BENTONVILLE — The only way Bennett Moehring could have placed the football in a better location was to walk over and drop it in that spot.
Bentonville coach Barry Lunney wanted an onside kick to start Friday’s game, and the junior executed it to perfection while running at the ball and making it appear like it was a normal kick. Euless (Texas) Trinity never expected the play, and that allowed Clay Wallace to grab the ball and put the Tigers on offense.
“Oh man, it’s crazy,” Moehring said. “I was just trying to calm down and have the execution I needed to. I had been working on it all week, and I knew Clay could get there if I put in the right spot.”
Moehring (5-foot-8, 155 pounds) has proven to be an effective weapon in all portions of Bentonville’s special teams after only doing kickoffs last season. He’s hit all six extra-point kicks and has been accurate on 4-of-6 field goal tries, with a long of 43 yards against Trinity and his misses coming from 48 and 51 yards.
He’s capable of putting kickoffs into the end zone or deep into opponents’ territory on a regular basis. He’s also punted 13 times and averaged 42.1 yards per kick, with a season-long being 55 yards.
“From a coach’s perspective, you would like to have two or three guys to handle different phases of the kicking game,” Lunney said. “But he’s pretty good at all of it.
“His punting, for the most part, has been really good. If anything, he’s outkicked our coverage a little bit, and we’re certainly not going to have him pull back. I’ve even put him in situations to kick some long field goals because I think he can make them, but if he doesn’t, the other team gets the ball at the 20 like it would if we had punted into the end zone.”
Lunney didn’t even wait until the season started to give Moehring his first situation. Moehring had the distance when he was asked to kick a 53-yard field goal against Owasso, Okla., during the Tulsa Union Gridiron Classic, but the ball hit the left upright and bounced away.
He’s also become more effective with a rolling, end-over-end punt that he uses when Lunney wants to pin a team deep on its side of the field. Moehring holds the ball a little differently, which leads to a reduced amount of roll and spin on the ball, and he has placed more than half of his punts inside the opponents’ 20.
“I actually learned that from John Gold,” Moehring said. “He punted at Texas and signed with the Seattle Seahawks for a little bit. He recently moved away, but he’s been my punting coach. I owe it all to him; he taught me everything I know.”
Moehring said he doesn’t have a favorite when it comes to the kicking chores. He knows placekicking provides the points, but he also enjoys how the crowd gets into the game when he does a kickoff or when he connects with a punt and causes the ball to make “a pretty spiral” off his foot.
It also has made him a complete threat in the special teams, which is something Lunney can’t stress enough.
“For doing everything we’ve asked of him to do, Bennett is really doing well,” Lunney said. “I’m very pleased.
“He’s worked very hard at it. He’s got a great attitude and wants to contribute to the team as much as possible.”