Pleasant Hill ground attack runs over Benton

By Jimmy Gillispie

PLEASANT HILL — Following a pair of lopsided losses, the Roosters earned their first 2026 victory Friday night. 

They defeated Benton, 47-21, at Eklund Field after a pair of losses by a combined 59 points. Needless to say, the mood was a lot more positive in the locker room following the game.

“I don’t know, other than Class 6A schools, if there is a school that starts off with a tougher scheduled than we do,” Pleasant Hill coach Justin Hamilton said. “That being said, we’ve learned some things and gotten better every week. We continue to do that this week. Like I've said before, we are doing some new things offensively and we are very much run oriented. We wanted to set a tone tonight and establish a physicality up front, and I feel like our kids did that.”

Pleasant Hill got off to a quick start Friday night. It had struggled offensively in the first two weeks, but its ground attack began imposing its will in the first half.

Hamilton said his squad scored several touchdowns and jumped out to a 27-0 lead. He said there were a couple reasons why they were able to score early and often Friday.

“One thing was executing, but two of the big things we’ve talked about offensively right now are we can’t have negative plays and turnovers. We’re not saying we can’t have any, but we have to minimize those negative plays. We turned the ball over a lot and in bad times the first two games. Defensively tonight, we got four and we didn't turn the ball over on offense once. Another thing was the physicality we played with tonight.”

The Roosters rushed the ball 52 times for 405 yards. Leading the way was Emerson Pena, who carried the ball 25 times for 231 yards and two touchdowns. Cole Allen, Mason Boyd, Carter Hoglen and Carson Cassidy combined for 23 carries and 150 yards. 

“We have different backs who can do different things,” Hamilton said. “Emerson Pena is the main back. He got a lot of playing time the back half of last year for us. He’s starting to understand the offense and what we’re trying to do. But, we play a lot of guys back there.”

Benton scored a touchdown before half and added another early in the third quarter, trimming the Roosters’ lead in half. Hamilton said his team responded and didn’t let the momentum snowball to allow Benton back in the contest.

Instead, Pleasant Hill scored its own touchdown on the ensuing drive and pushed the lead back to three scores.

“We didn’t let it snowball,” Hamilton said. “We we'll have to do that again at some point later this year, but it was nice to do that tonight.”

Pleasant Hill (1-2) also lost its first two games last year – to Savannah and Maryville again – before winning its Week 3 contest. Unlike last year, the Roosters have played their final non-conference game of the regular season.

They will face Oak Grove at home Friday night. The Roosters have won five of the past six in the series, including last year’s 21-14 victory. 

“The goal with the first three games is to determine who we are and what we do well in order to start getting ready for the games that matter” Hamilton said. “Those games start this week. Once again, I think our conference is wide open. We have to play one week at a time.”