line. Benton hands off to Hall for a fifth rushing touchdown for Hall. PAT is good. As they go into half, 35-0.

After the half, the mercy rule kicks in. Eagles have the ball on their own 34 yard line. On 3rd down and 4, Luke Whittenburg and Caleb Anderson stop the receiver. Eagles receiver drops the next pass and Ricebirds take over on downs.

Braxton Kirkdoffer comes in as quarterback and he knows how to eat up the time on the clock. The Birds take off six minutes of the clock. Eagles take over on their own 23 yard-line. The quarterback has a receiver wide open but he drops the pass. Birds take over on down as the third quarter ends.

Kirkdoffers pass is intercepted at the 21 yard line. After some back and forth of a fumble the Eagles come up with it on the 25 yard line. Chandler Chambers stops the play with a two yard loss. With 1:11 left in the game, the Eagles get a touchdown. The PAT is no good as the time runs out. 35-6 Ricebirds.

Several people were asked about the five rushing touchdowns in a game and this editor was unable to find anyone who knew if this was a school record or not. 

The Birds travel to DeWitt on Friday to meet the DeWitt Dragons in the Battle of Arkansas County.