Bryant beats North Little Rock 27-17 in 7A state championship game

Bryant defeated North Little Rock 27-17 to win its third consecutive 7A state championship Saturday afternoon at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. The win marked the 30th consecutive victory for the Hornets.

TANNER ANDERSON TD RUN

After a Jamarien Bracey 9-yard touchdown run for Bryant, the Hornets scored a second TD on the ground thanks to a 7-yard scamper from Tanner Anderson, which put Bryant up 14-0 with 3:47 to play in the second quarter.

JAMARIEN BRACEY TD RUN

Bryant got on the board for a third time thanks to a 52-yard Malachi Graham interception return. That set up Bracey to score his second 9-yard touchdown run of the day, putting the Hornets up 20-0.

O’DONALD SCORES FOR NLR

With eight seconds to go before halftime, a Fredrick O’Donald 2-yard touchdown dash gave the Charging Wildcats some hope heading into the second half trailing 20-7.

O’DONALD GETS NLR TO WITHIN ONE SCORE OF BRYANT

North Little Rock kept its momentum going in the third quarter and O’Donald scored again on a 15-yard rush. That cut into Bryant’s lead and made the score 20-14.

BRYANT’S HART PENFIELD DEFLECTS PASS TO HOLD NLR TO 3

Facing a third-and-goal and leading by six, Bryant linebacker Hart Penfield batted down a Kareame Cotton pass to hold North Little Rock to a field goal. Liam Selhorst converted on the 22-yard kick to make the score 20-17 Bryant.

ANDERSON INCREASES BRYANT’S LEAD

After getting in the end zone in the first half, Anderson scored again in the fourth quarter for Bryant on a 25-yard run. That increased the Hornets’ lead to 27-17.

AFTER GIVING UP 4TH-AND-22 CONVERSION, BRYANT STOPS NLR ON FOURTH-AND-GOAL

NLR converted on a fourth-and-22 earlier in the drive but could not punch the ball into the end zone and turned it over on downs trailing by 10 points late in the fourth. That was the last time NLR had the ball.