Springdale High’s Deandre Murray hadn’t taken a snap lined up as quarterback in a game this season.
Friday in the Bulldogs’ 32-28 win against Rogers High, Murray took his first direct snap for a long run. He didn’t score on that one, but he added three touchdown runs to lead Springdale to the dramatic 32-28 win.
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“That was the first time we’ve done that,” Springdale coach Shane Patrick said. “We just broke that out. We went to a wildcat package with him, and he got on the edge.”
Murray scored on runs of 77, 65 and 48 yards and rushed for 312 yards.
The 77-yard run was on Springdale’s outside zone play. He juked one defender near the line of scrimmage and then was off to the races with a little flare.
“He made a move on the safety that was pretty spectacular that you only see on a video game,” Patrick said. “He did a 360 spin in full stride. It was pretty impressive.”
The second touchdown gallop was straight up the middle.
“The 65-yard run was just our inside zone play that he got out on,” Patrick said. “He hits the hole quicker than anybody around. It was just Deandre being Deandre.”
Which means pretty spectacular.
Murray now leads the conference in rushing with 812 yards, averaging about 10 yards per carry on 82 tries with 12 touchdowns. His effort Friday put him at more than the 2,000-yard mark for his career. Murray now has rushed for 2,233 yards and 19 touchdowns.
“I might coach the rest of my career and not coach another one like him,” Patrick said.
Friday’s performance couldn’t have come at better time considering Springdale was without two starters on the offensive line. Right guard tackle Edwin Espinoza missed his first start of his career after starting 24 games, and right tackle Jose Ambriz also was sidelined with an injury.
“It was big for us since we had two of our offensive linemen that didn’t play,” Patrick said. “That was huge for us to have success running the football not having those two starters. We needed everything we could get.”
Seniors Niko Posinski and junior Braxton Bradley started in their places, and senior Jessi Soto also rotated in. For Posinski and Soto, it was their first varsity action.
“The offensive line did a great job of opening stuff up,” Patrick said.
THRILLER AGAIN
Friday’s thriller was nothing new to Rogers and Springdale. It was the second straight week for both teams’ games to be decided late.
Both are also 1-1 in thrillers.
Two weeks ago, Springdale lost to Bixby, Okla., 45-38 when Bixby scored with 48 seconds left.
Friday, Springdale claimed the 32-28 win against Rogers on Drake Wymer’s 24-yard touchdown reception from Fuller Chandler with one second left.
Two weeks ago, Rogers beat Fort Smith Northside 30-28 when the Grizzlies slipped in the end zone on a reverse with 33 seconds left for a game-deciding safety.
Friday, Wymer wrestled the ball away from Rogers’ defenders in the front corner of the end zone for the touchdown.
“We had been working on those situations,” Patrick said. “We told our quarterback to take the best option; who’s off the furthest, who’s the most open and who has the best matchup. Obviously, his size was the difference. They went to a two-high safety look, so I didn’t think we’d get the ball down the seam. He made a back shoulder throw, and we had to stop and come back. It was a big play for us.”
Wymer is 6-foot-6, and that size advantage was the difference.
Ty Galyean gave Rogers a 28-25 lead on a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:02 left.
Springdale had no timeouts left when it took over.
“That was the big deal,” Patrick said. “We knew we didn’t have any timeouts left so it was going to be important for us on our play calling. We had to have first downs, and we had to use the sidelines.”
Springdale got a big lift, though, when Chandler hit Josiah Wymer for a 31-yard completion on the first play of the drive.
“Right off the bat, we throw a seam route, which was a judgment between our quarterback and Josiah,” Patrick said. “They were in cover three, and it changed our route to a seam route. Our quarterback and Josiah both read it. He looked the safety off, and he put the ball right on for a big first down.”
Drake Wymer also had a 9-yard reception, and Murray added a run to set up the game winner.
“We hit a couple of out routes, and then we ran a zone play with Deandre; then we spiked it,” Patrick said. “All of sudden, we’re at the 24. There are eight seconds on the clock.”
Springdale decided to try a 41-yard field goal until Rogers called a timeout. The Bulldogs then sent out the offensive unit back on the field.
“We decided to kick the field goal,” Patrick said. “We thought we had enough time to get one play off in the end zone and still line up and kick it, but I wasn’t sure if we could get the play called. We ran the field goal unit out, and they decided to call timeout. That gave us a chance to call an offensive play, and we ran the offense out.”
Thinking they had enough time to still attempt the long field goal, the Bulldogs flooded the end zone for one shot at a touchdown.
“We sent four verticals to the end zone and threw it up to Drake Wymer,” Patrick said. “He’s 6-6 and gives us a great shot. He’s got an advantage. We took the shot because we still felt like we had time to kick the field goal and go to overtime.”
POSSESSION MANAGEMENT
In Springdale’s 32-28 win, Rogers had 63 rushing attempts for 384 yards while Springdale had just 40 offensive snaps.
“They had two 99-yard drives,” Patrick said. “When they execute like that and put points on the board and they take all of that time off the clock, you have to execute and take advantage of every chance you get.”
The Bulldogs had just eight offensive possessions, scoring four touchdowns, kicking a field goal and punting three times. Most high school teams get 12 to 14 possessions per game.
“You kind of expect that when you play those guys,” Patrick said.
Patrick analyzed last year’s game, which Rogers won 47-42 when the Mountaineers had 67 offensive snaps and 462 yards of offense.
“We looked at the year before,” Patrick said. “We had 19 plays in the second half, and on 11 of them, we had some kind of failure to execute whether it was an offensive penalty, missed block, misread by the quarterback or something. When it came down to it, we were able to show the kids that if you don’t make every play count you run out of time against those guys.”
FAYETTEVILLE, HERITAGE WIN
Fayetteville racked up 482 yards in a 45-21 win at Van Buren.
Following a missed field goal by Van Buren, the Bulldogs scored 38 points in 19 minutes and led 45-7 at the half.
Heritage limited Siloam Springs to just 177 yards and took advantage of four turnovers to win its conference opener, 42-7.
Josh Qualls threw for 325 yards and five touchdowns, including scoring tosses of 17, 29 and 69 to Joey Saucier.
Heritage had 524 yards of offense and punted just once.
27 IN A ROW FOR TIGERS
Bentonville rebounded from consecutive nonconference losses to beat Har-Ber 45-20 in a battle of ranked teams.
The two teams combined for 858 yards of offensive, but Bentonville forced five turnovers from Har-Ber, including two fumbles and three interceptions.
The win was Bentonville’s 27th straight conference win, dating back to 2009 when Southside beat the Tigers 31-21 in the second week of league play.
BATTLE OF THE BULLDOGS
Friday’s game between Springdale and Fayetteville will mark the 116th meeting between the two neighboring schools, making it the most storied high school rivalry in the state.
Springdale holds a 62-39-14 advantage in the series, but Fayetteville has won four straight.