West Plains Zizzers vs. Mountain Home

Speedy Bombers and sultry, late summer temperatures were the Zizzers’ undoing Friday night in Mountain Home.

The boys from Mountain Home were State Track Champions in class 5A Arkansas last May. It certainly showed. They outpaced the Zizzers in almost every aspect of the game.

The Bombers easily outran the Zizzers in the running game with 381 yards gained on the ground. West Plains sputtered to only 92 rushing yards on the night.

The Zizzers were outnumbered too. Bomber Head Coach Steve Ary’s roster was 74 players deep, grades 10-12. When West Plains Head Coach Joel Wyatt counts his guys, with no freshmen included, there are just 42 guys playing football.

That made all the difference in the heat.

“We have eight guys playing both sides of the ball. Mountain Home just had one. Our guys were just fatigued by the end of the first quarter,” commented Coach Wyatt. “Turns out, they told us afterwards that was part of their game strategy -- to just wear us out. It worked on us in game one of the season.”

The Zizzers scored first in the game on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Quarterback Isaiah Jones to Wide Receiver Jacob Moore with four minutes remaining in the first quarter.  Left-footed Kicker Reid Cobb had no trouble kicking the extra point. Zizzers up 7-0.

Too bad that’s where the game peaked for the Zizzers.

When the Bombers took over the ball after that first Zizzer touchdown, they played a no-huddle, hurry-up offense that was too fast for the Zizzers.  In just two minutes and twenty seconds of game time, the Bombers scored twice. Zizzers went down 7-14.

The Bombers dominated the line of scrimmage the rest of the game. They scored another 10 points in the second quarter and held the Zizzer offense to just 81 yards of total offense in the first half.

All hope that the Zizzers would rally after the halftime break was dashed when the Bombers easily scored on a long, 49-yard quarterback keeper on the first play from scrimmage. Zizzers down 7-30.

By the time the Zizzers found the endzone again deep into the third quarter with another 10-yard pass connection between Jones and Moore, the Bombers were up 36-14. The teams traded touchdowns in the fourth quarter and the Zizzers scored on a 1-yard run at the goal line from QB Jones with 1:30 to play in the game. But it was too little, too late for the Zizzers. Zizzer lost 21-43 in a game that was not as close as the final score would indicate.

Bright spots for Zizzer fans were the passing offense (153 yards), special teams play (not one, but two blocked kicks on the point after touchdown attempt), and a truly outstanding punting performance by Isaiah Jones, who punted seven times for 301 yards, with an average punt of 43 yards per punt.

The Zizzers host Parkview, a smaller Springfield public school, this Friday, September 6, in West Plains at 7PM. The Parkview Vikings, (0-1) were scoreless against Marshfield last week and have won just two games in five years.