War Eagles’ Offense Produces At Right Times

By Ryan Malashock

Posted: November 1, 2009 at 1:49 a.m.

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FORT SMITH — Their offense struggled Friday night at Fort Smith Southside. There’s no denying the Rogers Heritage War Eagles produced their worst o◊ensive e◊ort this season.

But several offensive positives could still be taken away from Heritage’s 9-7 victory at Jim Rowland Stadium. The win helped give the War Eagles (7-2, 4-2) a chance at the No. 3 playo◊seed from the 7 A-West Conference and clinched a fi rst-roundhome game.

Though the Rebels outgained Heritage 300-242 in total yards Friday, the War Eagles produced just enough important plays to at the right moments.

“At the beginning of the game, coach (Perry Escalante) always tells us that the team with the most rushing yards will win the game,” Heritage junior quarterback Reed Brown said. “Well, we didn’t have the most, but we had them at the right times. Coach also says it’s not how many total yards you get, it’s how many of the right ones you get.”

Heritage gained 80 of its yards on one first-quarter series alone, after going three-and-out on its fi rst two drives. Those initial two series resulted in zero first downs and 7 total yards.

Six consecutive rushing plays for 37 yards by juniors Zac Stewart and Jimmy Britton sparked that 10-play, 80-yard scoring drive. Brown didn’t complete his fi rst pass until hitting senior Grant Driver for a 25-yard touchdown pass at the end of that 80-yard march.

“I don’t get real frustrated with our o◊ense becausewe’ve done that repeatedly this year,” Escalante said. “We’ve done that all season, and we need to stop doing that. I had faith that they’d settle in, and they did, I guess.

“It’s still frustrating.”

The second and third quarters really must have perturbed Escalante as he watched his sputtering o◊ense.

Heritage gained only 21 yards after Samuel Mayhall’s interception and settled for Hayden Severs’ gamewinning field goal early in the second quarter. The War Eagles finished the half with a three-and-out and a Brown interception.

They failed to capitalize on another Southside mistake early in the third when, after a 45-yard pass from Brown to Driver, Brown fumbled a snap at the Rebels’ 1. Another three-and-out preceded Heritage’s other quality drive of the night.

“We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Escalante said. “Two or three drives, we had back-to-backpenalties that killed us. It’s a lack of focus. On a muddy track you can’t have those penalties.

“We’ll turn it around.”

Heritage’s final drive must have given Escalante that confi dence.

Sure, Brown ended up with a season-low 154 passing yards. Stewart rushed 21 times for only 58 yards, his third-lowest total this season, and the Heritage o◊ense also recorded its third-worst performance in total yards.

But the War Eagles ate up more than six valuable minutes of clock late in the contest with a 15-play, 51-yard drive. Severs missed a 46-yard field goal with 55 seconds left, and Southside gained only three yards in four plays to finish the game.

The War Eagles converted three third-down plays on the drive, the most important being an 18-yard completion from Brown to Stewart on third-and-16.

“I saw the safety come down on him man-to-manand looked off the safety,” said Brown, who found Stewart down the middle of the field. “Zac jumped up and got hammered and held onto it. What a great catch.”

NOTES: Britton dislocated his left shoulder during Friday’s first half and didn’t return. He’s questionable for this week’s game against Fayetteville. ... The War Eagles didn’t let a referee error hurt them Friday night. Confused by a penalty call, the refs allowed Southside two consecutive third-down plays late in the first half. Heritage still stu◊ed Lee Hollis for no gain on fourth-and-1 (or fi fthand-1 ?) at midfield. ... Driver led the War Eagles with four catches for 88 yards.

Sports, Pages 7 on 11/01/2009

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