Watson Chapel opened the 2017 football season by throttling the Dollarway Cardinals 34-0 at home on Friday night.
The Wildcats scored on their first three possessions of the game to open up a 20-0 lead at the halftime break.
Dollarway was unable to stop the ‘Cats momentum because of their own inability to move the ball. The Cardinals were forced to punt on the opening possession. Chapel then capped their opening 55-yard drive with a 22-yard Omar Allen touchdown. The Wildcats were unsuccessful on the two-point conversion attempt. The Cardinals would then fumble away their next drive at their own seven. Sophomore quarterback Devin Curry would score from five yards out and Ghailan Fadah would tack on the point-after for a 13-0 Chapel lead.
Dollarway would again be forced to punt, and the Wildcats would set up at their own 30. Junior tailback Dejuan Harris would cap the drive with a two-yard run midway through the second quarter. Fadah added the PAT to put the ‘Cats up 20-0. Two subsequent drives by Chapel would result in Curry being stripped of the ball by the Cardinal defense deep in Dollarway territory. Unfortunately for Dollarway, they would not be able to move the ball against a stiff Wildcat defense.
The second half started a bit sluggish for both teams as neither would be able to move the ball. Watson Chapel would get an interception late in the third and took over the ball at the Dollarway 11-yard line. Allen would score two plays later on a three-yard run and another Fadah point-after gave the Wildcats a 27-0 lead with 3:49 left in the third quarter. The last of the third took about ten minutes to play out as officials had trouble sorting out calls and Dollarway senior quarterback Xzavier Frazier was injured.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Kavareous Lowe would take over at quarterback and finish the game for Frazier.
Chapel would cap the scoring with 8:55 to go in the game when sophomore tailback Ricky Farver scored on a four-yard run. Fadah added the PAT to make the final score 34-0. Dollarway finished the game with only three first downs compared to 12 for the home team. Chapel would benefit from great field position all night as three of their five scores started from the Cardinal end of the field. Dollarway (0-1) ended the game with less than 30 yards of total offense while the Wildcats finished with about 200 yards.
Watson Chapel (1-0) will host the Pine Bluff Zebras (0-1) Friday night. The Zebras are coming off a loss at home to Cabot on Friday. You can hear the game locally on 98.1 the Hog beginning with the pregame at 6:30 p.m. and the kickoff set for 7 p.m.