Gordon Welch was shoved into action real quick for Springdale Har-Ber this season.

Starting tailback Tre Tyler broke his fibula on the eighth play of the season-opener against Greenwood, forcing Welch into service. Since then, Welch has been the most consistent runner in the conference and now leads the 7A-West Conference in rushing.

“He’s literally taken the ball and ran with it,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “He’s iron-manned up for us.”

In Friday’s hard-earned 21-14 win against Rogers Heritage in overtime, Welch carried 35 times for 147 yards and all three of the Wildcats’ touchdowns.

“We really pounded him up in there,” Wood said. “It’s nothing fancy. It’s all between the tackles.”

Welch leads the conference in both carries with 167 and in rushing yards with 781. Three times this season, he’s had over 30 carries. Five times, he’s went over 100 yards rushing.

“It starts with the guys around him,” Wood said. “The offensive line has blocked well, and the receivers are blocking downfield.”

Friday night, Heritage just dared Har-Ber to run. Welch did.

“They had eight and nine guys in the box,” Wood said. “They knew what we were going to do, and that’s what we did.”

Welch brings a no-nonsense approach to the position for the Wildcats.

“His parents are hard-working down-to-earth people, and so is he,” Wood said. “He’s a blue-collar worker. He comes to work every day with a lunch pail. He’s very humble.”

Welch had 12 carries for 43 yards and no touchdowns last year as a sophomore in mop-up duty.

Friday night, Welch scored on a 3-yard run and a 14-yard in regulation before scoring on a 10-yard run on Har-Ber’s first play of overtime for the win.

Har-Ber Eyes Gauntlet
Har-Ber is No. 2 the Associated Press poll this week, but the Wildcats will be challenged the final three weeks of the regular season with Fort Smith Southside, Fayetteville and former No. 1 Bentonville waiting to knock them off their perch.

“It’s a gauntlet,” Wood said. “All three are very good. We’re aware of that. Fortunately, two of the three are at home.”

Southside visits Jarrell Williams Stadium this week and will be looking to bounce back from a 34-26 loss to Fayetteville.

“It will be a physical ball game,” Wood said. “Their coaching staff does as good a job as anyone in the conference as far as scheming for their opponents.”

That game will also be a rematch from last year’s semifinals, which Southside won, 8-7, with a late touchdown and two-point conversion.

Bentonville Seniors Make History
The rivalry between Bentonville and Rogers High is as old and storied as any in the state.
Friday, Bentonville’s seniors made history by becoming the first class to go undefeated in all three years against the rival Mountaineers.

“It was in the newspaper earlier in the week, and it was brought up after the game,” Bentonville coach Barry Lunney said. “It’s a long rivalry so it goes without saying when you can do something for the first time, it’s pretty special.”

Friday, Bentonville blanked Rogers, 48-0. Last year, Bentonville won 17-15. In 2007, the Tigers prevailed 28-0.

The win was also Bentonville’s biggest over Rogers since a 58-0 win in 1914.

Perfect Tigers
Bentonville was perfect on Friday against Rogers on possessions.

The Tigers did not punt, committed no turnovers and scored on all six offensive possessions.
“We were real efficient,” Lunney said. “We executed really well. We didn’t have any dropped passes. The passes were on target.”

Bentonville led 41-0 at halftime, applying the mercy rule to begin the second half with the continuously running clock. The Tigers scored on all five offensive possessions in the first half and added a defensive touchdown on Christian Larimer’s 33-yard interception return on the second play of the game.

“We were running the ball, and the clock was running,” Lunney said. “We took a lot of time off the clock in the third quarter and were running the ball with our second group in.”

Bentonville took the second-half kickoff and used up the first seven minutes, 17 seconds of the third quarter before scoring.

Bentonville did have a final possession to end the game running out the clock without scoring, which does not count in scoring efficiency.

End Of The Passing Era?
Passing is still the fancy around the state, but the trend is changing in the 7A-West. In 16 conference games played thus far, the team that rushes for the most yards is 14-2.

“It’s an interesting statistic,” said Lunney, who brought the pass-happy Spread attack to the conference in 1996 while at Southside. “I heard somebody on a college game on Saturday talking about the team with the most rushing yards usually wins. It’s still about the ability to run the football.”

Bentonville and Springdale Har-Ber are the leading rushing teams in the conference. Har-Ber is currently the top-ranked team in the state. Bentonville is the former No. 1 team in the state.

