GOBLINS BACK ON FOOTBALL FIELD

ROGERS — The long wait is over.

Tuesday night at Rogers High School, Harrison fielded an athletic team in a benefit football game. Opposite Rogers, the young Goblins got to show their talent.

The first half of the scrimmage was held in traditional game form, while the second half was adjusted. There was no live kicking.

At the end of the first half, Rogers led the Goblins, 21-14, after scoring a late touchdown.

Harrison coach Joel Wells was pleased with some aspects of the contest.

“We played with great effort,” he said. “We have a long way to go in several areas, but we needed the test before we could get better.”


Getting on the gridiron was a pleasing factor for Wells and the Goblins. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the team didn’t have spring practice, 7-on-7 competition or team camps.

“It was nice to get our players back out on the field,” said the coach. “It is the most normal thing we have had since March. I hope we can continue throughout the season. The kids deserve to have this opportunity.”

Harrison saw some bright spots on both sides of the football. One of the areas was in the quarterback position.

“Our quarterbacks threw the ball well,” Wells said. “We made good decisions for the most part. We made a couple of mistakes that we will learn from. Cole (Keylon) ran the ball really well and Logan (Plumlee) made some very good reads also. Our quarterback play will be a strength of our team.”

With the quarterbacks throwing the ball well, the receivers did make some good plays. On a Goblin scoring drive in the second period Keylon made two big throws. The first was a 56-yard pass play to Lane Johnson.

Keylon connected with Trey Richardson late in the drive for a 40-yard pass that moved the ball to the 1 of Rogers.

Keylon punched the ball into the end zone two plays later.


“Our receivers did make some big catches, but we need to improve on our perimeter blocking,” stated the coach. “Trey Richardson made a great catch on third-and-long which was the play of the game for us.”

Harrison has to replace a record setting running back from last season. The team did struggle some in gaining yards on the ground.

“Our run game was okay,” Wells said. “We need to do a better job blocking the point of attack both inside and on the perimeter.”

Part of the problem with the run attack was upfront. Harrison is replacing a veteran offensive and defensive line.

“We definitely need to improve upfront on offense,” said the coach. “We may move some players around to help us get better there. We are young in some spots, but they will be very good players before this year is over.”

Harrison graduated scholarship-collecting linebackers last season, but the team will have a strength in this position again this season.

We had some young kids play well at linebacker,” stated Wells. “Without a real game plan going into the game and with no real prior knowledge, you can evaluate instincts. We played several linebackers and have a good competition for those jobs.”


One area that was affected by the lack of summer work was in the secondary. Rogers had two long pass plays that resulted in touchdowns. The Mounties opened the scoring with a 44-yard pass play in the first period and then closed the first half with a 48-yard touchdown pass with just under a minute to win the first half.

“We struggled in the secondary at times, but the lack of 7-on-7 and team camps is a big reason,” said Wells. “We will continue to improve in that area.”

Harrison’s first score of the game came with 2:19 left in the first period to tie the contest. Keylon hit Dylan Block for 37 yards.

Noah Moix and Brock Bardwell each were successful in point after attempts.

The Goblins open the regular season in Week 0. The squad travels to Little Rock Christian Academy to play Magnolia.

Due to reduction in seating capacity that has been established by the Arkansas Department of Health and other governmental agencies, Harrison will release information on admission to the contest at the beginning of next week.

“Little Rock Christian is hosting a benefit game on Friday,” said Harrison athletic director Chris Pratt. “They said that they would contact us after the game to let us know what the seating capacity will be. They wanted to get a feel for what the stadium would hold with the new guidelines.”