Warriors upset Conway White
Martin Couch Sports editor

GAME WINNER BRENDA GARNER PHOTO Benton Warrior Ashton Roberts lifts his hands for a touchdown while in the background quarterback Grant Jones lays in the end zone to score the winning touchdown in a 12-6 overtime victory against Conway White.

The Benton Warriors have put themselves in the thick of the Central Arkansas Conference race after coming off a thrilling 12-6 overtime victory at home against Conway White.

This week, the Warriors host North Little Rock in a key conference match up that could propel Benton into the third spot.

"They found a way to make me feel a little bit older," said Warriors head coach Jon George jokingly after the win against Conway. "That came back again and that's something they've been doing all year. We do a drill every day in practice to see how far they can move a 700 pound sled. When it comes down to ball games like this, we did a good job moving them back. This is a winning team."

With a 4-3 overall record, the Warriors are facing the toughest teams in the conference the last two games of the season. After North Little Rock, Benton finishes up at Bryant.

QUARTERBACKING PHIL HOBBY PHOTO Benton Warrior quarterback Grant Jones sets up to throw a pass against Conway White. The Warriors won the game in overtime.

"I know that our side of the conference is the strongest," George said. "We set out this year to compete and not have people look at us like 'thank God we have Benton this week,' now they're saying 'oh my God we have Benton this week.' I haven't been disappointed yet."

Midway through the second period, Conway broke a scoreless tie with a 5-yard touchdown pass. The extra point run failed leaving the score 6-0.

However, the Warriors fought back to tie it 6-6 when Kaleb Murray went in from 5-yards out with 20 seconds to play in the first half.

Both teams battled up and down the field in the second half with stellar defensive performances being shown by each team. Benton made it to the Conway 22 late in the fourth quarter before having to give up the ball on downs. Then the Wampus Kittens nearly came up with a score on the last play of the game, but a touchdownsaving tackle was made on the Conway runner at the Benton 3.

In overtime, Conway got the ball first on the Benton 10 and gained one yard on the first play. On the second play, Trevor Forthman recovered a fumble for the Warriors to stop the drive.

On Benton's overtime possession, a 6-yard run from Ashton Roberts was followed by a penalty. Quarterback Grant Jones threw to Roberts who made it to the one-inch line on third down. The final play of the game was a 1-yard sneak from Jones into the end zone for the game-winning score.

"We plugged in there all night long without any big plays, with the exception of the last play in overtime," said Warriors offensive coordinator Mark Balisterri. "We hadn't really worked with Ashton at quarterback much all week, but we decided to make a last second change and it worked so we stuck with it. He did a great job running through the middle of the line and we stayed in the game with our defense. It was a great effort overall."

Defensively, Lucas Haley, Classic Freeman, Tyler Gwatney, Murray and Nick Garner did the job. Garner also caught a couple of key first down passes from Jones during the game that kept the Warriors alive offensively.

"Our defense played good," said Benton defensive coordinator Wayne Parker. "There were only two plays that we had break downs on, but we came back. That may have been the best we've played all season. One play we went to our prevent defense and Josh Martens made a key stop for us on their long run. We hemmed them in and a hammered them.

"They did a good job. It was a good game for us all the way around."