FAYETTEVILLE — The Bulldogs thought they had done the improbable. Only Conway had one last bit of improbability left.
Down 38-21 with less than 6 minutes remaining on Friday night, Fayetteville rallied with three touchdowns in 4 minutes, 20 seconds to take a 42-38 lead with 1:34 remaining in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs. The Bulldogs’ final touchdown appeared to give Fayetteville the win and cap off an up-and-down night, but it nearly never happened.
Trailing 38-35, Fayetteville got the ball back on its 42 with 2:04 remaining, but three plays later the Bulldogs were faced with a fourth-and-6 from their 46. That’s when quarterback Brandon Allen dropped back, looked left and threw toward the Fayetteville sideline.
The ball was tipped by a Conway defender and hung in the air — only to be caught by Fayetteville receiver Troy Underwood, who was behind the original tip and who then raced 54 yards down the sideline to give the Bulldogs their first lead since the first half. Underwood was mobbed in the end zone by his teammates, who appeared to be on their way to a quarterfinal matchup at Cabot next week.
“I thought we had (the win),” a dejected Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said afterward.
As was the case for most of the game, however, Conway had an answer. The Wampus Cats’ final one came in the form of a 52-yard touchdown pass by a scrambling Xavier Acklin to Tristan Eddings with 6 seconds remaining to give Conway the 45-42 win.
“It seemed like (Acklin) was running around for 20 seconds back there,” Fayetteville defensive coordinator Brian Early said of the final touchdown. “A lot of things are going through your mind. ‘Just don’t let them behind you. Play the ball when you see it go up in the air,’ and we just didn’t make a play.
“Their guy made a play; we didn’t.”
Acklin, who accounted for 338 yards of total offense, frustrated Fayetteville’s defense throughout the game — even after the Bulldogs built a 21-7 lead in the first quarter. The Wampus Cats (5-6) scored 31 unanswered points to take a 38-21 lead with 8:27 remaining and appeared in control.
However, behind Allen’s 470 yards passing — 274 of which went to senior receiver Michael Heintzman — Fayetteville rallied. The Bulldogs, who had scored 21 points in the first quarter before being shut out in the second and third quarters, scored 21 points in 4:20 and took the lead on Underwood’s touchdown catch.
“I’m proud of the way the kids competed and didn’t give up,” Patton said. “We practice (the hurry-up offense), and we didn’t give up. On fourth down, what a play by Troy.
“We thought we had it.”
Only the Bulldogs (5-5-1), who finished with five wins for the second straight season, didn’t have the win — thanks to Acklin’s final pass.
“You’ve got to tip your hat to their quarterback,” Early said. “He made plays when things broke down. It looked like organized chaos at times, and he runs around back there and makes a play. You’re telling your kids all along to keep believing, and we fight and we scratch and we claw and we get back into it.
“And it’s just so heartbreaking to lose on the last play of the game after coming back and giving ourselves a chance to win.”
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