“I think we’re seeing an offensive evolution again,” Wood said. “It’s controlling the clock and controlling the game by running it.”

Har-Ber also has the best defense in the conference, which goes hand-in-hand with the philosophy of controlling the game.

“For us, we have a good defense so why would we throw the ball over and over, stopping the clock and extending the game,” Wood said. “We want to protect the ball and not take any chances with it.”

Many of the teams that are running the ball, however, are still in the one-back shotgun Spread attack but with certain philosophies of the Power-I, Wishbone, the Wing-T and Split-back veer.

“There is a little bit of all of each one of those in the Spread,” Wood said. “There are just variations.”

Teams are relying on defense, field position, ball-control offense like the conference did in the 1980s and 1990s.

“It’s like back in the day of Jarrell Williams and Joe Fred Young,” Wood said. “And those guys sure won their share of games.”

Remember When …
There was actually a 7A-West game that ended regulation in a scoreless tie?

In this modern age of offense, so-called basketball on grass and a barrage of scoring, in 2001 Fayetteville and Springdale actually played a scoreless tie in regulation.

Springdale quarterback Damon Moody broke the tie with a short touchdown run in overtime to lift the Red Bulldogs to 6-0 win over their purple rivals at Harmon Field.

Each team had 14 first downs, Fayetteville had 292 yards of offense while Springdale had 242.

It is the last time two 7A-West teams played to a scoreless tie in regulation and the lowest scoring game in the conference in the past eight years.

By Leland Barclay/Special To The Morning News

THAT FIGURES

0 — Turnovers and punts by Bentonville on Friday night
1 — Win needed by Bentonville’s seniors to tie last year’s senior class as the winningest in school history
3 — Scoreless quarters this season by Bentonville, including two in the fourth quarter of mercy-rule victories, out of 28 quarters played
6 — Straight times in which Springdale has defeated Fort Smith Northside at Jarrell Williams Stadium since Grizzlies won 23-12 in 1997
7 — Straight wins by Fayetteville over Fort Smith Southside, all during Daryl Patton’s tenure

BENTONVILLE — The future looks bright in the Bentonville backfield.

At the moment, sophomore DeMarcus Murphy and junior Raymond Shackelferd aren’t asked to provide many meaningful carries. Not with talented seniors Courtney Haskell and Shane Boedeker leading the 7A-West Conference’s top rushing attack.

But during the Tigers’ 48-0 victory Friday night over Rogers High, Murphy and Shackelferd showed what Bentonville’s running game will look like next season. Shackelferd rushed 15 times for a game-high 78 yards and Murphy logged six carries for 24 yards.

“They ran hard. They ran really well,” Lunney said. “I was proud of that. Raymond does a lot of scout team work during the week and runs hard for our defense, so it was good to see. It’s a good reward for them to be able to come in and execute.”

The Tigers forced a punt on the next possession and scored in eight plays on junior Pearson Gean’s 1-yard quarterback sneak. Larimer picked off another Conley pass on Rogers’ first ensuing play, and Bentonville needed only two plays to lead 20-0 when senior Courtney Haskell surged in from 6 yards out.

Haskell’s second touchdown of the night, a 7-yarder late in the first quarter, put the Tigers up 27-0.

Peacock inserted Graham Parker at quarterback late in the first quarter, and the junior did lead the Mounties to four first downs. Still, the Tigers added two more touchdowns in the second quarter and finished the first half with a 257-58 advantage in total yards.

Gean’s 9-yard roll-out touchdown pass to senior Austin Griffith with 46 seconds left in the half ensured the second half would start with a running clock. Gean finished the night 12-of-13 with 126 passing yards, all in the first half.

“It was a struggle for us early (on the ground), and we have to be diverse on offense,” Bentonville coach Barry Lunney said. “The kids caught the ball well, and Pearson threw it well. It was very good offensive execution.”

The only downer for Bentonville: A possible season-ending injury to Hayden Boydston. The senior linebacker suffered an ACL injury to his right knee on the opening kickoff of the second half, and Lunney said he was still awaiting MRI results.

Despite being bummed about Boydston’s injury, Lunney seemed optimistic about the state of his team.

“(Friday night) meant a lot because we’re hitting the stretch right now where we’re competing for a conference championship,” Lunney said. “(Offense, defense and special teams) are going to have to all come together if you want to compete for it, and it was good to see that out there.”

