Chicks end pair of streaks, beat Nettleton

JONESBORO--The Blytheville Chickasaws ended two burdensome streaks Friday night. First and most importantly, they ended a three-game skid with a 12-7 win over the Nettleton Raiders and in the process ended a 10-quarter scoreless streak.

While the scoreless streak came to an end with a DeMadre Clark three-yard touchdown run with a minute left in the first quarter, the losing streak wasn't locked up until one minute left in the fourth quarter. With Nettleton (2-3, 0-2 5A-East) charging downfield deep in Chickasaw territory trailing 12-7 and looking to score, Tre Rucker ended any hopes of a Nettleton upset by intercepting Dustin Dubar's pass inside the 10-yard line to seal the deal for Blytheville (2-3, 1-1 5A-East). It was Nettleton's second turnover in the Red Zone in the fourth quarter with Rucker ending up with the recovery on both occasions.

"I was standing on the sideline saying, 'We're going to make a play. I just know it. I just know it. I just know it,'" said Blytheville head coach Vince McCrosky after the game. "He's (Rucker) my boy. He didn't quit. The defense didn't quit. We had kids banged up and hurt but they came through."

The defense stepped up big time in the second half after the Blytheville offense finally put together two scoring drives. On the night, the Chicks collected four sacks, three by DiQuan Young and one by K-Mel Goins.

Clark finally put the Chicks on the scoreboard with 1:20 left in the first quarter. His three-yard plunge over the goal line capped a 10-play drive that started at the Nettleton 43-yard line. The extra point attempt was no good as the Chicks took 6-0 lead heading into the second quarter.

Blytheville enjoyed good field position for most of the first half thanks to a stingy defense that allowed Nettleton only 41 yards of total offense and three first downs over the first 24 minutes of play.

The Chicks' next score came on their next possession which began at the Raider 40 yard line. After converting a fourth-and-one near the 30-yard line, Jamal Thompson burst through the line of scrimmage and ran up the middle, 29 yards to pay dirt to put Blytheville ahead, 12-0 with 9:00 left in the half.

Blytheville took that lead into the locker room at halftime along with some pretty impressive stats. The Chicks racked up 212 yards over the first two quarters with 162 yards coming on the ground and 50 through the air. Clark completed three passes to DiQuan Young for 50 yards while Thompson rushed for 58 yards on five carries, Carlton Lee ran for 54 and Shawn Rainer added 35 on the ground.

"We did a good job on second down," said McCrosky. "We left ourself with third-and-short so we could be a little more imaginative and try to do some different things."

The second half was a completely different story for the Chicks offense.

Blytheville had three offensive series in the second half, didn't pick up one first down and gained zero net yards but it didn't matter as the defense held strong.

"Field position killed us in the second half," said McCrosky. "They were giving us different looks. They'd blitz right and we'd guess wrong."

The poor field could be attributed to the Raiders first drive of the second half. Nettleton put together a 13-play drive that lasted nearly eight minutes that ended with their only score of the game. Along the way, the Raiders, and running back, Lance Walker, converted three fourth downs including a fourth-and-goal from the three yard line that Dubar ran in to the endzone on a quarterback sneak with 3:58 left in the third quarter. The extra point brought the Raiders to within five at 12-7.

Walker picked up 40 of Nettleton's 64 yards on the drive.

"He's (Walker) just a great player," said McCrosky. "We knew he was going to get the ball, he just knew how to move with it."

With many of Blytheville's defensive players playing offense, it appeared that the Nettleton's drive took a lot out of them physically.

"This is where the shortened season, a bad summer, really hurts us," said McCrosky referring to the amount of time he's had to spend putting together his team after arriving in early June. "We're not in the best of shape. You can't make that up with 40-yard dashes. We've got to have a better summer next year."

The Chicks went three-and-out on their next two drives. On the second drive, Nettleton got their hands on the punt and took over at the Chicks 34-yard line with 9:54 to play in the game. The Raiders drove down inside the Chicks 10-yard line and had first-and-goal at the eight yard line before the Blytheville defense shut the door. The Chicks finally stopped Walker and knocked the ball out of his hands and after the ball bounced around the field for what seemed like an eternity, Rucker finally pounced on it giving the Chicks the ball back at their 12-yard line with 7:06 to play. Blytheville couldn't take advantage of the turnover, however, committing their third three-and-out of the half and handing the ball back to the Raiders inside Chickasaw territory at the 43-yard line with 5:08 to play.

Nettleton picked up another fourth-down-conversion on the drive and drove to the Chicks 20-yard line before Rucker's interception ended all but ended the game with just over a minute to play in the game.

The win has enormous for the Chickasaws both in the standings and for the confidence in the team.

"This was huge," said McCrosky. "This will give us confidence going into Greene County Tech next week and going into Beebe the following week. I can't say enough about how hard these kids fought and fought and fought and fought. I can't say enough."

Blytheville heads to Greene County Tech next week to take on the Golden Eagles at 7:30 p.m.

afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com