7A-WEST NOTEBOOK

By BY LELAND BARCLAY, NORTHWEST ARKANSAS NEWSPAPERS C

Posted: November 17, 2009 at 3:06 a.m.

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Teams Ready To Go After Bye Week

After earning shares of the 7A-West championship and firstround byes in the Class 7A playoffs, Bentonville and Springdale Har-Ber are ready to go.

“It was a opportunity to rest up,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “We deviated from our regular routine quite a bit. It was a reward for earning one of the top two seeds. They’ll be fresh and ready to go.”

Har-Ber will host former 7A-West foe Russellville, which defeated Springdale High 27-26 in the first round.

Har-Ber went a little longer in practice on Monday after the bye week before returning to full practices today and Wednesday work out in just helmets on Thursday.

Bentonville will host Fort Smith Southside, which defeated Bryant 35-24. Southside also is the only team to defeat Bentonville this week, downing the Tigers, 31-21, on Oct. 2.

After playing for the conference championship in the regularseason finale, Bentonville coach Barry Lunney believes a bye week was good for his Tigers.

“Last year, we would have rather played,” Lunney said. “In our situation this year, I thinkwe needed the week off after playing such a big game. It was a championship-type game. It’s hard to recuperate from that.”

Bentonville defeated Har-Ber, 17-0, to earn a share of the conference title and the number one seed from the conference in the playoffs.

West, Central Even

After the first week of the playoffs, the Central and West conference are even.

The West won two games with Southside winning at Bryant 35-24, and Rogers Heritage winning at home over Little Rock Catholic 17-10.

The Central also claimed two victories with Russellville winning at home over Springdale, and Conway winning at Fayetteville 45-42.

Second Round

In addition to Bentonville hosting Southside and Har-Ber hosting Russellville, Conway travels to Cabot while Heritage travels to North Little Rock.

Bentonville and Southside will play for the fourth time in two years, with the two teams meeting in last year’s state championship game, which Bentonville won 32-20. Southside won in October 31-21, when theRebels dedicated their stadium in honor of athletic director Jim Rowland.

Har-Ber and Russellville meet for the second time, with the Wildcats winning their only other meeting - a 47-23 victory over the Cyclones in the 2007 Class 7A state playoff semifinals.

Russellville’s victory against Springdale was the team’s 500th all-time since beginning football in 1909.

Heritage and North Little Rock will meet for the first time as well. North Little Rock is trying for its first nine-win season since 1997. The Charging Wildcats are 1-8 in the playoffs against West teams with the only win coming against Bentonville, 24-14, in the first round in 2006. North Little Rock shared the Central title with Cabot and is the second seed from the conference.

Eyewitness

The bye week also gave the coaches a rare opportunity to see the next opponent in person.

Wood and his staff was able to scout Russellville in its win against Springdale on Friday night.

“We went and watched them,” Wood said. “They don’t do anything to hurt themselves.

They have an outstanding scheme and are real solid.”

Russellville features the best kicker in the state with Zach Hocker, who set the singleseason state record with his 17th field goal in the regularseason finale again Cabot.

Hocker booted a 48-yard field on the final play of the first half that would have been good from much, much further. He averages 46 yards per punt, and his kickoffs almost always reach the end zone.

Sports, Pages 10 on 11/17/2009

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