Report by Ronald Richardson
The Batesville Pioneers came up on the short end of the stick against Greene County Tech on Friday night and went down to defeat by a score of 33-21 in Pioneer Stadium.
Tech opened the scoring with a field goal to take a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, but the Pioneers answered only 51 seconds later with a 35-yard touchdown run by Dayshaun Brown and Batesville led 6-3 after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Tech got two touchdown runs to take a 17-6 lead, but the Pioneer offense came to life and the Pioneers got the final two scores of the half.
Rhett McDonald, making his first start at quarterback for the injured Jay Storlie, found Ethan Price in the back of the end zone on a 24-yard pass and then completed a pass to Boston Hall for the two-point conversion to cut the Tech lead to 17-14.
Batesville’s final score of the game came just before halftime when McDonald connected on a 40-yard pass to Brown.
The extra point by Esler Ordonez made the score 21-17 in favor of Batesville at the half. Tech would go on to score the game’s final 16 points en route to their victory.
The Pioneers fell to 3-6 on the season, and 3-3 in 5A East play.
The Pioneers still control their own playoff destiny and will secure the fourth and final spot with a victory over Valley View on Friday.
Should the Pioneers be defeated by the Blazers, they would need help from Paragould and Brookland in order to make the playoffs. Game time from Valley View will be 7:00 p.m.
