Central Arkansas Game of the Week — Little Rock Christian 42, Pulaski Academy 21

Little Rock Christian punched its playoff ticket Friday night with a 42-21 upset of No. 4-ranked Pulaski Academy in front of a capacity home crowd and national television audience. The Warriors needed the win and Camden Fairview to beat Pulaski Robinson to earn a berth. Midway through the fourth quarter, news broke that CF beat Robinson 29-28.

“It was by far the best game we played this season,” said LRC senior tight end Dakota Mosley. “Offense, defense and special teams, except for an early kick return, we played great. It’s a great feeling. We knew Camden was going to get it done, so we had to do our thing. Whether (Camden) won or lost, we knew we had to beat Pulaski Academy.”

The No. 4 seed Warriors (7-4, 4-3) play next Friday at 5A-East No. 1 seed Forrest City in the first round of the playoffs. Pulaski Academy, who was playing for at least a share of the 5A-Southwest title and the No. 1 playoff seed drops to the No. 3 seed and plays at Helena-West Helena, who they beat in last year’s 5A state championship and the season opener.

LRC senior running back Michael Dyer ran 33 times for 221 yards and 5 touchdowns, including 167 yards three in the second half. The LRC defense stopped PA on fourth down on its own 25 clinging to a 28-21 fourth-quarter lead. A play later Dyer exploded for a 25-yard TD to lengthen the lead with 3:07 left. After Bud Thomas collected his third interception of the game moments later, Dyer ran for a 21-yard score.

“The defense was playing excellent, and the offense executed when we had to,” said Dyer, who publicly committed to Auburn Friday morning. “The offensive line did an excellent job, and that made it a lot easier for me.”

Pulaski Academy committed three turnovers and scored just once in the second half, a two-yard run by Greyson Skokos.

“It comes down to this — the head coach has to prepare (the players) for whatever it is. Whether it is national TV, or nonconference game that doesn’t mean anything,” PA coach Kevin Kelley said. “I did not do my job. I didn’t prepare them for whatever atmosphere there was. As a result, I didn’t have our defense ready, and (Christian) jumped out on us. We came back offensively and did some things, and they made a couple of adjustments. We didn’t adjust near as well offensively as we should have.”

The teams combined for five first-quarter touchdowns. Dyer fueled an opening scoring drive with 41 rushing yards that took less than a minute. On the ensuring kickoff speedy PA sophomore Fredi Knigthen sprinted down the sideline for an 88-yard touchdown return.

On LRC’s second possession, senior quarterback Jesse Stone, who ran for close to 70 yards, confused the Bruins defense on a bootleg and ran 22 yards for the score.

PA answered with a one-yard run by quarterback Wil Nicks at the 5:38 mark.

The Warriors took the lead again after Mosley’s 47-yard reception down the middle set up a Dyer one-yard scoring dive with 2:11 left in the quarter.