Colts top Warriors in AAA benefit scrimmage

On a beautiful night for football, two of the area’s best teams met in the Arkansas Activities Association benefit game on Cortez Kennedy Field in Wilson. In the end, the host Rivercrest Colts defeated the East Poinsett County Warriors, 57-26, in a battle between teams expected to contend for the state title in both Class 2A and 4A.

Both teams showed lots of promise on both sides of the football despite the Colts rolling up 670 yards on offense. Both teams defenses made plays. The Warriors recovered two Colts fumbles and returned an interception for a score. The Colts had an interception by sophomore Jayden Young and had a fumble recovery as well.

But it was the offenses people came to see, with EPC having the 2022 state record holder for yards rushing in a season, Dennis Gaines, Jr. and Rivercrest standouts Michael Rainer and back Koby Turner.

Rivercrest back up quarterback Joe Louis Ralph runs past EPC's Anthony Parrish for a nice gain in second half action at Cortez Kennedy Stadium. (Photo by Cosmo Cossey)

While Gaines only played a limited number of snaps, Warrior quarterback Cooper Argo had an impressive debut, throwing first half touchdown passes of 30 yards to Tyler Moore and 10 yards to Omar McCuiston, the latter of which gave EPC a 12-6 second quarter lead.

The game began with the Colts defense forcing the Warriors to turn the ball over on downs at their own 39-yard line with a defensive stand. On the Colts first snap, Turner went around the left side for six points and a 6-0 lead with 8:39 to play in the quarter.

After EPC responded with Argo’s touchdown pass to Moore with 5:33 to play in the quarter, which capped a 70-yard drive. The Warriors would then take advantage of a Colts fumble to go on a nine play, 63-yard scoring drive with Argo hooking up with McCuiston to grab the lead with 6:30 remaining in the half.

EPC's Omar McCuiston goes up to make the catch during game action against Rivercrest Thursday in the AAA benefit game at Rivercrest. (Photo by Cosmo Cossey)

The Colts Turner would tie the game moments later ripping off a 70-yard scoring run to tie the game at 12-12 with 6:26 to play. Following an EPC punt, The Colts Cavonta Washington would find Rainer on a 65-yard scoring pass and catch to give the Colts a 20-12 lead after Washington ran in the two-point conversion at the 4:22 mark.

Three plays later, Turner would recover an EPC fumble at the Warriors 45 yard line. Two plays later, Turner raced 13 yards to score to give the Colts a 28-12 advantage with 2:44 to play.

EPC would tack on a defensive score before the half when Dee Buchanan picked off a Colts pass and raced 45 yards down the sideline to score. Moore would add the two-point run and the Colts lead was 28-20 with 46.8 seconds to play.

The teams combined for 35 points in the third period, with the Colts striking first on a Washington to Rainer 70-yard pass and catch to make it 36-20 after Washington’s two-point pass to Kevin Morris.

The Rivercrest lead would grow to 44-20 with 3:54 to play in the quarter on Young’s 18-yard pass to Siquori Bonner and a successful two -point pass by Young.

Following a fumble recovery at the Warriors 25 yard line by the Colts Quinshunn Perry, Young found Mike Facson on a 19-yard scoring pass which made it 50-20 with 3:11 remaining in the third period.

Argo would cap a 70-yard, five play drive with a 1-yard scoring run with 1:00 to play and the Colts Joe Louis Ralph would cap the scoring with a 61-yard scoring sprint with 10.7 seconds to play to make it 57-26.

“It was a good scrimmage against a really good team and they exposed so many weaknesses we need to work on,” said Warriors head coach Brandon Pow-ell. “Offensively, we moved the ball some and I think our defense looked good at times. We gave up way too many big plays.”

Powell was happy with the play of his offense. “I think our mobile quarter-back (Argo) will be able to make plays for us. We have a good group of running backs and I like our group of receivers. Excited what we can do offensively.”

Powell continued, “We have the pieces on defense, we just have to get them all put together. With no game next week, we’re going to get after, try to get in a little better shape, get stronger and faster for the season opener.”

On the other sideline, Rivercrest head coach Johnny Fleming said, “I was kind of disappointed in our first half. The interception return and losing two fumbles hurt. The second half we looked like I thought we would.”

Fleming was complimentary of his team’s overall performance. “I thought we played pretty well overall. We had some electric plays and we had some guys step up and make some plays we didn’t expect. How about Jayden Young? He made plays on defense, caught the ball, had some big runs and threw the ball well. Joe Louis Ralph had a huge running play and played well at defensive end. Nolan Williams on both sides of the ball. Wyatt Lancaster was solid. Our line had some bright spots and some not so good on both sides of the ball. You have to just take the good with the bad. I think we saw some things that will give us some options going forward that we might not have been counting on. Our big play guys made the kind of plays we expected.”