7 A-WEST Southside’s surprise

FORT SMITH — Springdale Har-Ber is still looking for its first victory at Jim Rowland Stadium.

In a back-and-forth battle that came down to which team could score last, the Wildcats saw their record against Fort Smith Southside drop to 0-4 all-time on the Rebels’ home field, dropping a 38-31 decision Friday.

The loss drops Har-Ber (7-1, 4-1) from atop the 7A-West Conference standings, while the Rebels (5-3, 3-2) continued their recent history of playing their best ball late in the season.

“We’ve had great games with those guys,” Southside Coach Jeff Williams said. “It’s been back and forth and they’ve got a great football team. We came in and played real well. We got some confidence from last week that carried over.

“And I’m sure we’ll see those guys again. It seems like we always do. Hats off to them, they’re very well coached but it just seemed like we made a few key plays down the stretch.”

Southside’s key plays actually began in the first half, when two late scores just before halftime turned a 10-3 Har-Ber lead into a 17-10 deficit at the break. The first score - set up by a 45-yard pass play from Hunter Whorton to Austin Nolan - did some damage, but the Rebels’ final TD just before the half, which resulted from amuffed punt, seemed to be a play the Wildcats had a hard time overcoming.

“Right before the half we gave up two simple touchdowns and you can’t give up 14 points to someone with a minute or something left in the half,” Har-Ber Coach ChrisWood said. “That dug us in a hole, but I thought our kids were resilient. They fought through, we just couldn’t get a stop. Offensively we kind of struggled all night and hats go off to Southside. They won the game.”

Har-Ber tied the game at 17-17, 24-24 and 31-31. But after playing from behind for most ofthe night, the Wildcats finally succumbed to Southside when the Rebels took over possession with 3:46 left to play and used up all but 38 seconds to score the winning touchdown on a Julius Jones 9-yard run.

“It was just an uphill battle all night,” Wood said. “We were behind the eight ball all night and that’s on Southside because they kept us in that position.”

Gordon Welch rushed for 110 yards and Ryan Luther passed for 205 yards for Har-Ber, while Jones rushed 24 times for 183 yards for the Rebels.

“I know we gave up 31 points, but I thought we played well enough defensively,” Williams said. “They’ve been scoring in bundles and we had some key stops and then just made some key plays down the stretch.”