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In front of a packed crowd at Mike Pennington Stadium on Friday to celebrate the 2025 Drew Central Homecoming, the Drew Central Pirates found themselves in a position that was unfamiliar to Pirate football.
A win over their Homecoming opponent, the Rison Wildcats, would put them second in 8-3A Conference play, but a loss would also still keep the Pirates for a chance for their highest ranking in the conference standings when the regular season ends.
Drew Central would hold their regular Homecoming festivities earlier in the day, but would showcase the Homecoming Court in a pregame festivities before kickoff honoring 2025 Homecoming Queen Adyson Kulbeth as well as Football Sweetheart Amari Lucas and the 2025 Homecoming Maids.
After the festivities, the Pirates would win the coin toss and elect to receive the football to begin the 2025 Homecoming game.
Rison would begin the game with an onside kick attempt, but the ball would not travel the required 10 yards giving the PIrates their first possession on the Rison 41.
Despite the good field position, the Pirates would turn the ball over on downs.
Rison would be able to move the ball into Pirate territory on their first possession, but would also turn the ball over on downs at the Pirate 42.
On the first play of the next drive, Tre’Bennett Fuller would connect with Blake Chandler for a 35-yard pickup to the Rison 23.
Moving down to the one, Fuller would take the ball into the endzone for the Pirate score.
Hunter Griffin added the extra point to give the Pirates the 7-0 lead.
Rison’s next possession resulted in a turnover after a fumble recovery by Tyviance Wormley gave the Pirates the ball on the Rison 42 after an eight-yard return.
On the drive, it would be Zae Bullard who would break free for a 21-yard touchdown run to give the Pirates a 13-0 lead after the extra point missed.
The Pirate defense forced Rison to punt on their next possession with Chandler having a 15 yard return to the Rison 43, but holding penalty against the Wildcats would move the ball to the 33.
After runs by Jayden Jones and Wormley, the Pirates would move the ball to the Rison six at the end of the quarter with Wormley taking the ball in for the score to begin the second quarter.
Griffin added the extra point to extend the lead to 20-0.
For the remainder of the half it would be all Wildcats.
Rison would score on their next possession and added a two-point conversion and would attempt an onside kick that the Wildcats would recover at the Pirate 43 that would lead to a second Wildcat score to cut the lead to 20-14.
After forcing the Pirates to punt, Rison would find their way to the endzone with 6.5 seconds remaining in the half to tie the game at 20.After receiving the second half kickoff, the Wildcats would take the lead for the first time in the contest with 9:27 remaining in the third quarter.
After adding the two-point play the Pirates trailed 28-20.
Rison would get a turnover on the Pirates possession on an interception and with 5:18 remaining in the quarter increased their lead to 36-20, scoring 36 unanswered points after being down 20-0 to start the contest.
The Pirates would get back on the scoreboard after a seven yard pass from Fuller to Jones to cut the lead to 36-26, but Rison would add their final score with 8:30 remaining after a touchdown and two-point play increased the lead to 44-26.
Drew Central would score their next possession on a 20-yard run by Fuller to cut the lead to 44-32.
Bullard would recover a Wildcat fumble on the next possession and with 3:28 remaining Fuller would score his third touchdown of the contest to bring the Pirates within six points, 44-38, but the Wildcats would be able to run out the clock to hold on to the win.
The Pirates will now travel to Barton on Friday night to face the 2-5, 0-4 in conference play Bears at 7 pm.
