The 2023 high school football season officially got underway on Friday night after the 7 pm kickoff was moved back to 8 pm to help alleviate the players and fans from the excessive heat that was at the forefront of the school athletics last week for safety reasons.
Opening with the Fordyce Redbugs at home on Hyatt Field, the Billies would receive the opening kickoff as Quay Rhodes took the Fordyce kick at the Monticello 13, returning the ball back 53 yards to give the Billies good field position at the Fordyce 34.
Jontavion Lambert would get the first carry of the new season for a seven yard gain to the Fordyce 27.
After a pass for no gain from Brooks Bowman to Evan Bealer, Lambert would get the call, taking the ball down to the 10-yard line to set up first and goal.
The next two plays would not gain the Billies any ground and a holding penalty would push the Billies back to the 20.
Lambert would make up the 10-yard loss to get back to the Fordyce 10 and would get the first Billie touchdown of the game and season on the next carry, covering the 10 yards to get in the endzone with 9:30 remaining in the first quarter.
After a failed two-point conversion attempt the Billies would lead 6-0.
Hunter Howard would kick the ball off for the Billies to Fordyce’s Jamarcus Cranford at the Fordyce 29 yard line where he would fumble the ball and after a scramble the BIllies would secure the first turnover of the contest after Bealer recovered the fumble at the 9:19 mark.
The Billies second drive of the contest did not go as well as the first after gaining two yards, the Billies would lose seven yards to the Fordyce 34 after a sack by Amahd Davidson forced the Billies to turn the ball over on downs at the Fordyce 34 with 7:45 remaining in the quarter.
Fordyce began to establish their running game on their next possession.
Quarterback Kobe Cunningham would get stopped in the backfield by Tye Guthrie for a one yard loss, but Brenton Stage would gain 17 of his 113 yards on the night on his first carry to the 50-yard line.
A false start would put the ball back to the Fordyce 45, but Cunningham would cross midfield on the next carry to the Monticello 43.
Stage would move the ball to the Monticello 38 but a personal foul penalty against the Billies moved the ball further downfield to the Monticello 23.
Stage moved the ball down to the 13 before losing yardage back to the 17.
After a three yard gain to the Monticello 14, Cunningham would connect with Cam Burks for the 14-yard pickup for the score.
Andy Luna would add the extra point to give the Redbugs the 7-6 lead.
Monticello would start their next drive at their own 41-yard line. Zaedin Jones would gain to the Monticello 43, but Bowman’s next pass would be intercepted by Burks who returned the ball to the Monticello 34.
Cunningham would carry the ball to the one, and with 1:47 remaining in the quarter would take the ball in for the second Fordyce touchdown.
Luna added the extra point to put the Redbugs up 14-6.
Fordyce would add one more score before the end of the half, scoring with 1:12 remaining in the half on a 35-yard run by Stage.
After a Luna extra point, the Redbugs would take a 21-6 lead at the half.
The Billies forced the Redbugs to punt on the first possession of the second half to take over at the Monticello 25-yard line.
Monticello’s offense would move the ball into the redzone, however the drive would stall out at the Fordyce nine with the Billies turning the ball over on downs with 5:50 left in the quarter.
Fordyce would move the ball into Monticello territory after Stage took the ball from the Fordyce 22 to the Monticello 21.
Zavier Jones would get the next two carries to give the Redbugs a 28-6 lead after the Luna extra point with 3:17 remaining in the quarter.
Fordyce would get the ball back on Monticello’s next possession after recovering a Billie fumble at the Fordyce 48 and returning the ball back to the Monticello seven. Zavier Jones would get the touch down on the first carry of the drive and after the extra point, the Redbugs led 35-6.
Both teams would be forced to punt the ball away on their next two possessions with Monticello having to punt from the Fordyce 47 and and the Redbugs being forced to punt from their own 49 to give Monticello possession at the Monticello 20.
Lambert would gain eight yards to the Monticello 28, and added eight more yards on the next carry to the Monticello 36.
Bowman completed his next pass attempt, connecting with Quay Rhodes at the Monticello 36-yard line. Rhodes would make the Fordyce defenders miss their initial tackles, breaking free to cover the 64-yard distance for a Billie touchdown.
The two-point conversion would not be good as the Billies trailed 35-12 with 9:10 remaining in the contest.
Neither team could gain an offensive advantage for the remainder of the contest with Fordyce taking the 35-12 victory.
For Monticello, Brooks Bowman would complete 8 of 21 passes for 140 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Quay Rhodes would lead all Billie receivers with for catches for 110 yards and a touchdown. Rhodes would also have three kick returns for 82 yards.
Tejon Tensley would catch three passes for 30 yards.
Jontavion Lambert carried the ball 23 times for the Billies, gaining 203 yards with a touchdown.
Zaedin Jones had eight carries for 23 yards.
Monticello produced 339 total yards with two touchdowns and two turnovers. Monticello recorded seven penalties for a total of 45 yards.
Defensively, the Billies had around 38 tackles with Hunter Howard leading the defense with five tackles followed by Tensley with 4.5, and Jerimiah Daniels with four.
Monticello allowed 338 yards of offense with Fordyce having 335 yard on the ground and 53 yards through the air with five touchdowns.
Monticello will return to action on Friday, September 1, travelling to Bauxite to face the Miners.
Kickoff is set for 7 pm.
