FORT SMITH -- After a half chock-full of mistakes, Bentonville Coach Jody Grant had plenty of things to talk about with his team.
After giving up a big play on defense and having two touchdowns called back by penalties on offense, Grant challenged his team -- which led 14-7 at halftime -- to simply clean up the errors.
The Tigers responded with a 34-point second half, including 27 in the third quarter, to blow open the game and defeat Fort Smith Southside 48-14 in 7A-West action Friday night at Rowland Stadium.
Bentonville's defense helped the offense in the second half with three interceptions, all of which were converted into touchdowns.
"I got after them at halftime and challenged them that we had to have a big third quarter," Grant said. "I also told them the first half is over and we were fortunate to be ahead 14-7. We just needed to flush it and have a good third period. We needed to score and get stops, and I thought we did that."
The Tigers (4-1, 2-0), which finished with 431 total yards, opened the second half with a 64-yard drive that needed just three plays, capped by a Josh Ficklin 13-yard touchdown run. Ficklin finished with 116 yards on 17 carries with 2 scores.
On the Mavericks' initial possession of the second half, J.T. Tomescko picked off a George Herrell pass and returned it 17 yards to the Southside 36. Five plays later, quarterback Carter Nye hit Karsten Pate for a 23-yard touchdown with 8:17 left in the third quarter and suddenly, Bentonville was ahead 27-7.
Southside running back Issac Gregory, who totaled 126 yards and scored two touchdowns, scored on a 6-yard run to keep Southside (1-4, 0-2) within striking distance at 27-14 with 3:34 left in the third quarter.
From that point, the Tigers' defense stiffened and never let the Mavericks score again.
Bentonville answered the Southside score as Nye hit Que Brown for a 13-yard touchdown for a 34-14 advantage. Nye finished 19-of-25 passing for 303 yards.
Tomescko picked off another Mavericks pass, returning it 48 yards to the Southside 4. Ficklin scored on the next play from the 2 for a 41-14 lead.
Though he was disappointed in his team's first-half play, Grant praised Southside's effort in the opening two quarters.
"To me, it was obvious that Southside wanted to win the game more than we did in the first half," Grant said. "They were winning the one-on-one battles more than we were. We told them all week that [Southside's] offense is very talented. The running back [Issac Gregory] is special and their line blocks well. We knew we would have issues."
Bentonville led at halftime 14-7 but had two touchdowns called back by penalties.
All the scoring in the first half was in the first quarter.
The Mavericks opened the scoring as Herrell hit a wide-open Gregory in the middle of the field for a 56-yard touchdown just 73 seconds into the game.
Bentonville responded with a 72-yard, 11-play drive finished by a 32-yard touchdown pass from Nye to Kaden York. The touchdown pass came on second-and-22 and the Tigers also converted a second-and-28 on the drive.
Thanks to an interference call on a punt, Bentonville had a short field to drive at the Southside 35. Nye hit Eli Brooks for 23 yards to the Maverick 6, then hit Karsten Pate in the flat for a 6-yard touchdown with 3:41 left in the first quarter for the 14-7 lead.