The Bentonville Tigers ended the season as the No. 1 team in the state, according to all of the statewide rankings and polls.
At A Glance
THAT FIGURES
1 - win in four games for the West on Friday against the Central
71 - consecutive Associated Press polls in which Bentonville has been ranked
614 - yards by Siloam Springs on Friday night
The Tigers have been ranked in 71 straight Associated Press polls, which includes preseason, 10 regular season, and final polls each of the last five years and all of this season.
That's the most ever in the 7A/6A-West, far surpassing the record of 55 straight set by Springdale High from 2002 through week six of 2006.
The overall record since the merger of the big school conference into the current playoff format in 1983 is held by Pine Bluff. The Zebras appeared in 77 straight Associated Press polls from 1993 to week four of 1999. They were ranked No. 1 in 36 of those polls, which included state championships in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
Bentonville has been ranked No. 1 in 37 polls during their current streak with two state titles in 2008 and 2010.
The Tigers took over the top spot this season from Fayetteville, which started the year at the top, but lost its season-opener to Memphis (Tenn.) University 42-20.
Bentonville won its sixth straight conference title and earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs. The Tigers will host West Memphis on Friday.
REMATCH
With only 16 teams competing in the playoffs in Class 7A, rematches are common.
Each of the past six state championship games have been rematches involving 7A/6A-West teams.
Friday night, though, Springdale Har-Ber travels to Fort Smith Southside in a little different rematch.
Southside, along with Northside, were moved to the 7A/6A-Central this season and out of their customary home in the West.
Har-Ber and Southside chose to play a nonconference game this season, which Har-Ber won, 10-7 in Week three.
“When you look for nonconference games, it's not easy to find them,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “Southside has trouble finding nonconference games. We didn't want that go to away just because they were moving to the Central.”
Har-Ber defeated Southside twice in 2009, 16-13 in conference play and 27-6 in the state championship game.
“Seeing them in the playoffs is nothing new,” Wood said. “In 2009, we saw them in the regular season and saw them in the state championship game. That's the card we're dealt. When you're playing in the state's largest classification like we are, it's bound to happen and repeat itself year in and year out.”
The first game this season was definitely a defensive struggle. Har-Ber managed 261 yards and 13 first downs. Southside managed 235 yards and 16 first downs. Neither team committed a turnover, and both teams punted three times.
“It's always a challenge against the West schools,” Wood said. “I know they are in the Central, but we still consider Southside a West school. It's somebody we see every year, and sometimes we see them two times in a season. This is one of those seasons. That's life. We know Southside pretty well, and they know us.”
Rematches generally favor the team that lost the first game. The losing team can concentrate on mistakes made in the first game, and what they would do better in the second game.
“It favors Southside us playing again,” Wood said. “We were at home this year, and it was week three. Both teams have come a long way since then. It's always good the second game for the team that came up on the short end the first time.”
PANTHERS CLAW BACK
Siloam Springs was winless in conference play and then faced a 28-0 halftime deficit in its first-round playoff game at Searcy, and still didn't quit.
“I really have to hand it to our seniors,” Siloam Springs coach Bryan Ross said. “We talked to them about what a difficult season we were facing, but there wasn't a day when they had a bad attitude or didn't want to work. They really stayed with it. With what we were facing, it could have been pretty miserable, but our kids didn't let it. It really speaks to the character they have, particularly the seniors.”
Three turnovers helped Searcy take a 28-0 halftime lead, but the Panthers covered two onside kicks to start the second half to slice the deficit in half. Had Siloam Springs failed to cover the onside kick or just kicked off conventionally, Searcy could have scored and invoked the Arkansas Activities Association's Sportsmanship Rule, which calls for a continuously running clock.
“We were just a possession away from being mercy-ruled, but we didn't think of it like that,” Ross said. “That let our kids know that they are never really out of the game and to not quit.”
Siloam Springs went on to score four touchdowns in the third quarter and three more in the fourth quarter. The Panthers onside kicked after every touchdown.
