By Rob Patrick

Back in the day, when Jerry Tarkanian was leading some great UNLV teams, he had what he called an “amoeba defense.” It was a combination defense that frustrated many an opponent.

Now whether that description suits it or not, the Bryant Hornets employed a combo defense of their own on Tuesday night and frustrated the Sheridan Yellowjackets, limiting them to just 10 field goals and 23 points.

Bryant took advantage for a 37-23 victory in their long-awaited home opener.

Sheridan shot 24 percent from the field including just 2 of 19 from 3-point range in the game. A team that reached the finals of the Cyclone Classic in Russellville last weekend, it might be said that the Jackets had an off night with their shooting but Bryant head coach Ron Marvel saw it otherwise.

By Rob Patrick

PEARCY — The best-case scenario for the Bryant Hornets on Tuesday night at Lake Hamilton would’ve been a continuation or a building-upon their inspired four-overtime win over Wynne in their last outing at the Searcy Bank Tournament.

Unfortunately, such was not the case.

CINCINNATI — After a spectacular season in the Class AA and Class AAA levels of the Minor Leagues, Bryant's Travis Wood, son of Jay and Dena Wood of Bryant, has been added to the 40-man roster of the Cincinnati Reds Major League Baseball team for the first time.

Wood, a former star with the Bryant Hornets high school team and the Bryant Black Sox American Legion team, was a second-round draft pick by the Reds in the June 2005 first-year player draft. According to a story on mlb.com, Wood and six other members of the Reds' Minor League organization were added to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft at MLB's Winter meetings next month. It also indicates that the Bryant product will be invited to the Reds' Major League spring training in February 2010.

MOUNTAIN HOME — The Bryant Hornets battled the hills and heat of Mountain Home Saturday to earn a ninth place finish in the Class 7A State Cross Country Championships. Bryant scored 229 points to finish behind team champion Bentonville (85), Fayetteville (94), Rogers (99), Conway (118), Russellville (132), Cabot (142), Rogers Heritage (147), and Sprindale Har-ber (215).

Luke Lindsley again led the way for the Hornets with a seventh place finish in a time of 17:19, earning a top 10 medal and All-State honors along the way.

By Rob Patrick

Bryant kicker Josh Lowery had been nearly perfect on extra points in 2009, converting 23 of 24 before the timing somehow got messed up on his kick after the Bryant Hornets freshman team took a 13-6 lead over the arch-rival Benton Panthers on Tuesday night.

And, with 6:31 left to play, the Panthers still had a chance at a comeback win with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. Thus, their hopes for a share of the championship of the South Division of the Central Arkansas Junior High Conference was still alive.

Their drive began at their own 32 but needed a pair of third-down conversions to continue. On third-and-10 from there, a pass from Grayson Chilton to Taylor Schmidt went for 23 yards.

There, Bryant linebacker Ian Shuttleworth knifed through to drop running back Wallace Foote for a loss on first down then Hayden Daniel, from cornerback, held the line as Daniel Ramirez tried to sweep left end.

But, again, on third down, the Panthers survived when Chiton’s pass to Foote broke for 19 yards and only a fine open-field tackle by Daniel saved the touchdown.

At the Bryant 27, the Panthers mixed in a running play, their bread-and-butter out of the wishbone. Fullback Cole Glover managed 2 yards before Daniel Richards and Jared Koon took him down.

By Rob Patrick

Both the Bryant Hornets and the North Little Rock Charging Wildcats will host a game in the Class 7A playoffs. The question is, which one will host a first-round game on Friday, Nov. 13, and which will have a bye that weekend and open at home on Friday, Nov. 20.

Oh, and the winner of their game tonight at North Little Rock will probably finish the regular season with at least a share of the 7A-Central Conference championship too.

Six teams from the Central (and the 7A-West) advance to the playoffs but the top two teams from both leagues earn byes in the first round while seeds three and four host seeds six and five, respectively, to get the playoffs started.

The Hornets and the Charging Wildcats are two of four teams going into tonight’s play, tied for the lead in the Central at 4-1.

Cabot and Russellville, the other two teams, take on second-division teams this week but finish against each other next Thursday when Bryant and North Little Rock finish against two teams at or near the bottom of the league.

So, it figures that the winner of tonight’s Bryant-North Little Rock game and Thursday’s Cabot-Russellville game will share the title and earn the byes.

By Rob Patrick

The switch, the surprise, the lesson learned, the secret and the magic shoes.

First, the secret:

Way back in the day, before the Bryant Hornets started winning regularly in football, they had a young head coach named David Jordan. Under his tutelage, the Hornets ran an old-style offense called the dead-T. And among the coaches on campus back then, there were three — Paul Calley, Steve Griffith and Brad Stroud — who are still around today.

You want to know why no one stops the Cabot Panthers’ dead-T like the Bryant Hornets? Why, in the four years that the Hornets have been playing against the Panthers in the 7A-Central Conference, Cabot has only had one running back eclipse 100 yards in a game? (Jordan Carlisle in 2007 got 108 but 75 of that came on one play.)

By Rob Patrick

Bryant Hornets senior quarterback Jimi Easterling was looking forward to getting to play against the Cabot Panthers. Sure, he knows what kind of challenge it would be. After all, the Panthers are unbeaten this season and ranked as high as No. 1 in the state by some. They lead the 7A-Central Conference with a 4-0 mark and the Hornets, at 3-1, have a chance to pull into a first-place tie with a win.

It’s just that Easterling didn’t get to play much against them last season. He started the game and, on the Hornets’ opening drive, he'd led his team on a march from its own 20 to a first-and-goal at the Cabot 8. On second and goal, Easterling suffered a leg injury that not only kept him out of the rest of the game but ended his season.

The Hornets never got that close to the goal line again and Cabot went on to win 14-0.

Easterling spent long hours rehabbing and has come back this season with a fine effort, completing 61 of 104 passes (57 percent) for 844 yards and 10 touchdowns. He’s also netted 69 yards rushing on 24 carries.

And he’s been looking forward to trying it again against Cabot.

But it won’t happen.

FAYETTEVILLE — The Bryant Hornets competed in the biggest cross country meet in the region Saturday, picking up personal records from two of their top five runners at the annual Chile Pepper Invitational at Agri Park on the University of Arkansas campus. The Hornets placed 28th out of 50 teams and were the 11th place Arkansas team.

Luke Lindsley earned a new personal record with a time of 16:46 in placing 43rd out of 391 finishers. Jacob Clark placed 126th with a time of 17:30. Jesse Wolf also earned a new personal record with 157th place finish in a time of 17:51.

By Rob Patrick

CONWAY — Well, it looks like the Bryant Hornets will be contending for a conference championship after all.

And the next two weeks will be as much about that as they are about where they’ll be seeded for the Class 7A State playoffs.

That’s because the Hornets bounced back from their first loss of the season with a dominating first half against the Conway Wampus Cats on Friday, Oct. 16. And the 31-point halftime lead wound up a 31-14 victory that sets up a first-place showdown in the 7A-Central Conference when the unbeaten Cabot Panthers visit Bryant on Friday, Oct. 23.

But for the 14-3 loss in the mud at Bryant Stadium the previous week against Russellville, it would be a battle of unbeatens.