FAYETTEVILLE — Fayetteville didn't have an answer for Bentonville tailback Courtney Haskell.
The senior tailback accumulated 269 yards of total offense and scored three of Bentonville's seven touchdowns in a 45-10, mercy-rule route of Fayetteville on Friday night at Harmon Field in both teams' 7A-West Conference opener.
Haskell rushed for 150 yards on 13 carries and 2 touchdown and caught 3 passes for 119 yards and another score. Haskell caught a 95-yard touchdown pass and had a 73-yard touchdown run in the Tigers' romp.
"He's pretty fast," Bentonville Coach Barry Lunney Sr. said. "You can't coach that. You get the ball in his hands andgood things happen. He's a very gifted young man."
The Tigers (4-0, 1-0) maintained a balanced approach and kept the Fayetteville defense on its heels with 553 yards of total offense.
Bentonville rushed for 293 yards. Tigers quarterback Pearson Gean completed 9 of 12 passes for 260 yards with 2 touchdown tosses.
"We feel good about our passing game," Lunney said. "Fayetteville was throwing eight up in the box and that's what we were ineffective at last year, but I think we're pretty good at it this year."
Defensively, Bentonville held Fayetteville to its lowest offensive output of the year. The Bulldogs managed just 248 yards of total offense.
"Defensively, they're going to play not to give up the big play and that's what they did," Fayetteville Coach Daryl Patton said.
Fayetteville quarterback Brandon Allen completed 18 of 37 passes for 176 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He was averaging 304.5 yards passing entering the game. Fayetteville's leading receiver Michael Heintzman, who had averaged 134.7 yards receiving and six catches per game, didn't make a reception until the 3:34 mark of the third quarter and finished with just two grabs for eight yards.
"We knew we were going to have to play perfect to win," Patton said. "We needed some breaks and didn't get them. Offensively we moved the ball but when you get in the red zone you have to punch it in."
Fayetteville (1-2-1, 0-1) won the toss but it all went downhill after that.
Bentonville's Dakota Baggett returned the opening kickoff 57 yards to the Fayetteville 34. The Bulldogs caught a break when a second-and-6 shotgun snapsailed over Gean's head to force a third-and-19.
Gean promptly found Haskell for 16 yards on a screen pass to set up a fourth-and-3 play from the Fayetteville 27. Gean rolled right and lobbed a 27-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Austin Griffith.
Fayetteville answered with an 11-play, 74-yard drive capped by a three-yard touchdown run by Heintzman on a direct snap. Allen completed 5 of 7 passes on the drive for 70 yards. A 35-yard Allen tunnel screen to Dylan Hale fueled the march.
The momentum shifted, though, after a Fayetteville drive stalled at the Bentonville 39. A 34-yard punt by Allen pinned the Tigers in at their own 5.
But on the first play, Gean heaved a 95-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Haskell, who hauled down the reception at the Tiger 35 and meandered past the Purple Dog pursuit to paydirt.
Sports, Pages 25 on 09/26/2009