With 4:04 to go in the first half in Prairie Grove Thursday night the Booneville Junior High Bearcats were down two scores, 28-18.
With 46 points already on the board it figured there could be more.
Indeed there would be, though 44 straight were on the visitors side, and the Bearcats built a 62-28 lead on the way to a 62-42 final.
Callen Montalvo started the drive following a fourth straight touchdown possession by the Tigers with a 20-yard run. Hayden Daniel got 21 the next down and, after a penalty, Montalvo went 30 for a touchdown.
Montalvo was one of six Bearcats to exceed 50 yards rushing.
Another of those, Sadler Miller (8-89) added a two-point conversion, a first for the Bearcats to cut the deficit to 28-26.
As was the case with points, penalties were in abundance. The Bearcats had 15 of them, for 92 yards.
With time winding down in the half the Tigers took to the air but three straight incomplete passes ended the alternating scores, giving the Bearcats the ball back with 1:41 left in the half.
That would actually be enough for two scores.
Daniel (3-71) went 46 yards for a touchdown – another penalty had wiped out a good gain – and Miller added a second two-point run for the Bearcats first lead at 34-28.
The Tigers had time to convert a third down but went to the air again. First Edwin Garcia just missed an interception, but given a second chance, Garcia picked off a pass and ran it back 73 yards for a touchdown.
Daniel made it three straight successful two-point tries and it was 42-28 going into halftime.
In an already bizarre game, the Tigers started the second half with an onside kick, and got it to swipe a possession.
However, Braxton Hubble and Daniel stuffed a fourth down sneak and the Bearcats took over on downs at their 36-yard line.
Already over 300 yards rushing as a team, Cooper Smithson added 50 on the next play and the Bearcats eventually made it 48-28 on a 13-yard run by Miller (shown taking that handoff).
Daniel added an interception to his game opening resume, and returned it to the Tiger 21 to set up an Ayden Rhienhart scoring run of 34 yards – a play after Rhinehart had seen his second touchdown of the night negated by a penalty.
Rhinehart, who led the way with 110 yards on three carries, also got the conversion, catching a pass from Drake Brackney and it was 56-28.
Daniel was again in on a fourth down stop then took a pass from Brackney 31 yards to Tiger 16 on the final play of the third quarter.
Caiden Poore became the sixth Bearcat to run for a touchdown, scoring on a 17-yard run to make it 62-28. A two-point try that could have kicked in the sportsmanship rule would be unsuccessful.
With the standard clock operating, Prairie Grove was able to score twice before the game concluded, well over two hours after kickoff, to push the total point total to over 100 at 62-42.
Despite that total, the first score wasn’t until the 4:54 mark of the first quarter when Prairie Grove went in front 8-0.
That lasted 1:16. Rhinehart’s first touchdown run covered 69 yards and made it 8-6.
That lasted 17 seconds. A 76-yard run gave the Tigers a 14-6 lead.
With 2:04 to go in the quarter it was 14-12 after an 18-yard touchdown run by Smithson (3-75).
On the first play of the second quarter the Tigers scored again and led 20-12 but a Montalvo 10-yard run made it 20-18.
At the 4:04 mark of the second quarter it was a two score game at 28-18.
The Bearcats are on the road again next Thursday at Ozark. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
JUNIOR HIGH BEARCATS WIN SHOOTOUT IN PRAIRIE GROVE, 62-42