BENTONVILLE 48, ROGERS HIGH 0

Rogers High    0    0    0    0    —    0
Bentonville    27    14    7    0    —    48
First Quarter
Bent — Larimer 33 interception return (Levin kick), 11:07
Bent — Gean 1 run (Levin kick), 5:43
Bent — Haskell 6 run (kick failed), 4:34
Bent — Haskell 7 run (Levin kick), :42
Second Quarter
Bent — Boedeker 5 run (Levin kick), 7:53
Bent — Griffith 9 pass from Gean (Levin kick), :46
Third Quarter
Bent — Shackelferd 2 run (Levin kick), 4:43

Rog    Ben
First Downs    5    22
Rushes-Yards    14-30    45-238
Passing Yards    47    148
Comp-Att-Int    7-14-2    12-13-0
Punts    4-32.3    0
Fumbles-Lost    0-0    2-0
Penalites-Yards    6-32    4-30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Rogers, Parker 8-29, Austin 2-13, Carpenter 1-2, Conley 1-2, Oller 1-(minus 3), TEAM 1-(minus 13). Bentonville, Shackelferd 15-78, Boedeker 6-69, Haskell 11-45, Murphy 6-24, Gean 4-15, Sanderlin 1-3, Hardison 1-2, McKane 1-2.
PASSING—Rogers, Parker 6-11-0-44, Conley 1-5-2-3. Bentonville, 10-11-0-126, Sanderlin 2-2-0-22.
RECEIVING—Rogers, Melton 3-15, Oller 2-24, Fountain 1-5, Parker 1-3. Bentonville, Edwards 3-40, Gneiting 2-34, Griffith 2-25, Snow 2-23, Trudo 1-10, Cole 1-9, Vanderpool 1-8.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.

Conference play is just three weeks old, but Bentonville’s Courtney Haskell is the 7A-West Player of the Week for the second time.

Haskell rushed for 225 yards and five touchdowns in Friday’s 56-27 win against Rogers Heritage.

Haskell was the league’s Player of the Week two weeks ago when Bentonville opened conference play with a 45-10 win over Fayetteville.

This past week, Haskell scored on runs of 7, 55, 56, 3 and 11 yards. He had 17 carries. The 55- and 56-yard runs displayed his tremendous abilities.

“They were just our basic zone play,” Bentonville coach Barry Lunney said. “The blocking was good, and he hit the crease. The first one, it was just like it’s drawn up. He used his speed and outran people. The second one, a defender grabbed him with one hand and spun him around. He hit the outside and was gone.”

Haskell wasn’t even 100 percent, physically, for Friday night’s game. He missed practice one day, suffering from a throat and sinus infection. He received a shot Friday morning to help alleviate the symptoms.

BHS Resurgence
After a lackluster performance against Fort Smith Southside, Bentonville’s powerful rushing attack was back on the move against Heritage.

Haskell’s performance, along with running mate Shane Boedeker, who had 27 carries for 157 yards and a 1- and 2-yard touchdown plunge, helped produce 419 yards on the ground on 53 carries and seven rushing touchdowns.

Bentonville suffered no turnovers and punted just once, scoring on eight of nine possessions. The Tigers applied the mercy rule with the continuous running clock.

Bentonville’s offensive line of tackles Chase Peterson and Matt Hoffman, guards Jon-Mark Holden and Marcus Danenhauer, and center Jonathan Mortensen cleared the way on Friday.

“That’s where it all started (against Southside),” Lunney said. “They took it real personal. Southside played real well. They outplayed us. We felt like we were better than what we showed. They went back to work.”

The line is the most experienced unit in Class 7A with 86 career starters led by Holden, who started four games as a sophomore, all 13 last year and all six this year.

Peterson and Danenhauer started all 13 on the way to last year’s state championship as well.

“There’s no doubt about it, we felt like it would be a strong suit going into the season,” Lunney said.

They’ve also had everything thrown at them this year by opposing defenses.

“We’ve seen a lot of different looks,” Lunney said. “Everybody’s trying something different and changing defenses. We have to make adjustments really quick. They’ll be in something we haven’t seen on film or that we haven’t worked on practice.”

The Tigers are sure of one thing when they show up on Friday night.

“Everybody is selling out to stop the run,” Lunney said.

Downright Defensive
Gaudy offensive numbers have certainly been the theme of the decade all around the state, but Springdale Har-Ber has put up some pretty impressive numbers defensively this season.

“We felt like we’d have a solid defense going into the season,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “They’re an aggressive group of guys. They play hard. They’ve been fun to watch.”

Through six games, Har-Ber has yielded just 153 yards on the ground and 708 passing. That’s just 143.8 yards per game.

