Reece Simpson recorded five touchdowns in just 11 passes.
Simpson engineered a Joe T. Robinson offense whose speed was too much for Watson Chapel and scored on all seven drives Friday night. The Robinson defense also scored twice, helping the 5A top-ranked Senators emerge to a 58-0 victory at Wildcat Stadium.
The way Simpson likes to handle expectations of a No. 1 ranking, he said, is to not think about the ranking.
“I like to just come out, week-by-week, think about us and get better as we go, for sure,” he said.
Robinson (4-0, 1-0 in 5A-Central), which led 44-0 at halftime, outgained Watson Chapel 353-93, but the decisive score does not indicate the growth in the Wildcats’ individual maturity, second-year Coach Steven Heard said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I think we’re coming together and jelling as a team and coaching staff,” Heard explained, despite his team suffering their second consecutive shutout. “From the last home game (Week 1 against Crossett) to this home game, you don’t see our players losing their composure. You don’t see them quitting and giving up. You see them coming together and hugging each other after a not-so-successful drive. They’re coming together as a team. They’re growing up to be men, and that’s the way me and my coaching staff are trying to get them to do. The bigger thing is after football: What type of man will you be after you leave me? I think we’re doing a great job of that.”
The Senators scored on all five offensive series of the first half. Simpson went 9 for 11 for 292 yards, including a 55-yard touchdown pass to junior Kyrin Grimes on the second play from scrimmage of the game and 59-yard strike to sophomore Braylon Brown early in the fourth quarter.
Kevin “Deuce” Williams pulled down a 32-yard over-the-shoulder catch for a touchdown on the next drive. He accounted for both of the Senators’ first-half carries, scoring on a 2-yard run the following series.
“I just think we’ve got a bunch of talent, like all of us on offense,” Simpson said. “We’ve got Deuce Williams, Bryshun Cunningham and (a player nicknamed) Tank as our running backs. Those are the three best backs I’ve seen in high school, and our receivers are fast.”
Watson Chapel (0-4, 0-1) turned the ball over three times and ran no more than three plays on four of its first-half drives. A 10-play, 21-yard drive for the Wildcats going into the second quarter ended with a punt, and two plays later junior Cunningham took a jet sweep and turned on his jets for a 70-yard touchdown play, credited as a pass for Simpson.
That made the score 28-0 in the Senators’ favor, with their defense yet to score.
“It is difficult with a team like that (to string drives), and they come into the game and they’re very disciplined and do what they’ve got to do,” Heard said. “If you’re not with us in practice every day, you don’t know where we came from. You go back and look at film from Game 1 to this game, our offensive line has improved. We have three new offensive linemen who came in. We shot ourselves in the foot a few times, but we could really run the ball on anybody.”
Watson Chapel rushed for 46 yards, matching Robinson’s tally. Sophomore Joseph Rauls carried eight times for 25 yards to lead the Wildcats.
Williams, who had a 32-yard touchdown completion one play after a Wildcats fumble late in the first quarter, picked off Malachi Rayford and went 23 yards to extend the led to 35-0.
Already backed up 15 yards on an earlier penalty, the Wildcats then surrendered a safety on third down when Rayford (4 for 12, 47 yards) was flagged for intentional grounding from his own end zone. The very next series, Simpson threw for his fourth touchdown pass, this one from 30 yards out to senior Josiah Warrior-Benson with 1:26 left in the first half.
The Wildcats saw a 10-play, 53-yard series end on downs amid a running second-half clock. The Senators’ first drive of the half took only four plays and ended with Brown’s big play.
Sophomore Aaron Freeman bolted 26 yards for the final touchdown to end a four-play march with 2:30 left.
The Senators have hardly missed a beat on offense under first-year Coach Tyler Uptergrove, scoring more than 50 points for the second time this season and scoring 34 or more each game so far.
“I think the biggest challenge I put with them is, we’ve just got to keep working on us,” he said. “Each week is us against us, and we’re going to play some good teams throughout this conference season. We’re going to prepare and not beat ourselves.”
Watson Chapel will visit Searcy next Friday.