Football: Bentonville's Performance Has Lunney 'Embarrassed'

Special to NWA Media Joel Rafkin Kahill Gunn of Bentonville runs toward the sideline Thursday to gain yards and avoid the Union defense during the Gridiron Classic football preview at Tulsa Union High School in Oklahoma.
Special to NWA Media Joel Rafkin Kahill Gunn of Bentonville runs toward the sideline Thursday to gain yards and avoid the Union defense during the Gridiron Classic football preview at Tulsa Union High School in Oklahoma.

TULSA, Okla. -- Barry Lunney called Bentonville's performance in the second quarter of the Union Gridiron Classic "embarrassing."

Union outscored the Tigers 21-0 in that 12-minute span, thanks to two touchdown runs by Tyler Adkins, and went on to post a 24-6 victory during Thursday's football preseason scrimmage at Union-Tuttle Stadium.

"We're not very good. How do you paint that," Lunney said. "I don't care if it's a scrimmage or a real game. I can't remember the last time we've been beaten like that.

"That's not what we're about, and I'm very disappointed. It's very embarrassing."

Union opened the second quarter with Mason Farquhar's 42-yard pass to Tre Brown on the first play, and Adkins' 4-yard touchdown put the Redskins ahead to stay, 10-6, with 10 minutes, 52 seconds remaining. The Redskins needed less than 4 minutes to manufacture their three scores, thanks to a pair of Bentonville three-and-outs on its offensive possession.

Adkins broke away from the Tigers' defense and raced 49 yards for his second score, this one coming with 8:39 left to play. Union then took to the air on its next possession, and Farquhar drilled Robert Thomas with a 45-yard scoring strike with 7:02 remaining on the clock.

"We tried to get some chunk plays in there to loosen up the defense a little bit," Union coach Kirk Fridrich said. "I think once we loosened up the coverage, then obviously it gave us some running game on the inside.

"Credit our guys for being patient and our coaches for being patient with what they wanted to do. You really don't have a game plan going into this, so you have to figure it out as you go."

What Union figured out defensively was how to get pressure on Kasey Ford. Bentonville's junior quarterback was hounded by the Redskins' blitzes and sacked four times in the second quarter for 37 lost yards and a fumble he recovered on one play.

When Ford did get rid of the ball, he failed to complete any of his six pass attempts.

"They didn't do anything differently," Lunney said. "It was us. You go back and look at the film, I bet you, and our effort was substandard. Our execution was pathetic.

"We didn't block at the line of scrimmage and gave our quarterback no time. When you do that -- and what we were trying to do was work on some of our passing game stuff because they were in man coverage and blitzing -- you get beat. And our defense, we let them run right by us. What was that all about?"

Bennett Moehring provided all of Bentonville's points by kicking a pair of field goals. He capped the Tigers' opening drive with a 46-yard kick, then closed out the first quarter with a 26-yard field goal after Bentonville moved from its 32 to the Union 19 in less than a minute.

The Tigers now turn their attention to their season opener, which will be Sept. 5 against Kansas City (Mo.) Rockhurst at Tiger Stadium.

Sports on 08/29/2014

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