~pth ,Teams. Score ]3Points- ".,. '~9/Cats and Benton Tie !1-J~ .

II

Gazette' .State :Sews Sct'l'ice' . 'IConway, Nov. '13.-A second half 'comeback allowed!

the Benton Panthers. to, ga~n a 13~13tiewith the Conway]Wa~nptls.Cats here Fridaynight, "The bigger Panthers madeth~lr weight a<;l;a~~age pay o~f i~ the . last half .. Conway Iwent .to Benton s eight-yard lineIn the last minute.Jim Turner rein 53 yards over . ". '

a .slippery t~lrf to put. the Gat~"in back, dashed off 15yards throughfront with ;):5~ left 10 the' first the middle, and then 'broke" offquarter. Johnnie Simmons missed left tackle for a 65-yard scoringon. a plunge for the conversion jaunt. . Turner skirted left endtry. to make the score 13:0.Halfway throu~h the second Up 'to this time, Benton did not

quarter, Bobby NIX punted dead have a first .down.· ""on Con;vay's.20." Don Hester, Benton got going after the kick-Conway s commg .sophomore Iull-Ioff.vhowever. The Panthers drove

:.ito Conway's four "asthe half drew'to a close. ThE"Cats took overand Wilbur Owens 'kicked out to.the 34." .!Th~ Cats chose-to kick off to;start the second half, The' ball]traveled to Benton's 34 and Wasireturned to the 38. Nix kickedto Conway's 28. At thjspoint,Conway fumbled for.itsonly time;duringthe night, and Benton. re-

I'covered . ..f'form~n Tubbs "hit' through left]Itackle fo~}8 .and was pulled do\vn'l

at the sideline by OWens. Nix I

Ithen carried through right tackle;and-scored, Nix's kick was weak!and to the side. !Benton ,took advantage of a

short Conway kick at the' Con-way 47. As the third quarterI ended, Benton controlled at the[Conway 19.

I "Nix ran out of bounds at the..15 on the first play of the last

I,period. A cliPpin.g penalty .. putBenton back to its 25"but it didn'tImatter. Ronnie Hutchinson ran:around right. end on the nextplay. to -score and Tubbs slipped'through the line for the pointthat tied the score"The Panthers were equal to the,

task the remainder of the 'night, 'The aroused Cats took over at:the Conway 41. SonnySmitb,'Simmons and Ronnie, Duke putlfear in the Benton ranks as 'Con.waymov,ed 'to the Panthers'ieight, and Duke wa- nailed back Iatthe 20 after tripping 'over one:of his own mates as the clockran out.

Benton Rallies,Ties Conway

, !

Conway .sh~cked Benton with ,-: Simm~~aw a hole at right~wo ,long:,brIstlmg touchdown !lIns tackle and hurried through for 10m the first half here last night, ,,yards and a first down at the ,47.but the Panthers came battering IThen Turner hit the left side onback to "salvage a 13-13 tie in a a counter and burst into themu~dy homecoming battle. .startled Benton secondary." TurnerJIm Turner, the; Wampus Cats'broke to the outside, hipped past

speedy halfback;" reeled off a 53- <me~ a:fe~--"man, - outmaneuvered¥ard. jaunt early in the game, and the 'q,therand sped the rest of thespph Don Hester, drawing his first way" by' himself. Simmons wasstarting assignment at fullback, .chilled on an attempt to run theloped 65 yards in the second per- .extra point.iod to "give Conway a 13-0 lead. I Conway led 6-0 with 4:47 gone., Benton' turned a Conway fum- Benton took the kickoff and gotble into a touchdown soon after, it back to the 39', where Nix fum-the second half got under way and bled and Steve Smith recoveredthen put. together a 61-yard touch- fSll:" ••C.Q..D.W:£.SimlllQ!ll>al}Q".T"YlPY!"down drive that tied the score at got to the 29, then £he' Wampusthe outset of the fourth quarter. Cats drew a 15-yard penalty. Turn-Conway drove hurriedly to Ben- er slammed for eight, but Duke's try was low and wide.

ton's eight late in the game, but pass was intercepted by Leonard They exchanged kicks the restquarterback Ronnie Duke, tripped Hill. on the 19 to kill the threat. of the third period. Owen got offand fell as he dropped back to .Nix promptly kicked a high a short one that traveled 14 yardspass on the last play. hard. one that bounced dead on to Conway's 47. That's where Ben-The game was played in a wind- Conway's 38. .' .