“We covered the first two onside,” Ross said. “We onsided and got it, and went down and scored, and onsided again, and got it again. We were able to go down again and score. That was really what got us back in it. We felt like we were struggling to stop them, and my thought was if we got it, great, we stole a possession and if we don't then they have a short field and we're going to get the ball back quicker. When you're down 28-0, you take some risks.”
Austin Van Poucke threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Chandler Gregory with no time left that pulled Siloam Springs within 49-48. The Panthers first sent its kicking team onto the field, but called timeout and decided to go for the win. When Siloam Springs came out with its offense, Searcy then called timeout to prepare for the game-deciding two-point conversion. Van Poucke rolled out and fired just over Gregory in the back of the end zone.
“It was definitely crazy,” Ross said. “We played so badly in the first half and then came back and looked like a totally different team in the second half. We talked about not quitting and going out and having fun. We got a couple of breaks the second half and took advantage of them. Our kids did a great job of playing until the end, but they've done that all year. I'm very proud of that.”
Siloam Springs racked up 614 yards of offense and had 30 first downs.
Van Poucke threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for 158 yards and two scores. Scout Alexander ran for 153 yards and two scores.
VETERAN'S DAY
Prior to 1954, Veteran's Day was known as Armistice Day, an annual holiday that commemorated the symbolic end of World War I.
The holiday began in 1919 on the one-year anniversary of the signing of the armistice at an 11 o'clock meeting between the countries involved in the war on November 11, 1918 or “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.”
The date was celebrated all across the world annually.
High school and college football games that were played on or around November 11 of each year were proudly proclaimed as the annual Armistice Day game until the holiday's name was changed. The annual game was generally the second biggest game of the season next to the annual Thanksgiving Day game, which was annually played between the schools' biggest rivals, and was a lot of the time used for homecoming festivities as well. Teams often moved their game to Armistice Day with the cities celebrating the holiday with parades and dances. The local high school football game became an annual part of the celebration and generally wrapped up the day's events.
For example, the Armistice Day games of 1932 were played on Wednesday, November 11 with Bentonville defeating Rogers, 12-8, Springdale and Siloam Springs playing to a scoreless tie, and Van Buren downing Fayetteville, 7-0.
In 1938, it became a legal holiday in the United States with government offices closing. In 1954, the name was changed to Veteran's Day to honor war veterans of World War II, and the Korean War.
Today, we honor all of the veterans that have served our country in war.
7A/6A-WEST CONFERENCE STATISTICAL LEADERS
TEAM OFFENSE
TEAM RUSH PASS TOTAL AVG/GM
Rogers Heritage 1840 2400 4240 424.0
Fayetteville 996 2919 3915 355.9
Rogers High 3520 225 3745 374.5
Springdale Har-Ber 2141 1830 3971 361.0
Van Buren 1529 1903 3432 312.0
Bentonvillle 2076 1610 3686 368.6
Siloam Springs 1254 2220 3474 347.4
Springdale High 2238 945 3183 289.4
TEAM DEFENSE
TEAM RUSH PASS TOTAL AVG/GM
Bentonville 1070 821 1891 189.1
