By John R. Schirmer
News-Leader staff
BAUXITE – The Nashville Scrappers wrapped up their second consecutive undefeated regular season with a 49-12 victory over Bauxite Friday night.
The Scrappers (10-0, 7-0) scored 2 touchdowns on their first three offensive possessions and led the Miners (0-10, 0-7) 28-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Nashville will enter the Class 4A state playoffs this week as the top seed from District 7-4A. The Scrappers will host Dover Friday at 7 p.m.
A large following of Scrapper fans made the 2-hour trek to Bauxite. “Our fans really showed up,” Coach Mike Volarvich said. “That was nice to see.”
The Scrappers were “pretty explosive early in the game,” Volarvich said. “We made a couple of big plays” and went on to take the 28-0 first-quarter lead.
From there, Nashville scored 1 touchdown in each of the next three quarters. Jose Hernandez converted on 7 of 7 PATs for the Scrappers.
After the early scoring, “We didn’t play with the enthusiasm I’d have liked,” Volarvich said. “I kind of expected it. The coaches had talked about it to our guys all week. Last year we came out very flat and led 21-14 at halftime.”
This time, “When we jumped up, we kind of put it in coast mode. The second quarter was 7-3. We allowed them to have a 12-play drive that took 9 minutes. That was a little disappointing,” Volarvich said.
Nashville emerged from the game “fairly healthy” to go into the playoffs. The Scrappers “played a lot of guys. A lot of our younger kids came in. I was happy for them to move the ball.”
The Scrappers opened their 28-point first quarter on a 74-yard scoring pass from Tyler Hanson to Zach Jamison to begin what turned out to be a busy night for the senior. “Jamison played on both sides. He’s one of our more solid guys at corner.”
For the night, Jamison had 5 catches for 123 yards and a touchdown. The TD came on the second play of the game on Hanson’s pass.
Ty Pettway scored twice in the first quarter off a 21 yard pass and a 31-yard pass. Hopkins ran the ball in from the 6 for the other opening quarter TD.
Bauxite kicked a 21-yard field goal in the second quarter.
Hopkins scored on another 6-yard run to send the Scrappers into halftime with a 35-3 lead.
Bauxite added a 37-yard field goal in the third quarter.
CJ Spencer extended the Scrapper lead to 42-6 later in the quarter on a 45-yard scoring pass from Hanson. Spencer “did some good things blocking and catching the ball,” Volarvich said. He had 3 catches for 65 yards and the TD. Another touchdown was negated on a penalty.
TK Hopkins scored Nashville’s final TD of the game on a 4-yard run in the fourth quarter. “TK did some good things for us. He had 13 carries for 123 yards and a touchdown. He also had a 20-yard reception.”
Bauxite scored on a 34-yard pass but failed on the 2-point conversion for the final score of 49-12.
For the night, Hanson completed 16 of 28 passes for 317 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Darius Hopkins had 6 carries for 48 yards and 2 touchdowns. TK Hopkins ran the ball 13 times for 123 yards and the TD. His longest run was 67 yards.
Jamison was the leading receiver with 5 catches for 123 yards and a TD. Spencer had 3 receptions for 65 yards and a touchdown. Pettway had 2 catches for 52 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Jhalon Finley had 2 receptions for 44 hards. TK Hopkins made 1 catch for 20 yards. Darius Hopkins had 2 catches for 18 yards.
The Scrappers had 488 yards total offense, including 171 rushing and 317 passing.
Both teams ran 49 plays.
Nashville had 13 first downs, with 9 for Bauxite.
The Scrappers were penalized 9 times for 60 yards. Bauxite had 2 penalties for 10 yards.
Neither team lost a turnover.
On defense for Nashville, Kailus Hughes “had a solid game” with 9 tackles, Volarvich said.
Hunter White had 9 tackles, a tackle for a loss and a sack.
Michael Bevill was very aggressive. He flew around all night. Kalob Carpenter played well. He does some really good things,” Volarvich said.
Bevill had 6 tackles and 3 TFLs. Carpenter had 3 tackles and a sack.
Garrett Gordon had 7 tackles, Jordan White 5 tackles and a TFL, Jordan Summers 5 tackles and 2 TFLs, Austin Gibbs 3 tackles, Marquell McFalls 2, Xavier Nunally 1, Dante Jefferson 2, Shun Childress 2 tackles and a sack, Scott and Hatchett 1 each.
Darius Hopkins had 2 kickoff returns for an average of 18 yards each. TK Hopkins had 1 kickoff return for 3 yards.
White had 3 punt returns for an average of 32 yards each.
