PEA RIDGE -- If Pea Ridge had any lingering effects from last week's huge playoff win, the Blackhawks didn't show it.
[HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD: Full results + recaps, photos and more]
Hayden Holtgrewe returned a punt 83 yards for an opening touchdown and the Blackhawks never trailed in rolling past Hamburg 36-24 Friday night in Blackhawk Stadium in a Class 4A state quarterfinal playoff game.
Class 4A Quarterfinals
Hamburg^0^11^6^7^—^24
Pea Ridge^13^9^7^7^—^36
First Quarter
Pea — Holtgrewe 83 punt return (Green kick), 9:38.
Pea — Holley 5 run (Run failed), 5:02.
Second Quarter
Ham — FG Lemus 24, 10:05.
Pea — Holtgrewe 8 pass from Sainsbury (Pass failed), 7:49.
Ham — Forrest 12 pass from Selby (Selby pass to Holmes), 1:51.
Pea — FG Green 37, :16.
Third Quarter
Pea — Holley 6 run (Green kick), 3:54.
Ham — Holmes 1 run (Run failed), :27.
Fourth Quarter
Pea — Holley 1 run (Green kick), 4:01.
Ham — Bryant 75 pass from Selby (Lemus kick), 3:18.
Pea Ridge (12-1) will host 4A-1 Conference rival Shiloh Christian next week with the winner advancing to the 4A state championship game. Pea Ridge defeated Shiloh Christian 30-13 in the final game of the regular season.
Holtgrewe's big return was one of several big plays by the Pea Ridge special teams, and helped the Blackhawks get off to the kind of start coach Stephen Neal wanted. Pea Ridge also got a 76-yard kickoff return from Drew Winn to open the second half.
"That kind of set the tone," Neal said. "It allowed us to get off to a fast start."
The early lead helped Pea Ridge gain some momentum, but the game's biggest play may have occurred midway through the fourth quarter after Hamburg (9-4) had closed to within 29-17 and had the ball at the Blackhawks' 37.
On third down, Hamburg quarterback Stetson Selby hit Alex Grice over the middle for a 26-yard gain to the Pea Ridge 11, but an illegal shift penalty negated the play, a penalty Hamburg coach Cecil Cossey did not agree with.
"That was a huge, huge, huge call," Cossey said. "You can't really dispute it, but earlier in the game, they had the exact same thing happen on our sideline, and the official looked at me and said, 'I'm not going to change the game for that.'
"But what he didn't know was that it was going to change the game against us later on the other sideline. Our guy shifted his feet, we sent the running back in motion, and that took away about a 25-yard first down conversion. So you can't dispute that we did it, but the fact that we didn't get that same call earlier is very frustrating."
Hamburg could not overcome the penalty, and Pea Ridge drove 64 yards in eight plays to take a 36-17 lead on Zaine Holley's short touchdown run that basically put the game away.
Pea Ridge leaned on its ground game in the fourth quarter to wear the Hamburg defense down. BothHolley (115) and Winn (110) went over 100 yards. The Blackhawks also exploited the Lions' pass defense as Jakota Sainsbury finished the night 10 of 18 passing for 165 yards and a touchdown toss to Holtgrewe on a short shovel pass that gave Pea Ridge a 19-3 lead.
The Blackhawks extended their lead to 22-11 at halftime when Evan Green drilled a 37-yard field goal.
Neal said he did not feel the game was safe until the waning moments, especially after Selby hit 6-foot-4 wide receiver Laquan Bryant on a 75-yard touchdown strike with 3:18 left, cutting the Blackhawks' lead to 36-24.
Pea Ridge recovered the onside kick and ran out the rest of the clock.
"I didn't feel comfortable until we got a big run and were about to get the clock down to under two minutes," Neal said. "These guys (Hamburg) are really good and they are dangerous. They can run up and down the field on people."
Sports on 11/26/2016