BENTONVILLE -- Momentum swings went Bentonville West's way in the 7A West Conference opener on Friday at Wolverine Stadium.
The Wolverines used a balance of quarterback Dalton McDonald's prolific arm and Nick Whitlatch's bruising running style to cruise to a 35-17 victory over Fayetteville.
"Any time you get a win in this conference, it's pretty good," Bentonville West coach Bryan Pratt said. "That's a really good football team and we're just excited about being 1-0. That was our goal and we have to continue to keep getting better every week."
Down 28-10 after a 70-yard touchdown pass from McDonald to Jonas Higson, Fayetteville immediately responded with a 77-yard bomb from Hank Gibbs to Isaiah Sategna and a 1-yard plunge from Quinn McClain to make it 28-17.
West (2-2, 1-0) responded by going on a clock-eating drive that took 17 plays and almost eight minutes off the clock, finishing with Whitlatch's second score of the contest.
"He's a guy that runs really hard," Pratt said. "Our offensive line played really well. We lost one of our captains early in the game to a broken hand and were still able to substitute in and make adjustments and get a big win. I'm just really proud of our kids for stepping up and really enjoyed this win for our community."
Whitlatch's 27-yard scoring jaunt opened the scoring late in the first quarter. Fayetteville countered with a 15-yard strike on a pop pass from Gibbs to Connor Flannigan.
It looked as if Fayetteville would take its first lead midway through the first half after Gibbs completed a pass deep into West territory to Sategna, but his next pass was tipped and intercepted and West subsequently drove 95 yards and got a 21-yard touchdown pass from McDonald to Brandon Humes to reclaim the advantage.
Fayetteville (1-3, 0-1) was looking to run the clock out before halftime and attempted to get a first down on a fourth-and-short from its own 29 but fumbled the ball to West with 43 seconds remaining.
"That play was on me," Fayetteville coach Casey Dick, whose team lost its third straight game, said. "I believed in our kids and I'll believe in them all season. I wanted to send the message to them that I thought we could get the first down and obviously we didn't want to give the ball to them but if I had to do it over I'd probably do the same thing."
Three plays later, McDonald found Stephen Dyson on a wheel route from 28 yards out and West took a 21-7 lead to intermission.
McDonald finished 18-of-24 for 254 yards and three touchdowns, while Whitlatch had 146 yards on 25 carries.
Gibbs led Fayetteville with 219 yards passing and two touchdowns but also had two interceptions. Sategna was his favorite target, catching five passes for 146 yards, while Luke Charboneau had 11 catches for 95 yards.
West 35, Fayetteville 17
Fayetteville^0^7^3^7^—^17
Bentonville West^7^14^0^14^—^35
First Quarter
West—Whitlatch 27 run (Travis kick), :53
Second Quarter
Fay—C. Flannigan 15 pass from Gibbs (Richardson kick), 8:48
West—Humes 21 pass from McDonald (kick failed), :59
West—Dyson 28 pass from McDonald (Whitlatch run), :03
Third Quarter
Fay—FG Richardson 32, 3:49
Fourth Quarter
West—Higson 70 pass from McDonald (Travis kick), 11:09
Fay—McClain 1 run (Richardson kick), 10:13
West—Whitlatch 1 run (Travis kick), 2:23
Four Downs
• The win was West's third in a row over the Purple'Dogs.
• Dick was West's original offensive coordinator under Pratt.
• McDonald completed his first six passes in the second half before throwing an interception.
• Next week Fayetteville hosts Rogers High, while West travels south on Interstate 49 to face Springdale.
Sports on 09/28/2019