“Our goal is the top the run and make (the opposing team) one-dimensional,” Wood said. “We’ve played the run real well.”

Senior noseguard Eric Pearce, who started all 13 games last year, anchors the middle of Har-Ber’s front.

“He doesn’t get enough credit,” Wood said. “He’s the best defensive lineman in this league. He gets double-teamed a lot. He’s the pace-setter of the bunch.”

Linebackers Jacob Bundrick, in the middle, and Preston Cash and Hunter Kissinger provide a solid second-level of defense.

“They’re the three leading tacklers on the team,” Wood said.

Then, of course, there’s Houston Pruitt in the secondary along with Russ Reynerson. Pruitt has started 31 games in his career.

Remember When …
The last time a Bentonville senior class was undefeated against Rogers?

Well, it’s never happened.

The two schools will meet for the 110th time on Friday, and a Bentonville senior class has never swept their rivals from Rogers. The two teams have played consecutively since 1981, and Bentonville has managed a two-year win streak twice during that time.

The two teams also played consecutively from 1938 through 1978 with Bentonville managing a two-year win streak only once. The two were scheduled to meet in 1937 at Rogers, but school officials deemed the field too muddy and canceled the game. Bentonville still wanted to play and claims a forfeit victory although the game was not played.

Prior to that, the two teams played consecutively from 1920 through 1935 because Rogers did not field a team in 1919. Bentonville did not have any two-year win streaks during that time.
Before that, the teams played sporadically.

Also with a win Friday, Lunney can take a 3-2 lead over Rogers as coach of the Tigers. The last Bentonville coach who finished with a winning record against Rogers as the Tigers’ coach was Dean Shackleford in 1947 and 1948. Shackleford’s Tigers beat Rogers, 13-6 and 7-6, in 1947 with Rogers winning 26-0 in 1948.

That Figures

5,191 — Career passing yards for Fayetteville junior quarterback Brandon Allen
4,130 — Career passing yards for Rogers Heritage junior quarterback Reed Brown
45 — Career passing touchdowns for Allen
43 — Career passing touchdowns for Brown
113 — Times in which Washington County rivals Fayetteville and Springdale High have played
110 — Times in which Benton County rivals Bentonville and Rogers High have played before Friday’s game
70 — Rogers wins against Bentonville with six ties

“We knew they were going to line up and run the ball right at us,” Heritage coach Perry Escalante said. “They’re big and strong, and that’s their strength. They just lined up and whipped us and made us like it. I’m not making excuses. When you get whipped, you just get whipped.”

Heritage (5-1, 2-1) at least scared the Tigers early on, striking on the first play of the game. War Eagles quarterback Reed Brown shocked the overflow crowd by nailing Grant Driver for an 80-yard touchdown pass off a Dakota Baggett deflection.

The War Eagles didn’t stop there, piling up 280 total yards before halftime, but Heritage couldn’t do anything to stop Bentonville’s power running game. Often lining up with two tight ends and either Haskell or Boedeker in the backfield, the Tigers rushed for 296 yards in the first half.

Bentonville (5-1, 2-1) punted on its first possession but went on to score 28 unanswered points in a 5-minute, 34-second span.

“I just think there was more of a focus this week,” Bentonville coach Barry Lunney said. “We’re more physical than they are, and we made our mind up that we wanted to run the ball, no matter how many people they put in the box.”

Haskell scored from 7 yards out with 6:40 left in the first quarter for Bentonville’s first touchdown, and Tigers linebacker Arthur Flowers intercepted Brown on Heritage’s first ensuing snap.

Boedeker’s 6-yard scoring run came two plays later, and Haskell bolted 55 yards untouched on the Tigers’ first play after a Heritage punt to put Bentonville up 21-6.

A fumble on the kickoff then set up Pearson Gean’s 5-yard scoring pass to Hayden Boydston on third down, which capped the first-quarter outburst. Haskell added touchdown runs of 56 and 3 yards as the Tigers claimed a 42-19 halftime lead.

After halftime, Bentonville similarly steamrolled the Heritage defense. Haskell, who tweaked his right ankle early in the half, capped an 13-play, 82-yard drive with an 11-yard run — his fifth and final score of the evening.

While Haskell couldn’t nail down the reason for Bentonville’s run game improvement, senior tackle Chase Petersen gladly explained the line’s struggles last week — and this week’s turnaround.

