Heat catches up to Jessieville in loss to Mineral Springs

JESSIEVILLE -- Battling the heat, Jessieville's game against Mineral Springs was pushed back to 8 p.m. at Phillips Field, and the night started with a ceremony to dedicate the new turf, lights and scoreboard after January's tornado tore through the stadium.

At the game, free hot dogs, popcorn and water were given out as the school asked for donations toward the new field and repairs.

The Lions came out swinging on the front end, but ran out of steam by the fourth quarter, leaving them with a 20-6 loss against the second-ranked Class 2A school in the state according to hootens.com. Both teams showed off tough defenses during the first half, keeping the score 0-0.

"You can't turn the ball over four times against a good team," Jessieville head coach T.J. Burk said. "We got inside the red zone three times, inside the 10 twice and never punched it in. We had our opportunities to be up two or three touchdowns at least in the first half and we just didn't capitalize on them."

Although the Hornets won the toss and received first, the Lions seemed to dominate the first half as Tayt Mounts intercepted a pass on their first play after kickoff less than a minute into the game. This set the tone for much of the first half.

The first quarter was marked by rushing drives as two players incrementally gained most of the yardage for the Lions. Sawyer Castleberry and quarterback Dalton Ellison rushed about 5 yards at a time all the way to the goal line, but were denied access by a stubborn Hornet defense that kicked it into high gear when it counted most.

Almost the entire first quarter was spent on one Jessieville drive.

And then the passing began. If quarter one was defined by rushing, quarter two started off with a focus on passing.

A punt right before the first quarter expired put Jessieville at Mineral Springs' 45. A Jessieville pass gained some serious yardage as the Lions started the quarter, but when a Hornet defender took the Lion down he fumbled and the Hornets recovered.

Subsequently, the two teams pushed each other up and down the field until about 2:15 remained, when Jessieville's Karston Criswell nabbed a huge interception and gave his team some momentum. He caught the ball around the Jessieville 35-yard line and took it all the way back to the Hornets' 24-yard line.

A series of plays put the end zone within reach for the Lions. They found themselves third and 1 on the 4-yard line after Ellison rushed up the middle with 23 seconds left. He rushed again and got the first on the 1-yard line. The Lions called their last timeout, leaving neither team with a timeout remaining.

The Lions had 15 seconds left to score during the first half of the first game of the season, but everyone knows that hornets are mean and the Hornet defense pulled out all the stops.

The Lions ran two plays in their 15 seconds but neither were enough. The first half ended with two goose eggs on the scoreboard.

While the temperatures fell during the third quarter, the action on the field only heated up. The theme of the third quarter was pitching the ball and picking up some big rushing yards.

The tide shifted three times during the third quarter as Jessieville took the lead initially, then Mineral Springs brought it to a tie before finally taking the lead that would last the rest of the night. The third quarter ended with a 12-6 lead for the Hornets.

The Hornet defense stayed strong while some cracks began to show on the Lions' side.

"When you're limited to how much you can practice because of heat, you're going to have some of that," Burk said. "We tried to hydrate as well as we could. It's unfortunate, but we had a few bumps and bruises that were kind of slowing a few of them down a little bit. But other than that it was hot."

The fourth quarter was about conditioning. Cramping and injuries took Jessieville out of the match during the final quarter as Mineral Springs showed that its players just had a little bit more conditioning.

They say many games are won in the fourth quarter, and this could have been one of them as Jessieville revealed itself to be a three-quarter team in the intense heat.

"Our conditioning held out," Mineral Springs head coach Jason Hathcock said. "We weren't cramping as bad. That's kind of the difference. They played a heck of a ballgame. They really took us to the lines. We see a lot of things we have to improve for the next game."

Mineral Springs managed one more touchdown and two-point conversion to secure a 20-6 victory -- the first on Jessieville's new turf. While it took some time to get going, the Hornets outpaced the Lions as the game dragged on, showing that both teams have work to do.

"It was ugly, but we found a way to win," Hathcock said. "I challenged them at halftime to come out and be the more aggressive team. I think we did that."

Print Headline: Heat catches up to Jessieville in loss to Mineral Springs

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