FAYETTEVILLE -- Fort Smith Northside brought a defense with a stingy reputation into Harmon Stadium on Friday night.
The Grizzlies had trouble backing it up in for the first 30 minutes against Fayetteville, but the second half the unit lived up to its reputation in the second half.
After tearing through the Grizzlies for 24 points in the second quarter and 297 total yards in the first half, top-ranked Fayetteville hit a wall after intermission as No. 4 Fort Smith Northside shut out the Bulldogs in the second half for a 27-24 victory in the 7A-West opener for both schools.
Northside (4-0, 1-0) patiently chipped away, taking the lead on a 1-yard touchdown run by Justin Curry with 1 minute, 48 seconds and then holding off a furious drive by Fayetteville in the final minute to secure the victory.
"[The defense] played great," 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 dang it, they played great."
Fayetteville (3-1, 0-1) crossed midfield on all four second-half possessions but came away empty each time. The Bulldogs moved inside the 20 on two of their final three possessions, which included a third-and-goal play from the 4 with 32 seconds left in the game. But Keyshawn Dorsey jumped in front of a lob pass attempt from Taylor Powell intended for C.J. O'Grady and intercepted it to finish off the Bulldogs.
Powell completed 19 of 31 passes for 250 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions and took every snap at quarterback as Fayetteville moved away from the two-quarterback system Friday. The Bulldogs managed only 70 yards of total offense in the second half.
"I don't want to make it sound like we gave it to them," Fayetteville Coach Daryl Patton said. "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. 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. We'll bounce back next week."
NO. 7 WYNNE 35,
BLYTHEVILLE 0
BLYTHEVILLE — Wynne (4-0, 1-0) opened 5A-East Conference play with a victory over Blytheville (3-1, 0-1).
Jamor Dixon, a sophomore running back, led the scoring with two touchdown runs for Wynne.
Melvin Isom and quarterback Ross Trail also rushed for touchdowns. Trail added a touchdown pass to Sam Wilson.
NO. 10 JONESBORO 59,
MOUNTAIN HOME 0
MOUNTAIN HOME — Jonesboro (3-1, 1-0 7A/6A-East) jumped to a 35-point lead in the first quarter and rolled to a victory over Mountain Home (0-4, 0-1) . Deavion Binion scored twice on runs and Carson Coats ran 18 yards for one touchdown and passed to Lamar Haynes for another score.
Ke’deen Brunson caught a touchdown pass off a screen play from Will Batson. Kylon Tate ran 23 yards for a touchdown and Kyln Harper also had a touchdown.
Sports on 09/27/2014