SPORTS

West Ouachita steamrolls over Buckeye 44-0

Jimmy Touchet
Special to The News-Star

The West Ouachita Chiefs (1-0) exploded to a 28-0 halftime lead and did not let up picking an impressive 44-0 regular season home opening victory over the Buckeye Panthers (0-1) at West Ouachita’s A.R. “Red” Sims Stadium on Friday.

After Buckeye fumbled the ball on their opening possession, West Ouachita took advantage of the short field with a 30-yard end around run by junior Andrew Lockhart which put the Chiefs in business deep in Panther territory.

A couple of plays later West Ouachita senior running back Dylan Spillers scored on a one yard plunge. Aaron Davis added the extra point and the score stood 7-0 in favor of the Chiefs.

Following a nice defensive series by the Chiefs, Buckeye was forced to punt the ball back to West Ouachita. It did not take long for the Chiefs to strike pay dirt as Chiefs junior quarterback Hunter Chatham found junior back Andrew Lockhart for a 46-yard touchdown pass that, with the Davis extra point, made the score 14-0 with 1:05 remaining in the first quarter.

The Chiefs would add another two touchdowns in the second quarter on a 7-yard quarterback keeper by Chatham and 2-yard run by Tommy Rhodes.

Davis added three field goals, a 24-yard field goal in the third quarter, a 29-yard field goal and 24-yard field goal in the final period to complete the scoring for the Chiefs.

Haden Hester was the leading rusher for the Chiefs with eight carries for 79 yards while Kameron Harris had three carries for 58 yards and Lockhart ended up with six carries for 52 yards.

West Ouachita quarterback Chatham was 3-for-4 for 67 yards with one touchdown pass while rushing for 47 yards on four carries with two touchdown runs.

All night, West Ouachita’s defensive front seven of Nick Privitor, Jacob Holloway, Micah Menard, Micah Jones, Garrett Peters, Hunter Milwood and Josh Turner were causing havoc in the Buckeye backfield as the Panthers struggled to get anything going offensively.

West Ouachita will take to the road for the first time of the 2015 season as the Chiefs will travel down Interstate 20 to Shreveport to face Loyola Prep Flyers at Messmer Stadium while the Buckeye Panthers will return home to face Holy Savior Menard Eagles.