MAUMELLE — The defenses controlled Friday night’s game in Maumelle, and the Pine Bluff offense struggled to get going.
The Zebras fell 21-7 to Maumelle at Hornet Stadium for its first conference loss this season.
Pine Bluff (1-4, 1-1 in 5A-Central) Coach Micheal Williams said his team showed its youth.
“A lot of dropped balls, a lot of holding onto the ball when we should have been throwing it,” Williams said. “They took advantage of our youth on our (offensive) line. So, it just showed up on us at the wrong time.”
The Zebras punted seven times, were stopped on fourth down twice and lost one fumble. Sophomore quarterback Jamar Morrow completed 9 of 19 passes for 176 yards and a touchdown and was sacked seven times.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Mistakes hampered Pine Bluff’s effort. The Zebras dropped several passes during the game. Pine Bluff reached the 10-yard line during its first drive of the second half, but back-to-back holding penalties and three straight sacks forced the Zebras to punt from midfield.
The Pine Bluff defense held its own, forcing six punts and a fourth down stop with an interception by sophomore Dedrick Dunn, but Maumelle (3-2, 2-0) did enough on offense. Junior quarterback Levi Warrior completed 15 of 27 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for a touchdown, as did senior Marshaun Wiley.
Pine Bluff senior defensive lineman Emmanuel Hudson tallied 2.5 sacks.
Williams said the Zebra defense played the run well, but not so much the pass.
“Our front seven is going to be the keynote of what we do,” Williams said. “But, we got to also know that even if we stop the run, we got to be able to drop into our coverages. Defensively, we didn’t drop into our coverages well to be able to negate some of the passing that they did.”
Maumelle led 7-0 at halftime. The Hornets scored the only points of the first half on a 1-yard run by Wiley with 3:10 remaining in the first quarter to cap off a seven-play, 67-yard drive.
After throwing an interception on a Hail Mary as time expired in the first half, Maumelle came out and quickly started the second half with a five-play, 54-yard touchdown drive. The Hornets made it 21-0 with 9:08 remaining.
The Zebras ended the shutout with 2:09 to play. Two plays after senior Quentin Roy broke multiple tackles on a 61-yard reception to reach the 3-yard line, Morrow through a pass to Dunn in the flat for a 1-yard touchdown.
Williams said the late touchdown is one of several positives the Zebras can take away from this performance.
“We actually was moving the ball,” Williams said. “The penalties kind of stalled our drives every time. So, we got a lot of stuff we can take into (next week).”
Pine Bluff was charged with 15 accepted penalties.