FAYETTEVILLE — The defensive plan was simple Friday night.
Fayetteville needed to attack Conway from all angles and keep pressure on the Wampus Cats.
Mission accomplished.
Fayetteville swarmed Conway’s running game all night long and made life for Wampus Cats quarterback Cody Rhoades miserable. Brooks Ellis, Taryll Henry, Reese Fitchue and Alex Brignoni led a mad rush by the Bulldogs defense as Fayetteville swarmed the Wampus Cats 38-17 in the quarterfinals of the Class 7A state playoffs at Harmon Stadium.
“They can’t focus on just one guy,” said Ellis, who had two of Fayetteville’s six sacks. “Everywhere they tried to run it there was a great player to step up and make a play.”
Conway (8-3) looked like it was ready to give Fayetteville fits on its first possession, driving inside the Bulldogs 15 while taking more than seven minutes off the clock. But Ellis ended the Wampus Cats’ drive by sacking Rhoades for a 15-yard loss, forcing Conway to settle for a 44-yard field goal.
Fayetteville’s starters hardly gave up anything after that.
The Bulldogs (8-3) jumped ahead 7-3 by the end of the first quarter on Austin Allen’s 8-yard quarterback keeper, then broke open the game with Ryan Starr’s 33-yard field goal and three touchdowns late in the second quarter — helped by two costly fumbles by Conway — to take a 31-3 lead into halftime.
“We turned it over twice, and I think both of them were inside the 25, and their offense is way to good to be turning the ball over like that,” Conway Coach Clint Ashcraft said. “You can’t turn it over against a team like that. They don’t need any help at all.”
Fayetteville enforced the sportsmanship rule with 6:09 left the third quarter when Allen found Cole Harris with a 4-yard touchdown pass for a 38-3 lead.
All the while, the Bulldogs defense continued to dominate, holding the Wampus Cats to 70 total yards before turning to their reserves for the final quarter and a half.
Sports, Pages 24 on 11/17/2012