whipped downpour 'before 30(} die- Turner was spilled on the 35, ton started the tying drive.hard fans. The :(ield was covered and after two plays netted only George Russ got. nine, and afterwith water even before the kick- three,. Wilbur Owen kicked: But a couple of futile bucks at the cen-off'. Nix kicked' the Cats right back tel', Tubb dropped back on fourthDespite the slick playing condi- to their 2,0. " down to throw. Rushed hard he

tions, there were few fumbles. Simmons cut off right tackle lobbed one to Nix who caught itEach team -lost only one, though for three, then Hester carried on at the line of scrimage and gal-Conway's proved much more cost-I' the next two plays, the only times loped to the 20 before he wasly than Benton's. he ran with it all night. bumped out. Nix" hit to the 16,: Both teams. stayed with con-' The first time, he chopped then to the 10,but Benton drewservative stuff on .offense, risking straight up the middle ~or 12 yards; 15 back to t)1e 25.a pass only as the last resort. to the 35. The next time, he hit Hutcheson followed a wave ofBenton tried to utilize the kick- the same hole and found an' even blocking around the right side, and

ing foot of Bobby Nix to bottle\vider gap. The long-legged soph w~s home free from the 20. Tubbthe Wampus Cats deep and hope pumped around a couple of tacklers slid off and jumped over for thefor a fumble, Nix .punted on see- i and broke into the clear.' Owen cut tying point.ond and third downs early in the: down the last tackle}: who had a Conway took it 50 yards to Ben-gam~, but abandoned the strategy I cha~ce at the ,,15 and Hester step- ton's eight on Sonny Smith's blastsafter the pa.nthers fell behind. It l,ped':$l..cr..oss."T.•' urn.er outran "two de- at the middle and Duke's keeper,was however, a nice Nix punt that 'fen~ers to the "corner of the end but then Duke fell on the final at-set Conway on" its 28 just before z9ne~ for the extra point. tempt to break the deadlock.the costly fumble. 't Benton, -stormed back and blast- , The tie left Conway with a 2-1-2The Wampus Cats wedged out! ed Ito" Conway's four where the record in District 3A-A, and made

sizeable holes in the massive Ben- ~ampus Cats stiffened and held Benton 2-2-1., ' .ton defense in the first 15 minutes' Just before halftime,of play and halfbacks Turner and Conway elected to kick off to The StatisticsJohnny Simmons slipped through Istart . the second half, arid Nix . Conway Bentonfor good yardage. - But the Pan- brought it back to the. 39. Gary FIrst downs --~----- 10 9thers' tremendous weight advant- 'Duncan and Hutcheson managed Yards rushing ------ 225 172.age started exerting itself after only three, and Nix kicked to Con- Yards passing ------ 0 27intermission. "way's. 28. On the first play after Passes attempted --- 1 5That size, and Conway's inabil- the kick, Conway fumbled and Ben- Passes completed --- 0 3

ity to contain quarterback Nor- ton got possession at the 26. From Intercepted by ------ 0 1man Tubb and halfbacks Nix and I therey.Tubb picked his way around Yards returned 0 1Larry Hutcheson "on the outside left «:nd to the seven, and sent Nix IPunts, average ----- 6-19 5-36stuff allowed the Panthers to' gain I, off right tackle for the touchdown. Yards. returned ----- 22 3the tie. .two plays later. Nix's conversion I Penalties ----------- 3-25 3-25They swapped punts with no gain, ------ --- J Fumbles. lost ------- "2 2

at the outset, then Benton kicked P~net.!:.at!~ns --::-.::--:.:.~~ l!. ~.again on second down and Nix sent -·~onwav's 37

. '.

: The Statistics!.. Conwav BentonFirst OlVns.............. 10 ' 9Rushing yardage •.. '.!.... 225 172Passing vardase ...•..•. '.' . 0 27 .!Passes ..... , •...•.....•..• ~ Q,-1 ;;'-:'5Intercepted .bv 0 1··Yar.ds returned .•. ~...... 0 1

Punts. average .. :•.•.•,... ~ 6-.1.9 5-36Yards returned ••.• '_'" :!.2 IR

Fumbles lost ;. :!- 2Yards penalized ....••..•. "3-2.5 --S-2."t;'Penetrations (20"yd. !in,,). 3 '3'