Fayetteville 1450 1296 2746 274.6
Springdale Har-Ber 1622 1462 3084 280.4
Springdale High 1589 1869 3458 345.8
Rogers High 2061 1920 3981 361.9
Rogers Heritage 2011 2195 4206 382.4
Van Buren 2367 1820 4187 380.6
Siloam Springs 2454 1953 4407 440.7
OFFENSIVE SCORING
TEAM RUSH PASS DEF SPEC TOTAL
Bentonville 34 17 2 1 54
Rogers Heritage 25 26 2 1 54
Fayetteville 20 25 3 0 48
Rogers High 44 2 0 1 47
Springdale Har-Ber 19 25 0 0 44
Van Buren 18 19 2 0 39
Springdale High 26 8 1 2 37
Siloam Springs 20 15 0 0 35
DEFENSIVE SCORING
TEAM RUSH PASS DEF SPEC TOTAL
Bentonville 5 1 2 1 9
Springdale Har-Ber 16 10 2 0 28
Fayetteville 14 10 1 2 27
Springdale High 20 21 0 0 41
Rogers High 25 23 1 1 50
Rogers Heritage 28 21 0 1 50
Van Buren 38 17 0 0 55
Siloam Springs 37 26 5 1 69
TURNOVER RATIO
TEAM TAKEAWAYS GIVEAWAYS TOTAL
Bentonville 31 6 +25
Fayetteville 27 13 +14
Rogers Heritage 29 23 +6
Rogers High 10 9 +1
Springdale High 16 21 -5
Van Buren 16 22 -6
Siloam Springs 17 27 -10
Springdale Har-Ber 11 23 -12
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
PASSING
PLAYER, SCHOOL PC PA INT YDS TD
Austin Allen, Fayetteville 177 272 3 2892 25
Josh Qualls, Rogers Heritage 162 297 10 2371 27
Austin Van Poucke, Siloam Springs 134 250 16 1846 13
Jacob Eason, Van Buren 155 274 12 1712 15
Kyle Pianalto, Springdale Har-Ber 109 187 7 1688 23
Reese Dollins, Bentonville 108 150 5 1535 16
Will Whatley, Springdale 75 145 10 945 8
Lampton, Siloam Springs 34 78 4 374 2
Nick Wary, Rogers High 9 24 1 209 2
Pierce Phillips, Springdale 10 17 2 122 2
RUSHING
PLAYER, SCHOOL ATT YDS TD
Tearris Wallace, Bentonville 222 1440 21
Deandre Murray, Springdale 189 1421 17
Brandon Gates, Rogers Heritage 211 1251 14
Tucker Lee, Springdale Har-Ber 193 1204 10
Nick Wary, Rogers High 143 1120 22
Jacob Eason, Van Buren 178 816 11
Scout Alexander, Siloam Springs 160 798 10
Ty Galyean, Rogers High 93 768 8
Will Whatley, Springdale 115 490 3
Austin Van Poucke, Siloam Springs 115 432 9
Preston Young, Rogers High 74 400 5
Braydon Cook, Fayetteville 89 398 6
Dylan Smith, Bentonville 60 368 4
Deverick Fimple, Van Buren 84 358 2
Kyle Pianalto, Springdale Har-Ber 79 342 6
Brandon Workman, Rogers High 30 315 3
Jacquille Franklin, Van Buren 62 303 4
Stokes Wenzler, Rogers High 24 256 1
Forrest Johnson, Rogers Heritage 36 243 3
Brice Gahagans, Fayetteville 45 182 3
Austin Allen, Fayetteville 70 129 6
Garrett Kaufman, Bentonville 17 126 2
Colton Greenwood, Springdale 22 111 3
Josh Qualls, Rogers Heritage 63 102 4
RECEIVING
PLAYER, SCHOOL NO YDS TD
Forrest Johnson, Rogers Heritage 72 1396 15
Cole Harris, Fayetteville 52 998 3
Jordan Dennis, Fayetteville 51 828 9
Chandler Gregory, Siloam Springs 45 631 6
Bradley Eversole, Van Buren 45 463 3
Nick Byrne, Springdale Har-Ber 40 663 9
Scout Alexander, Siloam Springs 36 616 2
Bronson Tucker, Siloam Springs 34 472 4
William Walton, Van Buren 34 382 5
Wayce Connor, Van Buren 32 530 4
Gus Vitt, Springdale Har-Ber 24 395 7
Carlos Hernandez, Rogers Heritage 24 385 3
Wyatt Whatley, Springdale 24 309 2
Trey Perkins, Bentonville 23 431 5
Jeremy Spickes, Rogers Heritage 22 236 5
Brice Gahagans, Fayetteville 18 237 1
Cody Scroggins, Bentonville 18 207 1
Edwin Magana, Siloam Springs 17 145 1
Brandon Gates, Rogers Heritage 17 86 2
Chadd Holmes, Fayetteville 16 245 3
Garrett Tallman, Springdale 16 236 3
Jordan Herring, Siloam Springs 16 199 0
Jacquille Franklin, Van Buren 16 169 2
Matt Garrison, Springdale Har-Ber 15 202 2
Jack Kraus, Bentonville 15 172 2
Jimmie Jackson, Bentonville 14 193 1
Anthony Gibbons, Van Buren 14 85 1