WEST MEMPHIS — After four touchdowns were scored in the first three minutes Friday night, West Memphis Coach Lanny Dauksch thought the Blue Devils’ scoreboard was in trouble.
“I thought we were on our way to somebody scoring 100 points,” he said after his team rallied in the fourth quarter for a 43-36 victory over Rogers Heritage in a Class 7A first-round playoff game.
It was the 18th consecutive victory for Dauksch in first-round playoff games.
Although the offenses cooled off as the game progressed, it was still a dizzying pace set by both teams that included 195 plays.
“That’s not the speed I wanted to play at,” Dauksch said. “I was wanting it more like 14-7, but I knew coming in that there was no chance of that.”
West Memphis (8-3) will travel to Bentonville for a quarterfinal game next week. The two teams met in the quarterfinals last year with Bentonville winning 42-14.
Heritage junior quarterback Josh Qualls threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns in the first quarter and helped the War Eagles (7-4) stay ahead of West Memphis for three quarters. Qualls was 21 of 32 passing for 308 yards in the first half as Heritage took a 29-28 lead.
West Memphis, however, was nearly as potent on the ground as senior tailback Kendell Allen rushed for 113 first-half yards and junior fullback Jarvis Cooper added 67.
It was Allen and Cooper who took the Blue Devils 70 yards on the game-winning drive. Cooper rushed for 43 of his 163 yards on the final drive, including a 1-yard touchdown run with 51 seconds to play.
Allen was the game’s leading rusher with 23 carries for 200 yards.
Heritage took a 36-28 lead with 6:46 left in the third quarter, but the Blue Devils tied it with a 38-yard touchdown run by Allen and a two-point conversion by Cooper.
Heritage drove to the West Memphis 30 before Qualls misfired on fourthand-7. That was all West Memphis and its two running backs needed. The Blue Devils took four minutes in going 70 yards on the winning drive.
“I was afraid we left too much time on the clock when we scored,” Cooper said.
Qualls finished 29 of 46 for 398 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Sports, Pages 26 on 11/10/2012