“We weren’t communicating well and accounting for who we had,” Petersen said. “There were a lot of communication issues, so we stressed that a lot this week. If you were at practice, you would’ve seen us there yelling out our calls.”

BENTONVILLE 56, ROGERS HERITAGE 27

Rogers Heritage    6    13    0    8    —    27
Bentonville    28    14    7    7    —    56
First Quarter
Her — Driver 80 pass from Brown (kick failed), 11:49
Bent — Haskell 7 run (Levin kick), 6:40
Bent — Boedeker 1 run (Levin kick), 6:20
Bent — Haskell 55 run (Levin kick), 2:40
Bent — Boydston 5 pass from Gean (Levin kick), 1:06
Second Quarter
Her — Stewart 5 pass from Brown (Severs kick), 9:06
Bent — Haskell 56 run (Levin kick), 7:42
Her — Stewart 12 pass from Brown (kick failed), 3:07
Bent — Haskell 3 run (Levin kick), :26
Third Quarter
Bent — Haskell 11 run (Levin kick), 4:58
Fourth Quarter
Bent — Boedeker 2 run (Levin kick), 11:57
Her — Stewart 23 run (Britton run), 6:25

Her    Bent
First Downs    16    26
Rushes-Yards    18-85    53-419
Passing Yards    282    87
Comp-Att-Int    19-32-1    6-6-0
Punts    2-27.0    1-38.0
Fumbles-Lost    1-1    1-0
Penalites-Yards    8-51    3-20

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Heritage, Stewart 15-83, Brown 1-9, Entwisle 1-3, Britton 1-(minus 10). Bentonville, Haskell 17-225, Boedeker 27-158, Murphy 7-19, Gean 2-17.
PASSING—Heritage, Brown 19-32-1-282 yards. Bentonville, Gean 4-4-0-68, Sanderlin 2-2-0-19.
RECEIVING—Heritage, Driver 5-126, Fruik 3-58, Entwisle 4-46, Snoderly 3-30, Stewart 4-22. Bentonville, Trudo 1-40, Gneiting 1-22, Griffith 1-13, Donell 1-6, Boydston 1-5, Boedeker 1-1.

“This is kind of a reverse deal of the state championship game,” Southside coach Jeff Williams said. “We got all the breaks this time.”

The Rebels beat the Tigers with their power running game. Bentonville had a hard time tackling the bullish Hollis, who finished with 93 yards on 20 carries.

When Hollis wasn’t running over Bentonville, speedy David Adair was running around them. The Rebels’ back had his third straight 100-yard effort with 108 yards on 24 carries.

Southside quarterback Hunter Whorton, who was an efficient 7-of-12 for 55 yards, provided one of the biggest first-half plays when his play-fake on second-and-7 at the Tigers’ 10 momentarily froze the linebackers, allowing Hollis to bust through for a 10-yard touchdown run.

Later in the second quarter, after Southside had flipped the field with a 40-yard Leo Gallo punt, Aaron Grant returned Gean’s interception 26 yards for a touchdown and a 14-6 lead.

The Rebels made it 17-6 later in half when Gallo booted a 32-yard field goal after the second of the Tigers’ three turnovers.

The biggest swing, however, took place early in the fourth quarter. After Bentonville’s Courtney Haskell slithered through from 3 yards out, cutting Southside’s lead to three, the Tigers’ Nick Gneiting inexplicably attempted to pick up Gallo’s short 16-yard punt.

After Gneiting lost the handle, Trevor Scott pounced on it at the 24. Five plays later, Hollis bulled his way in from the 3 to make it 24-14.

A humbled Bentonville coach Barry Lunney, whose Tigers rolled into town averaging 47.7 points per game, said something was missing.

“It wasn’t there (Friday) and I’m sorry,” Lunney said. “I apologize because I didn’t get the job done.”

— By Kevin Taylor/TIMES RECORD

FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 31, BENTONVILLE 21

Bentonville    6    0    8    7    —    21
Southside    0    17    0    14    —    31
First Quarter
Bent — Gean 83 run (kick failed), 11:07
Second Quarter
South — Hollis 10 run (Gallo kick),
South — Grant 26 interception return (Gallo kick), 2:07
South — FG Gallo 33, :27
Third Quarter
Bent — Haskell 3 run (Edwards pass from Gean), 10:49
Fourth Quarter
South — Hollis 3 run (Gallo kick), 9:36
South — Hollis 2 run (Gallo kick), 2:19
Bent — Vanderpool 29 pass from Gean (Levin kick), 0:07

