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The Monticello Billies entered Friday’s final game of the regular season already knowing that they would enter the 4A State Football Championship Tournament at the fourth seed out of the 8-4A Conference after failing to defeat the Crossett Eagles the previous week by 13 or more points and with the Warren Lumberjacks defeating Crossett in their final contest os the regular season having played on Thursday night.
The only question remaining would be if the billies could end the regular season with a win despite not having several players due to injury and who would they face in the first round of the playoffs, which would be the winner of Bauxite and CAC.
Monticello would receive the ball to begin the contest and on the first kickoff attempt, a mistaken whistle would be blown with the ball going off the returner with DeWitt recovering, however the officials would call for the ball to be kicked off again, however on this kick, the ball would get away from the returner with DeWitt recovering the ball at the Monticello 29.
DeWitt would score on the drive to take a 7-0 lead.
After forcing the Billies to punt on their drive, the Billies would get the first turnover of the game after Grant Cox recovered a fumble at the Monticello two.
The Billies would drive the field behind a 46-yard run by Ja’Braylin Culbreath and capped off with an eight-yard run by Bo Hobbs.
Jude Parke added the extra point to tie the contest 7-7.
The Billies would force the Dragons to turn the ball over on downs on the next possession, taking over at their own 49 yard line.
Culbreath would get the call and would break free for the 51-yard touchdown run.
Parke added the point after to take the 14-7 lead.
On the next kickoff, the ball would get away from the DeWitt returner with Monticello’s Derrion Clarke recovering the ball in the endzone for the Billie touchdown.
Parke added the extra point to increase the lead to 21-7.
DeWitt’s next drive would be halted after Luke Reid intercepted a pass at the Monticello 26 with 9:27 remaining in the half.
Monticello would move the ball into DeWitt territory after a facemask call moved the ball to the Dragon 39.
After moving to the 33, Dax Bowman would break free for the touchdown run followed by a Parke extra point to increase the lead to 28-7.
Reid would end the next Dragon drive with his second interception of the contest with a 23 yard return, but the Billies would not be able to score on the drive before the end of the half.
DeWitt would get the first two scores after the halftime break to cut the Billie lead to 28-21 with 3:04 remaining in the third quarter.
The Billies would score before the end of the quarter after a four-yard run by Danner Loyd.
With the Parke extra point, the Billies increased their lead to 35-21.
DeWitt would get the final score of the contest with 2:14 remaining in the contest to cut the lead to 35-28, the final score of the game.
The Billies will travel to Bauxite on Friday night to face the Miners in the first round of the playoffs.
It will be a rematch of their contest at the beginning of the season in which Bauxite defeated the Billies 41-14.
Kickoff is set for 7 pm with tickets being purchased online.
