NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Hardison Earns 7A-West Honors
Dallas Hardison played well as the quarterback on Bentonville’s freshman team two years, and guided the junior varsity to an undefeated season last season as a sophomore.
The bright lights of Friday night football are a different experience, but Hardison is handling that with success as well.
“It’s not unexpected in that we watched him in our program for the last two years, but you just don’t know how that’s going to equate out on Friday night in this league,” Bentonville coach Barry Lunney said. “It’s pretty tough for any quarterback in this league on Friday night, but we did feel like he had a good grasp on the offense and that he would fit in nicely. He’s made that transition.”
Hardison led Bentonville to a 69-41 win against Fort Smith Northside on Friday, which moved the Tigers into first place in the 7A-West Conference all alone after Springdale Har-Ber stumbled at Fort Smith Southside.
Hardison completed 14 of 20 passes for 331 yards and touchdowns to four different receivers: Desmond Smith, Austin Molitor, Desmond Snow and Bo Weber. Hardison also ran for two touchdowns. His big night earned Hardison this week’s 7A-West Conference Player of the Week honors.
“Dallas is just one of those players that can play the game,” Lunney said. “He has a very good feel for the game. He understands the game. He has some of the intangible things.”
Hardison has started just six games on the varsity level, but has thrown for 1,669 yards and 20 touchdowns with just two interceptions. Among starting quarterbacks, he leads the conference in completion percentage at 72.5.
“He’s really picked up on the offense and what we’re doing,” Lunney said. “He’s very skilled and talented in throwing the football.”
10 Touchdowns
Two weeks after setting a conference record with nine offensive touchdowns, Bentonville scored 10 offensive touchdowns against Northside.
“We are playing well, offensively,” Lunney said. “We’ve had to score points. I was a little disappointed Friday night. We weren’t real sharp, defensively, on Friday night, but Northside played real well in the offense.”
Bentonville rushed for six touchdowns and passed for four more, scoring on all 10 of its possessions.
In addition, Bentonville passed and rushed for more than 300 yards in the same game to duplicate its feat from two weeks ago. Bentonville had 44 carries for 307 yards, and threw for 331 yards on Friday.
“This is the most balanced since we’ve been here,” said Lunney, who is in his sixth season at Bentonville. “That’s been really nice.”
The sophomore combination of Tearris Wallace and Garrett Kaufman combined for 236 yards and three touchdowns, with Wallace gaining 119 yards and Kaufman 117 with three scores. Desmond Smith had seven catches for 187 yards and a touchdown.
Bentonville has been extremely balanced all season, averaging 244 yards per game in the air and 217 yards per game on the ground.
“We came into the season, feeling like a strength of this football team would be our receivers,” Lunney said. “It’s proven to be that way. We have some depth, and we have some kids that have worked hard and played well.
“Dallas has complemented that because he has the arm. The surprise has been the emergence of the running backs. We’ve had two sophomore backs that are pretty good running backs. We had to replace four starters on the offensive line from last year. Up front, they’ve really performed well.
“If you’re scoring points and gaining a lot of yards, running or passing, then you’re playing well up front.”
Bentonville defeated Rogers Heritage 64-28 two weeks ago, rushing for seven touchdowns and passing for two.
For the season, Bentonville has scored 49 offensive touchdowns and kicked six field goals out of 72 offensive possessions.
More Milestones
Bentonville also set a record for points scored in a conference game in its 69-41 win against Northside. The 69 points also marks a team record for points scored in a game during the modern era from 1946.
The all-time Tigers record for points scored in a game was in a 122-0 against Prairie Grove in 1921.
The combined 110 points scored by the two teams is also a conference record, eclipsing the previous mark set in Rogers Heritage’s 64-45 win against Springdale last year.
The two teams also combined for 1,236 yards to set another conference record.
The Giant Falls
The second year in a row, Fort Smith Southside knocked off the No. 1 team in the state.
Southside defeated Springdale Har-Ber 38-31 on Friday. Har-Ber was No. 1 in the state by the Associated Press and ranked No. 10 nationally by the USA Today.
“It was a big game for us, and we needed it for the conference race,” Southside coach Jeff Williams said. “It was a big confidence booster for us, and it also got us into the playoffs.”
Julius Jones scored on a 9-yard run with 38 seconds left for the tie-breaking touchdown.
“We’re executing pretty well right now on both sides of the ball, better than we were two weeks ago,” Williams said. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us, though.”
It marked Southside’s second last-minute win in the last two weeks. The week before, Jordan McGee caught a 32-yard touchdown strike from Hunter Whorton with 25 seconds left in Southside’s 48-45 win against Fayetteville.
“We’re used to it,” Williams said. “We’ve done it a lot over the past couple of years. Our kids feel real comfortable in that position. We practice those situations all the time. We tell them that most of our games are going to come down to the last drive, either stopping somebody or scoring.
“We just kind of look at each and say let’s go do what we need to do. Everybody was real calm. We really executed during that last drive, but also through the whole game.”
Friday, Southside scored twice in the final minute of the first half to take a 17-10 lead. Whorton scored on a 1-yard run with 53 seconds left in the half to tie the game at 10-10. After Har-Ber sailed a snap over the punter’s head that Southside recovered, Whorton fired a 30-yard touchdown pass to McGee with just 5 seconds left in the half.
“They don’t punt much because they score so many points,” Williams said. “They’re not used to it. Most games, they probably only punt twice.”
The game was tied at 3-3, 10-10, 17-17, 24-24 and 31-31, but Har-Ber never led in the game.
“Har-Ber hasn’t had to play four quarters much,” Williams said. “We told our kids that if could get them into the fourth quarter and get into that situation with them that our kids have a lot of confidence in that position.”
Southside defeated Bentonville when the Tigers were No. 1 last year, 31-21, in Week 5.
That was Southside’s first win against the No. 1 team in the state since a 9-0 win against Springdale in Week 8 in 1992. Six weeks later, Southside defeated Pine Bluff for the state championship.