Bent    South
First Downs    12    16
Rushes-Yards    25-173    55-203
Passing Yards    119    55
Comp-Att-Int    9-21-1    7-12-0
Punts    6-33.3    5-35.2
Fumbles-Lost    4-2    3-1
Penalties-Yards    2-13    3-30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Bentonville, Gean 8-113, Haskell 13-57, Edwards 1-5, Boedeker 2-4, Sanderlin 1-(minus 6). Southside, Adair 24-108, Hollis 20-93, Whorton 6-21, Nolan 2-4, TEAM 2-(minus 23)
PASSING—Bentonville, Gean 9-20-1-114, Sanderlin 1-1-0-(minus 5). Southside, Whorton 7-12-0-55.
Receivers — Bentonville, Vanderpool 2-50, Gneiting 2-31, Edwards 2-4, Haskell 1-27, Cole 1-5, Boydston 1-2. Southside, Falleur 4-49, McGee 1-10, Hollis 1-3, Anderson 1-(minus 7).
MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.

Bentonville’s Courtney Haskell can change a game’s momentum about as quickly as he can change directions.
On Friday night, Bentonville and Fayetteville were locked in a 7-7 duel with the Tigers backed up to their own 5-yard line.
Quarterback Pearson Gean hit Haskell out in the left flat, and the senior caught the ball and weaved 95 yards for the touchdown. On the play, Gean was under center and faked the handoff to Haskell over the left side. Gean rolled right, and Haskell continued out into the left flat.
“(Haskell) filters out of the backfield,” Bentonville coach Barry Lunney said. “Gean rolls the other way, and throws it back to him in the (left) flat. He caught it about the 10 or 15, and turned on the jets. The linebacker didn’t pick him up, and they were in man coverage. Sometimes it’s an 8- or 10-yard play. Of course, you hope it turns into a big play.”
Bentonville went on to win 45-10.
Haskell caught three passes for 120 yards and the touchdown and ran for 150 yards and touchdowns of 1 and 72 yards.
“He had an exceptional game,” Lunney said. “He does what he does best. You can’t coach speed.”
Haskell moved to Bentonville the second semester of the last school year. His mother had already lived in Bentonville for three years, and Haskell continued to live with his grandmother in Warren. Haskell’s grandmother moved to Bentonville to be closer to her daughter, Haskell’s mother.
Bentonville has a formidable 1-2 punch at running back with Haskell joining Shane Boedeker in the backfield.

You Gotta Believe
In its first two season of existence, Rogers Heritage was 3-0 in its nonconference schedule. There were, naturally, naysayers considering the lack of competition from those opponents.
“We still had to go out and play in those games,” Heritage coach Perry Escalante said. “We took what we could find, but they were lining up for us. Everybody was wanting to play us.”
With a predominantly sophomore team last season, Heritage went on to lose all seven conference games.
The War Eagles proved very quickly on Friday that they would not be 0-7 again after a 24-21 win at perennial conference power Fort Smith Northside in the conference opener.
“Our theme this season is ‘Believe,’” Escalante said. “We’ve told them that if they believe in what we’re doing that they will be successful. Friday night verified that. If we play well and execute, then good things are going to happen. They did Friday night.”
Heritage gave up 552 yards to Northside, but the defense turned in outstanding performances to turn the Grizzlies away on their final four possessions.
Jimmy Britton intercepted a Northside pass in the end zone on the game’s final play to preserve the win. Sam Mayhall intercepted passes on Northside’s two previous possessions, and Heritage’s defense stuffed Northside on fourth down on the drive before that.
“It doesn’t matter if you run up the down the field, if you don’t score it doesn’t mean much,” Escalante said. “We shut them out the second half.”
Heritage only scored two offensive touchdowns, but that coupled with 30- and 31-yard field goals by Hayden Severs, and a determined defense was enough to put Heritage atop the conference standings.
“They out-athleted us at times,” said Escalante. “We created turnovers, and that gave us an opportunity to win.”
In four games this season, Heritage has committed zero turnovers and is already plus-10 in turnovers.
“You go back and look at great teams in football history, and they get beat when they turn the ball over,” Escalante said. “We have a good football team. If we play well and don’t turn the ball over, we have a chance to win.”

