FAYETTEVILLE -- After two games of near flawless football, Fayetteville had to work a little harder Friday.
The final result was pretty much the same, however, as the Bulldogs leaned more on the run game in the second half to pull away from Muskogee, Okla., 56-21, at Harmon Stadium.
Fayetteville 56, Muskogee 21
Muskogee^0^7^14^0^—^21
Fayetteville^13^15^28^0^—^56
First Quarter
Fay — Wymer 14 pass from Powell (pass failed), 9:13.
Fay — Armstrong 40 pass from Powell (Fagg kick), 3:07.
Second Quarter
Musk — Gilbert 19 run (Espinosa kick), 6:33.
Fay — Powell 3 run (Fagg kick), 4:57.
Fay — Rapert 16 pass from Powell (Powell pass to Wymer), 1:31.
Third Quarter
Musk — Gilbert 26 run (Espinosa kick), 9:43.
Fay — Smith 23 run (Fagg kick), 7:51.
Fay — Smith 63 run (Fagg kick), 3:37.
Fay — Rapert 2 run (Fagg kick), 2:16
Musk — Davis 95 kickoff return (Espinosa kick), 2:01.
Fay — Rapert 28 pass from Powell (Fagg kick), 0:00.
The Bulldogs (3-0) picked up their third consecutive win by way of the 35-point sportsmanship rule running clock. But this time the performance was far from perfect, as penalties, a pair of interceptions and defensive breakdowns forced Fayetteville to play full-go well beyond halftime.
Muskogee (0-3) intercepted a Taylor Powell pass on the second play of the third quarter and got a Mo Gilbert 26-yard touchdown run three plays later to pull within 28-14 with 9 minutes, 43 seconds left in the third. Fayetteville then went to the ground attack to put things out of reach.
Javontae Smith rushed for 151 yards on just eight carries -- with touchdowns of 23 and 63 yards -- and Luke Rapert added 66 yards on 14 carries as the Purple'Dogs scored four touchdowns in a span of 7:51 in the third quarter.
"Give Muskogee credit. They're a good team and they'll win some games," Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said. "I'm proud of our guys. To play flawlessly for three straight games is tough. We had to fight in this one and it wasn't always pretty, but we hung in there and got the job done."
Muskogee finished with 257 total yards, 176 on the ground. But 206 came in the first half before Fayetteville made things more difficult on quarterback Quintahj Cherry and the Roughers' run game.
"Watching film we knew they had some talent and had a lot of athletes," Fayetteville senior offensive lineman Noah Johnson said. "So we came in expected this to be a tougher game and expecting it to be a dogfight all the way."
Fayetteville finished with 508 yards, amassing 269 through the air and 239 on the ground.
"They were doing some things that forced us to run," Patton said. "Javontae Smith and Luke Rapert did a great job. Taylor Powell had a couple of balls that for him weren't so good, but I'm just proud of how we're 3-0 going into a big conference game with (Fort Smith) Northside next week."
Fayetteville is at Fort Smith Northside (1-2) next Friday to open 7A-West Conference action at Mayo-Thompson Stadium.
Sports on 09/19/2015