Scooby's back

BENTONVILLE — Scooby, Scooby Doo, where are you?

That question has probablybeen asked among several Bentonville fans two games into the 2009 season. And for Sheldon "Scooby" Vanderpool, it's been a long, frustrating start.

Luckily for him, things got a lot better Friday for Bentonville's senior wide receiver.

Vanderpool, who sat out Bentonville's first two games of the season with an ankle injury, returned to the field in the Tigers' 54-0 win against Nettleton and caught two passes for 58 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown pass from Pearson Gean in the first quarter.

The big win will likely vault the Tigers (3-0) into the top spot of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's overall state rankings.

Vanderpool led Bentonville with 354 receiving yards as a junior last year and head coach Barry Lunney said it was good to get the 6-foot-2, 180-pound wideout back in the fray.

"Nice to see him out there catching a ball or two," Lunney said.

Vanderpool hauled in a 9-yardpass at the end of the first quarter.

For his second catch, Vanderpool got 15 yards behind the Nettleton secondary but had to turn on the jets to catch up with Gean's pass. The senior lunged for itand snagged it trotting into the end zone.

After the game he was

still smiling about hauling in his first pass and touchdown of the year.

"The ball just seemed so high while I was running," Vanderpool said. "I was just like, 'please catch it,' just focusing on the ball and I caught it."

Vanderpool initially injured his ankle a few weeks into the start of August practices. He recovered from the initial injury but re-injured it just before Bentonville was scheduled to scrimmage at Tulsa Union. He said he was out a total of 19 days.

Lunney said Vanderpool had to be back full speed before being allowed to play.

"If he wasn't back then you had to run the risk of him doing something tonight and not being back for conference season," Lunney said.

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Trey Carter kicked off the 2008 Bentonville season with an interception at Conway, the first inwhat would be 29 picks for the Tigers on the year.

Carter had not gotten back into the interception act until Friday against the Raiders.

Carter, playing in a Cover 2 scheme, picked off Nettleton's Tanner Williams. Gean hit Tyler Trudo for a 51-yard touchdown pass on the next play to give the Tigers a 34-0 lead.

"Dakota (Baggett) had the shallow route," Carter said. "I was over the top. The kid just threw it up. I was right there to catch it."

Sophomore John Hembry intercepted a pass in the second half for the Tigers' fourth interception of the season. Senior Hayden Boydston and sophomore Chris Scroggins also have interceptions.

The Tigers' secondary is likely to get several footballs thrown their way this week in their 7AWest Conference opener against Fayetteville.

"(Fayetteville is a) real good passing team so that will challenge us in the secondary," Carter said. "The 7A-West Conference is going to be hard the whole time. Like coach said, it's going to be a dogfight. We're going to have to scrape and fight for anything we get."◊ ◊ ◊

Bentonville's starting offensive and defensive units saw limited action Friday against Nettleton.

As a result, Lunney said the Tigers are going to have to prepare thoroughly this week to get ready for Fayetteville.

"It would have been good to be able to leave our guys out there a little more," Lunney said. "We're going to have to have a good physical week of work."

Lunney admitted that even though he preached about staying focused on Nettleton to his players, he and his coaches took an early look at Fayetteville (1-1-1) this past week. The Bulldogs tied Russellville 26-26 at Harmon Field.

"We've already been thinking about it a little bit," Lunney said. "I've got to be honest. We sneaked a peak a little bit. We traded film the other day. We still prepared our kids (for Nettleton). I could tell the coaches prepared our kids. I got home the other night and watched (Fayetteville) on delayed broadcast on my satellite with Jefferson City (Mo.). Everybody sneaks a little bit."

NOTES: For the second time in Lunney's five years as head coach, the Tigers went 3-0 in their nonconference schedule. : Bentonville only punted once on Friday against Nettleton. Austin Molitor launched a booming 50-yard punt that pinned Nettleton on its own 1-yard line.