ROGERS -- Van Buren overcame a couple of hiccups in the second quarter to roll over Rogers Heritage 49-10 in 7A-West Conference play Friday night at David Gates Stadium.
The Pointers turned the ball over twice in the second quarter but bounced back for 21 third-quarter points to invoke the sportsmanship rule for the final quarter.
Van Buren 49, Rogers Heritage 10
Van Buren^21^7^21^0^—^49
Heritage^0^10^0^0^—^10
First Quarter
Van—Phillips 23 run (Flores kick), 7:48.
Van—Rivas 3 run (Flores kick), 6:28.
Van—Rivas 1 run (Flores kick), 1:09.
Second Quarter
Hert—FG Baxley 39 8:34.
Van—Bartholomew 14 pass from Phillips (Flores kick), 3:39.
Hert—Webb 4 run (Baxley kick), 0:32.
Third Quarter
Van—Dyer 1 run (Flores kick), 7:07.
Van—Phillips 20 run (Flores kick), 4:44.
Van—Phillips 54 run (Flores kick), 0:11.
Junior quarterback Gary Phillips did much of the damage, accounting for more than 300 yards of total offense and four touchdowns for Van Buren.
He ran for two third-quarter scores to help his team put the game away. Phillips also hooked up with Jaiden Henry on a 51-yard catch and run to set up the other touchdown. Henry caught the short pass and criss-crossed the field, eluding defenders down to the Heritage 10 early in the third quarter.
T.J. Dyer scored from 1 yard out for a 35-10 Van Buren lead.
Phillips added touchdown runs of 54 and 20 yards to set the final score. The final one came with 11 seconds left in the third quarter.
Van Buren coach Crosby Tuck said his team was forced to make some halftime adjustments after the Pointers settled for a 28-10 lead after two quarters.
"We had a fast start, which was good," Tuck said. "We had a terrible second quarter offensively. The defense did fine; we put them in some bad positions. Put them in some really bad positions. Some of the turnovers we had gave them very short fields.
"We went in and made some adjustments. They changed some stuff up how they were playing us. It was effective. We had to go into halftime talk through some of it and make some adjustments, and we came out and had a good third quarter."
Phillips rushed for 117 yards on just 10 carries and also completed 15 of 28 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown. But he also threw two interceptions.
Van Buren took advantage of good field position to score three times in the final seven-plus minutes of the first quarter.
The Pointers (4-3, 2-2 7A-West) went 72 yards in seven plays after the defense held Heritage on downs. The drive was aided by a 15-yard Heritage penalty, and Phillips finished it off with a 23-yard run for a 7-0 lead.
After a three-and-out, Van Buren took only two plays to go 36 yards. Phillips found Henry for a 33-yard catch and run. Brayden Rivas scored from 3 yards out to put the lead to 14-0, a little more than a minute after the first score.
Phillips hooked up with Isaac Nason and Jude Bartholomew for big gains on the next scoring drive that ended on a 1-yard plunge by Rivas for a 21-0 advantage with 1:09 left in the opening quarter.
Four Downs
• Henry's strong kick-returning skills helped the Van Buren offense start in good field position much of the evening and also had six catches for 121 yards.
• Brandon Baxley hit a 39-yard field goal to get the War Eagles (0-7, 0-4) on the board midway through the second quarter.
• Griffin Brown intercepted two passes, setting up all 10 of Heritage's points in the first half, including returning one inside the Van Buren 10.
• Rogers Heritage will travel to Bentonville West next week, while Van Buren plays host to Springdale Har-Ber.
Sports on 10/19/2019