Har-Ber Makes It 10 Wins Again
Springdale Har-Ber won its 10th game of the season with Friday’s 30-7 win against Russellville, marking the third straight 10-win season for the Wildcats.
“These seniors are setting the bar high,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “To win 30 games in the last three years says a lot about them. That’s a great body of work over the last three years.
They’ve worked hard. They’re making Springdale proud.”
They’ve also made history in Springdale. As tradition rich as Springdale High is in football, the Bulldogs have never recorded three straight 10-win seasons.
Springdale did record successive 10-win seasons in 2004 and 2005, 1999 and 2000, and 1991 and 1992.
Total Dominance
Har-Ber continues to play great defense, allowing just 40 yards rushing and 123 yards passing in Friday’s win, while piling up 505 yards and 24 first downs on offense.
“The defense played really well,” Wood said. “Offensively, we were able to eat up some clock and score some points.”
The defense actually pitched a shutout, keeping Russellville out of the end zone.
The Cyclones’ Andrew Tryon, a move-in from Morrilton, returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. It’s the second time this season that an opponent has opened the game against Har-Ber with a touchdown on the kickoff. Fayetteville’s Michael Heintzman went 96 yards on the opening kickoff, but Har-Ber won 39-14.
“We’ve seen it before,” Wood said. “We have to get that straightened out. We can’t let them return the opening kickoff for a touchdown and dig us a hole.”Ground Attack
For the third straight season, Har-Ber will play Cabot in the playoffs. Last year, Har-Ber won 21-17 in the second round. In 2007, Har-Ber won 35-14 in the first round.
“It’s almost like a conference team since we’ve played them every year,” Wood said. “We know what they’re going to do.”
Cabot continues to run the Dead-T offense with three backs packed tightly behind the quarterback with two tight ends much of the time.
“They run the Dead-T to perfection,” Wood said.
“Defensively, they’re very physical.”
Fullback Michael James leads Cabot’s offense, but he is not the typical fullback type.
“He sits in there and grinds and pounds it between the tight ends, but he has great speed.” Wood said. “He’s explosive.”
South Rises Again
Nine times this season, Fort Smith Southside has trailed in a game. Five times, the Rebels have come back to win, including Friday night when they rallied for a 27-24 win at Bentonville.
“Most of our games go down to the wire,” Southside coach Jeff Williams said. “We tell our kids that 80 percent of our games come down to the last two minutes, and that we need to make a play on defense or make a play on offense to win.”
In the first meeting against Bentonville, the Tigers led 6-0 after a quarter but Southside won 31-21. Springdale led 7-3 at the half before Southside won 20-17. Fort Smith Northside led 19-14 after three quarters, but the Rebels won 26-22. Bryant led 21-7 at the half and 24-21 in the third quarter in the first round of the playoffs before Southside won 35-24.
“That’s just the way we roll, I guess,” Williams said.
“We preach to them toplay to the end.”
Friday’s win was probably the most improbable of the bunch, though. Bentonville led 21-7 in the third quarter and 24-20 when Chad Levin kicked a 34-yard field goal with 6 minutes, 42 seconds left in the game. Southside faced a fourth-and-6 from its 46 when Hunter Whorton connected with Thomas Meares on a 53-yard pass. Whorton scored on the next play on a 1-yard sneak with 42 seconds left.
“The play was designed to go deep, but not to Thomas,” Williams said. “Bentonville dropped eight. We were looking for an inside receiver. Hunter had to scramble around, and he did a good job of seeing him. Thomas did a good job running his route, and just got behind the corner.”
Bentonville still worked the ball to Southside’s 21 with little time remaining but missed a 38-yard field goal at time expired.
West Vs. Central
In addition to Har-Ber traveling to Cabot in one West-versus-Central matchup, Southside travels to North Little Rock.
The Charging Wildcats pose another ground threat to the Rebels, who have allowed more than 200 yards to an opponent just once this season.
“We’ve played the run pretty well,” Williams said. “We’re pretty good sized on the defensive line.
We’ve tackled well all year.”
Tim Johnson rushed for 199 yards and three touchdowns against Rogers Heritage on Friday night to lead North Little Rock to a 49-45 win. Michael Tillman added 89 yards for the Wildcats.
North Little Rock returned a fumble 19 yards for a touchdown and a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown to aid its comeback from a 21-0 first-quarter deficit.
Sports, Pages 8 on 11/24/2009
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