Rivalry Night, Part II
Springdale High and Springdale Har-Ber squared off last week, now it’s time for Rogers’ intra-city rivalry as well as the annual Battle of the Bulldogs between Fayetteville’s purple ones and Springdale’s red ones.
This may be the final year of a friendly feud between the city limits of Rogers.
“When this group graduates, it will really get into an intense rivalry,” Escalante said. “It’s really not for the players now. It’s just a conference game.”
Seniors for both teams were teammates as sophomores in 2007 before the split of schools.
For now, it’s just another conference game. Rogers High will try to even its league record while Heritage will try to move to 2-0.
Springdale and Fayetteville will both be looking for their first conference win in their annual battle.

That Figures

0 — Passing touchdowns allowed by Bentonville this season
0 — Turnovers committed by Rogers Heritage this season
4.42 — Seconds to run 100 meters by Courtney Haskell as electronically timed when he stepped on the campus at Bentonville in January
104 — Yards gained by opponents on the ground this season against Springdale Har-Ber
552 — Yards of offense by Northside against Heritage on Friday, the most ever for the losing team in a 7A-West Conference game

While the passing game set the tone early for Bentonville, the rushing game showed it’s on par and perhaps even better than last season in the second half. Haskell had a 72-yard touchdown run on the Tigers second play of the half to put Bentonville up 31-7, and senior Shane Boedecker pitched in with 88 yards on the ground and a pair of second-half touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Fayetteville (1-2-1, 0-1) never found a consistent answer for a Tigers defense that only rushed three and dropped eight into coverage. The Purple’Dogs opened with a 10-play, 74-yard touchdown drive to tie the game at 7 on a 3-yard run by Michael Heintzman, but they could only muster a late field goal after that. Junior quarterback Brandon Allen was pressured for much of the game by Bentonville, finishing 18 of 37 for 174 yards.

“Their offense, it’s hard to keep scoring with them,” Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said. “They’re very, very talented, very good. I thought our kids fought hard. They’re were just getting blown off the ball.

Bentonville travels to Fort Smith Southside next week, while Fayetteville hosts Springdale High.

BENTONVILLE 45, FAYETTEVILLE 10

Bentonville    14    10    7    14    —    45
Fayetteville    7    0    0    3    —    10
First Quarter
Bent — Griffith 27 pass from Gean (Levin kick), 9:44
Fay — Heintzman 3 run (Patton kick), 5:41
Bent — Haskell 95 pass from Gean (Levin kick), 1:16
Second Quarter
Bent — Haskell 1 run (Levin kick), 10:23
Bent — FG Levin 36, 5:03
Third Quarter
Bent — Haskell 72 run (Levin kick), 6:06
Fourth Quarter
Bent — Boedeker 8 run (Levin kick), 11:13
Fay — FG Patton 33, 9:09
Bent — Boedeker 25 run (Levin kick), 5:33

Bent    Fay
First Downs    17    11
Rushes-Yards    29-286    17-74
Passing Yards    252    174
Comp-Att-Int    9-12-0    18-37-0
Punts    2-27    7-46
Fumbles-Lost    2-0    0-0
Penalties-Yards    3-24    4-49

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Bentonville, Haskell 11-150, Boedeker 7-88, Gean 6-52, Murphy 3-10, Team 2-(-14). Fayetteville, D. Hale 7-39, Allen 6-36, Heintzman 2-3, Gorton 2-(minus 4).
PASSING—Bentonville, Gean 9-12-0-252. Fayetteville, Allen 18-37-0-174.
RECEIVING—Bentonville, Haskell 3-120, Vanderpool 1-61, Griffith 3-47, Gneiting 1-10, Boydston 1-8, Trudo 1-6. Fayetteville, D. Hale 6-77, Underwood 4-32, Jordan 1-22, Dean 2-21, J. Hale 3-14, Heintzman 2-8.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.

BENTONVILLE — The first sign that Nettleton was in trouble Friday night came when Bentonville ran out more cheerleaders than the Raiders had players.The Tigers scored touchdowns on their first six possessions, then added a punt return for a touchdown in a 54-0 win over Nettleton in Tiger Stadium.

The win completed a perfect nonconference slate for No. 2 Bentonville (3-0) heading into the start of 7A-West Conference play next week on the road at Fayetteville.

Class 5A Nettleton (1-2) offered little resistance for the defending 7A state champions, but Bentonville coach Barry Lunney said the game did offer a lot of positives despite the starters seeing about a quarter of action.

“I’ve had games like this where you felt like you were just a better team, but we’d go out and jump offsides and not look good winning,” Lunney said. “But we played to our level early and I was real pleased with that.

