FAYETTEVILLE — Austin Allen has passed for more yards and more touchdowns in a single season than any quarterback in Class 7A history.
His accomplishments on the football field have earned the Fayetteville quarterback numerous honors and awards over the past two seasons, and the Bulldog senior added another one Wednesday.
Allen has been named the Gatorade Arkansas Football Player of the Year, joining Springdale High’s Mitch Mustain, Rogers High’s Lee Ziemba and Shiloh Christian’s Kiehl Frazier as local athletes to win the award in recent history.
“I was pretty excited about it. Someone texted me in second period, and it said, ‘Congrats,’” Allen said. “I didn’t really know what it was for and then when I found out what it was for I was really excited. There’s so many great players across the state this year, so it’s a great honor.
“Getting to the state championship (game) three years in a row has been great and all the honors have been great, but this is probably the highlight of my high school career. And it’s just an honor to be a part of this team and to win that award.”
Allen has thrown for 3,395 yards and 29 touchdowns this season while completing 214 of 338 passes and leading Fayetteville (9-3) to its third consecutive appearance in the Class 7A finals. The Bulldogs will face Bentonville at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
For his career, Allen has thrown for more than 7,500 yards and 75 touchdowns.
“We’re very, very proud of Austin,” Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said. “It’s a great honor, and when you look at the names of past winners, not just in this state but across the nation, it’s the elite of the elite.
“To have one from Fayetteville is great for our school and great for our football program.”
Allen is the second Purple’Dog to be named Gatorade Football Player of the Year, joining offensive lineman Brady Washburn in 1998. Allen has committed to play football at Arkansas.
Bentonville Feels At Home Again
Bentonville will be designated as the home team at the Class 7A State Championship Game for the third straight season.
This means the Tigers will don their black uniforms and be on the west sideline for Saturday’s game against Fayetteville at War Memorial Stadium. Fayetteville will wear its visiting white uniforms and be on the east sideline.
The Arkansas Activities Association sets up the playoff bracket where teams with the higher seeds earn the right to be labeled the home team. Bentonville won the 7A/6A-West Conference championship and earned the top seed, while Fayetteville finished second.
Wallace Runs For Possible Record
Bentonville’s Tearris Wallace has one last chance to earn a spot in the record book for the state’s larger schools.
The senior tailback needs one rushing touchdown to tie and two to break the career mark of 66 set by D’Arrius Howard of West Memphis and Dedrick Poole of Little Rock Central. Wallace picked up his 65th touchdown when he scored on a 3-yard run in last week’s victory over Fort Smith Southside.
Wallace enters the game with 1,712 yards and 25 touchdowns on the ground this season. Fayetteville has held him scoreless in the last two meetings, but Wallace scored five times against the Purple’Dogs during the 2010 state championship game.
Milestones Within Dollins’ Reach
Reese Dollins won’t be found in the record books after Saturday’s game, but there are a couple of personal milestones Bentonville’s senior quarterback can reach with a normal performance.
Dollins needs 16 pass attempts to reach 200 for the season, and he’s just 128 yards away from the 2,000 mark this season. He enters the game completing 132 of 184 passes for 1,872 yards and 23 touchdowns with just four interceptions.
Tough Draw
While Bentonville was one of only three teams to beat Fayetteville during the regular season, the Tigers also proved to be a tough matchup for an otherwise dominant Bulldogs team in a pair of statistical categories.
Fayetteville has scored 24 or more points in all but two games this season, but one of those two came in its 24-17 loss at Bentonville. The other was a season-opening 42-20 loss against Memphis University School.
The Purple’Dogs have also allowed an individual 100-yard rusher just four times in 12 games this season. But one of those four was Bentonville’s Tearris Wallace, who gained 128 yards on 27 carries against Fayetteville in the Week 10 matchup.
NWA Media Staff Writer Henry Apple contributed to this report.