BENTONVILLE -- Rhiver Ewing couldn't have asked for a friendlier roll Friday night.
Fayetteville's senior defensive lineman had the ball come right to him when Eli Hale sacked Bentonville quarterback Kasey Ford, and Ewing raced 42 yards for a tie-breaking score as the Purple'Dogs earned a shot of the Class 7A state championship with a 31-21 semifinal victory at Tiger Stadium.
Fayetteville 31, Bentonville 21
Fayetteville^14^14^3^0^—^31
Bentonville^7^7^7^0^—^21
First quarter
Fay — Allison 80 pass from Powell (Fagg kick), 11:47.
Bent — Ford 1 run (Moehring kick), 7:50.
Fay — Bannister 10 pass from Powell (Fagg kick), 0:27.7
Second quarter
Bent — Darby 39 pass from Ford (Moehring kick), 9:31
Fay — Ewing 42 fumble recovery (Fagg kick), 5:49
Fay — Rapert 25 run (Fagg kick), 3:00
Third quarter
Bent — Ford 9 run (Moehring kick), 6:44.
Fay — FG Fagg, 1:21.
"It just bounced right into my hands," Ewing said. "Then my first thought was just to take it and run, and hopefully I would get in there. I saw a Bentonville player to my left, so I thought I better run harder."
Ewing's run, thanks to a key block by a teammate near the Bentonville 20, broke a 14-14 tie and gave Fayetteville (11-2) the lead for good with 5 minutes, 49 seconds left in the first half. It was one of four turnovers the Purple'Dog defense forced against Bentonville -- a stark contrast of their meeting three weeks ago when the Tigers used three turnovers t0 claim a 37-26 win.
Five plays later, Andrew Ellis intercepted a Ford pass and returned it to the Bentonville 25 to set up another Fayetteville touchdown. Luke Rapert completed the drive with a 25-yard touchdown run, and Jon Fagg's extra-point kick led to a 28-14 halftime cushion.
"We talked all week about being aggressive," Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said. "We wanted to attack them. We felt like we could get some pressure on Kasey, and he's a great quarterback.
"We got to him and forced some turnovers. That scoop-and-score is something we practice each and every day, and that was huge at that time."
Bentonville (10-2), which had its string of five straight championship appearances end with the loss, took the second-half kickoff and scored in 11 plays to close the gap to 28-21. Ford went around right end on the Tigers' second fourth-down play of the drive and scored on a 9-yard run with 6:44 left in the third quarter.
Fayetteville, however, put itself back up by two scores when Fagg hit a 22-yard field goal late in the third quarter, capping a 18-play, 80-yard drive. Bentonville tried to close the gap again to a single score, but Hayden Moehring's 42-yard field-goal try hit where the right upright meets the crossbar and bounced away.
"We had too many turnovers to win a big football game against a quality opponent," Bentonville coach Jody Grant said. "That was the difference in the game. I felt like if we could run the football and do the things we were capable of doing without turning the ball over, this would be a different deal. That wasn't the case. They stepped up and made plays and it was two great teams getting after it. Only one could win."
Fayetteville makes its second straight appearance to the Class 7A state championship and will face Springdale Har-Ber, a 37-7 winner over Fort Smith Southside in the other semifinal.
Sports on 11/28/2015