Cabot defeats Northside on senior night

Northside isn’t eliminated from the 7A-Central playoff race. However, there’s no margin of error for the Grizzlies. They must beat rival Southside next week in order to have a shot at the postseason. Cabot used three lengthy first-half drives for touchdowns and also scored the final 21 points as the Panthers went on to a 40-14 win Friday at Northside’s senior night at Mayo-Thompson Stadium. At the moment, with Southside’s win at Little Rock Central and Conway’s win against Little Rock Catholic, Northside (2-7, 1-5) is in a three-way tie for sixth place in the 7A-Central with Central and Catholic, as Southside moved into sole possession of fifth place. The Grizzlies go to Jim Rowland Stadium next Friday while Central goes to Catholic. A Northside loss to the Mavericks will end the Grizzlies’ season. A Northside win may also depend on the outcome of the Central-Catholic game in regards to whether the Grizzlies will get the chance to play on Week 11. Friday, the Grizzlies had to deal with Cabot’s run-oriented offense. The Panthers generated 375 yards, all on the ground, as they ran 69 running plays and passed just once, which went incomplete. Cabot (5-4, 3-3), which clinched the No. 4 playoff seed out of the 7A-Central with the win, scored touchdowns on its first two possessions in building a 12-0 lead. Midway through the second quarter, the Grizzlies got a big break when the Panthers shanked a punt, which traveled 16 yards to the Cabot 36. Three plays later, on a third-down, Northside tailback Jackson King rambled 31 yards to the Panther 1. King got the call again on the next play and plunged in for the TD. Jose Paredes’ PAT made it 12-7, Cabot, with less than seven minutes remaining in the half. However, the Panthers responded with a 16-play, 80-yard drive which took nearly six minutes off the clock. A 6-yard TD run from T.J. Rogers, his second of the first half, capped it as Cabot regained a 12-point lead, 19-7. The Grizzlies made things interesting in the third quarter, after forcing the Panthers to punt on the opening series of the second half. Northside got the ball at its own 25 and put together an 11-play drive to make it a one-score game once more. On a third-and-7 from the Cabot 15, quarterback Deuce Wise threw a strike over the middle to a wide-open James Clayton. The sophomore tight end grabbed it in the end zone, and Paredes tacked on the PAT to cut Cabot’s lead to five, 19-14. But the Panthers didn’t panic. They methodically went down the field 61 yards in nine plays to regain momentum, with Adam Flores reaching the end zone from 8 yards out late in the third quarter, with Cabot taking a 26-14 lead. The Grizzlies ran just five offensive plays in the fourth quarter. One was a fumbled pitch on a fourth-and-short, which led to an 11-play TD drive by Cabot to put the game out of reach. The Panthers then intercepted a pass, which resulted in their final TD on the night with 26 seconds left. Rogers finished with 111 yards on 22 carries, while Flores had 66 yards on 14 carries. The Panthers had five players to run for at least 50 yards. Northside ended up gaining 203 total yards, 154 on the ground. King had 57 yards on seven carries, while Wise finished with 35 yards on 13 carries. Wise completed 6-of-13 passes for 49 yards and a TD. Senior receiver DeAron Robinson caught four of those passes for 30 yards.

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Cabot High School Athletics

CABOT DEFEATS NORTHSIDE ON SENIOR NIGHT

BUCK RINGGOLD

Times Record | 10/28/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Mitchell