Pulaski Academy Wins 2009 Sonic Air Raid

Pulaski Academy reeled off 7 straight victories at the Sonic Air Raid on Saturday to take home their second Air Raid championship. The Bruins also won the Air Raid in 2007. They did not attend the tournament in 2008.

Pulaski Academy defeated Lonoke (26-18), CAC (34-0), and Searcy (28-12) in pool play to earn their way as a one seed in the championship bracket. They would defeat Heber Springs (30-8) in the first round and Greene County Tech (36-22) in the second round to setup a matchup with Pine Bluff in the winners bracket final. Although the Bruins won by 9 points, 29-20, it took a defensive stop and a touchdown in the last minutes to seal the victory. Greenbrier would defeat Pine Bluff with a touchdown with 30 seconds left in the losers bracket final to earn the right to play the Bruins in the championship. Greenbrier led 10-0 early and 20-10 with 10 minutes left to play. The Bruins would go ahead 23-22 with 3 minutes to play, and relied on great plays by their defense to keep the Panthers out of the endzone. Greenbrier would fall short as Pulaski Academy would knock down a pass on 3rd down from the one-yard line to seal the victory and the championship.

Other than Pulaski Academy, there were lots of nice surprises from the tournament.

PINE BLUFF: The Zebras were undefeated before dropping their last two games to PA and Greenbrier. QB Claude Johnson had their offense looking like a machine at times, and their defense made some fantastic plays.

GREENBRIER: The perennial doormat of the 5A West are making strides to move up that ladder. They were led by a heady quarterback that made few mistakes and receivers that just did not drop many balls and made some very good grabs.

DES ARC: Although they were in what we considered to be a very weak pool, they held their own in their first meeting with 5A Greene County Tech in pool play in a 14-9 loss, then defeated them in the tournament 17-14. They also defeated Lonoke, 18-12. Not bad for a 2A school with a new head coach.

BALD KNOB: They were in the toughest pool and lost by just 7 points to Pine Bluff and 2 points to Little Rock Christian. After going 0-3 in pool play, they would not lose another game as they went on to win the consolation tournament. They defeated Conway Christian, Conway, and Little Rock Christian twice to win the consolation bracket.