Mustangs get first win ever against Bears

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The streak is over.

The Walker Valley football team used a ground-and-pound attack, rushing for 257 yards, and the defense was dominant in a 17-13 District 5-AAA victory Friday night against Bradley Central at "The Corral." The win was the Mustangs' first over their county rival in 10 tries.

Alex King had 149 yards rushing and a touchdown, and Walker Valley rallied around freshman quarterback Kolten Gibson, who was making his first start. Gibson finished with only 35 yards passing but added 37 rushing yards and a first-half touchdown.

"I'll never forget tonight," King said. "The offensive line did a great job making some holes for the backs, and we just ran hard and never gave up. Coach [Glen] Ryan told me before the game that I'd get a lot of carries, so I made sure that I ran hard when I got the ball."

The Mustangs (3-2, 1-1) ran the ball 54 times, including six times on a seven-play, 61-yard first drive of the game. It was finished by a 3-yard run by King.

"I told the guys that I felt we could run on them," Ryan said. "We weren't worried about big plays: We just wanted to get 3 or 4 yards at a time and move the chains."

The Mustangs added a score on a read-option quarterback keeper by Gibson with under 10 seconds to go in the first half for a 14-0 edge.

"We've been real high on Kolten," Ryan said. "He said he was ready to go, and he showed that tonight. He did a good job of handling the pressure of this game and played smart, heads-up football."

Bradley (2-2, 0-1) rallied in the second half behind quarterback Cole Copeland, who had touchdown passes of 28 yards to Daniel Clark and 51 yards to Tyler Carpenter to cut the deficit quickly to 14-13 eight minutes into the third quarter. The first score came after a partially blocked punt by Walker Valley that turned into a 59-yard run on the recovery by Trevon Ware.

Walker Valley's Kevin Sabany kicked a 32-yard field goal with 2:28 to go in the third quarter, which provided the final margin.

Outside of those three plays totaling 138 yards, Bradley had 87 yards on 51 plays. Walker Valley had two interceptions and a pair of sacks of Copeland.

"We just weren't ready to play tonight, and that's on me," Bradley coach Damon Floyd said. "We didn't move the ball well enough. The guys battled and fought; Walker Valley's front seven did a great job stopping the run."

Avery Jones had 72 yards for the Mustangs.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

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