North Little Rock used its running game to advance to the Class 7A semifinals Friday night.
The Charging Wildcats scored 42 second-half points to roll past Springdale Har-Ber 49-21 in a quarterfinal game at Charging Wildcat Stadium in North Little Rock.
North Little Rock (7-4), the No. 2 seed from the 7A-Central Conference, will travel to 7A-West Conference champion Bentonville for a semifinal game Friday.
Senior running back Brandon Thomas, who has orally committed to Memphis, had a game-high 219 yards and 3 touchdowns on 19 carries, averaging 11.5 yards per carry, to lead the Charging Wildcats.
Junior running back Aaron Sims had 108 yards and 1 touchdown on 18 carries.
Also for the Charging Wildcats, junior quarterback Kareame Cotton had two rushing touchdowns.
On Friday, the Charging Wildcats piled up 445 yards, including 390 rushing.
"Our running backs did what they do. That's who North Little Rock is," North Little Rock coach Jamie Mitchell said. "We want to run the football and we want to defend the run. I still believe those things win games."
Springdale Har-Ber coach Chris Wood lamented his team's inability to stop the run Friday.
"They broke a lot of tackles tonight," Wood said. "It's two good football teams. Like I told our kids, you get to the quarterfinals, the really good teams start going home at this point."
North Little Rock and Springdale Har-Ber were tied at 7-7 at halftime.
The Wildcats, though, couldn't stop North Little Rock in the final two quarters.
North Little Rock opened the second half with an 11-play, 84-yard drive that resulted in Cotton's 1-yard touchdown run that gave his team a 14-7 lead with 7:12 left in the third quarter.
Springdale Har-Ber responded with a 3-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Blaise Wittschen with 5:32 left in the third quarter to tie the game at 14-14.
Thomas' 63-yard touchdown run gave North Little Rock a 21-14 lead with 4:09 left in the third quarter. Then, with 1:29 left in the third quarter, the Wildcats came right back with Wittschen's 10-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Hunter Wood to tie the game at 21-21.
North Little Rock went back ahead, 28-21, with 10:30 remaining on Thomas' 11-yard touchdown run.
Springdale Har-Ber's offense went three-and-out, then North Little Rock extended its lead to 35-21 with 7:42 left to play with Thomas' third touchdown of the game, this one from 33 yards out.
Sims and Cotton each had scoring runs of 6 and 3 yards, respectively, to seal the Charging Wildcats' victory.
Both teams were scoreless in the first quarter, but each had a touchdown in the second quarter. Senior wide receiver Devion Larff had a 7-yard touchdown run for North Little Rock and Wittschen threw a 19-yard scoring pass to senior wide JaJuan Boyd.
Wittschen completed 14 of 32 passes for 244 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions for Springdale Har-Ber (8-4), the No. 3 seed from the 7A-West. Hunter Wood, the coach's son, had 8 receptions for 152 yards and a touchdown.
Despite injuries and suspensions throughout the season, North Little Rock is back in the Class 7A semifinals for the fourth consecutive season. That's a fact Mitchell said he's proud of.
"We're ugly and not very pretty right now," Mitchell said. "But people are still going to have to deal with us."
Preps Sports on 11/23/2019