FAYETTEVILLE -- Fort Smith Northside brought a defense to Harmon Stadium with a big reputation. The Grizzlies had trouble backing up the hype for the first 30 minutes of Friday's game.
In the second half, Fayetteville found out just how stiff of a challenge the Northside 'D' could be.
How They Scored
FS Northside^27
Fayetteville^24
North^6^7^6^8^—^27
Fay^0^24^0^0^—^24
First Quarter
North — Curry 31 run (kick failed), 0:42.
Second Quarter
Fay — Allison 40 pass from Powell (Conway kick), 11:49.
Fay — Rapert 10 run (Conway kick), 9:36.
North — Curry 4 run (Araujo kick), 6:08.
Fay — Armstrong 37 pass from Powell (Conway kick), 4:21.
Fay — FG Conway 40, :01.
Third Quarter
North — Woodard 6 pass from Hood (pass failed), 6:54.
Fourth Quarter
North — Curry 1 run (Hood run), 1:48.
Fayetteville hit a wall after intermission after tearing through the Grizzlies for 24 second-quarter points and 297 total yards in the first half. Northside patiently chipped away at the Fayetteville lead throughout the second half. Then using a Justin Curry 1-yard touchdown run with 1 minute, 48 seconds left in the game, took the late lead before holding off a furious final-minute Fayetteville drive in a 27-24 upset win over the Bulldogs at Harmon Stadium.
"They played great (the defense)," Fort Smith Northside coach Mike Falleur said. "We didn't play good the first half. Nothing against Fayetteville, they're a great football team. But we didn't come up here and play like we were capable of playing.
"We got in there at halftime and that's what I told them. Gosh dangit, they played great."
Fayetteville (3-1, 0-1 7A-West) crossed midfield on all four second half possessions, but came away empty each time. The Bulldogs were in the redzone on two of their final three possessions, including a third-and-goal play from the 4 with just 32 seconds left in the game. But Keyshawn Dorsey jumped in front of a lob pass attempt from Taylor Powell to C.J. O'Grady, intercepting the pass to secure the Northside (4-0, 1-0) win.
"Give Northside a lot of credit," Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said. "I don't want to make it sound like we gave it to them. They played well and played hard and you've got to tip your hat to those guys. But I thought we had them on the ropes a couple of times and we couldn't finish them off. We were committing penalties, turnovers, mistakes and sacks.
"And then defensively they were in a rhythm and we couldn't get them off the field. So we're going to learn from it. It's September. It's not the end of the season, and we'll bounce back next week."
Extra Points
• Fayetteville finished with just 70 yards of total offense in the second half.
• Taylor Powell completed 19 of 31 passes for 250 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions for the Bulldogs. He took every snap at quarterback as Fayetteville moved away from the two-quarterback system Friday.
• The teams combined for 17 total penalties.
Up Next: Fayetteville is on the road at Fort Smith Southside. The Rebels (3-1, 1-0) opened 7A-West Conference play Friday with a 10-7 win at home against Bentonville. Fort Smith Northside is at Bentonville (0-4, 0-1) next Friday.
Sports on 09/27/2014