“The other aspect of that was, we got to play a lot of younger kids, got a chance to get them out on the field on a Friday night in front of a big crowd and that’s a thrill for them.”

It took the Tigers just two plays to get on the scoreboard as Courtney Haskell carried twice for 42 yards, the last 16 for the game’s first score and a 7-0 lead with 9 minutes, 52 seconds left in the first quarter. Haskell, part of Bentonville’s three-headed monster backfield, carried just four times in the game for 78 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

From there the game got out of hand quickly. On the kickoff following Haskell’s touchdown, Nettleton’s Calvin Weatherall tried to field the ball at his own 1, only to touch the ball at the 1 before it went out of bounds. So instead of getting the ball at the 35, the Raiders were forced to start at their own 1. The poor field position proved costly when a 26-yard punt was returned 20 yards by Bentonville’s Drew Edwards and two plays later Shane Boedeker scored from the 6 and a 14-0 lead.

The floodgates opened from there as the Tigers scored two touchdowns in a span of 25 seconds. Quarterback Pearson Gean hit Sheldon Vanderpool on a 49-yard touchdown pass, then following a Trey Carter interception, Gean hooked up with Tyler Trudo on a 51-yard slant that also ended in the end zone and a 28-0 lead. The Tigers added their fifth touchdown of the quarter when Edwards returned a Nettleton punt 45 yards for a score.

The mercy rule was invoked late in the second quarter when Boedeker scored on a 20-yard run following a line drive Nettleton punt that Josh Herren returned to the Raiders 20. Normally the mercy rule does not go into effect until the second half, but Lunney said the two coaches agreed to start it a little early.

About the only negative aspect of the game for Bentonville was special teams play, with two missed extra point attempts and three kickoffs that went out of bounds and gave Nettleton the ball at the 35.

“What was up with that?” Lunney said. “Last week we kicked it into the end zone every time. We were trying to place it a little bit. Yeah, we’ve got some work to do there. You give Fayetteville a chance to start at the 35-yard line, they don’t need many snaps to go from there.

“We’ll have stuff to work on, there’s no doubt about it.”

The Tigers added a third quarter touchdown on reserve running back DeMarcus Murphy’s 36-yard run to end the scoring.

BENTONVILLE 54, NETTLETON 0

Nettleton    0    0    0    0    —    0
Bentonville    34    13    7    0    —    54
First Quarter
Bent — Haskell 16 run (Lucy kick), 9:52
Bent — Boedeker 6 run (Levin kick), 7:57
Bent — Vanderpool 49 pass from Gean (Lucy kick), 5:21
Bent — Trudo 51 pass from Gean (Levin kick), 4:56
Bent — Edwards 45 punt return (kick failed), 3:16
Second Quarter
Bent — Haskell 17 run (kick failed), 10:28
Bent — Boedeker 20 run (Levin kick), 7:46
Third Quarter
Bent — Murphy 36 run (Levin kick), 5:52

Nett    Bent
First Downs    5    17
Rushes-Yards    32-82    28-239
Passing Yards    2    139
Comp-Att-Int    1-7-2    6-8-0
Punts    1-30    1-48
Fumbles-Lost    1-1    0-0
Penalties-Yards    3-10    0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Nettleton, Pitts 20-60, Weatherall 8-34, Williams 4-(minus 12). Bentonville, Haskell 4-78, Murphy 4-49, Johns 10-41, Boedeker 4-33, Garcia 3-14, Gneiting 1-12, Gean 1-6, Edwards 1-6.
PASSING—Nettleton, Williams 1-7-2-2. Bentonville, Gean 4-5-0-123, Sanderlin 2-3-0-16.
RECEIVING— Nettleton, Anceno 1-2. Bentonville, Vanderpool 2-58, Trudo 1-51, Edwards 1-14, Gonzalez 1-11, Snow 1-5.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.

That talent and depth — along with a smart and talented offensive line — has given Bentonville a legit chance at leading the 7A-West in rushing again, for the third straight season. Trying to accomplish the same goal through a different style has Lunney guarded, but excited.

“I know we’re probably giving defensive coordinators a lot to work on,” Lunney said. “We still have so much to work on, but we’re able to do a lot of different things this year.”

History With The Run

Bentonville has run more often than it has passed the previous two seasons, and so far this year. That must make Lunney — and Lunney Jr. — feel nostalgic.

Lunney coached Fort Smith Southside to four state championships during his second stint as a head coach at the Fort Smith school. The first two titles came via the nearly extinct Wing-T formation, one with Lunney Jr. playing quarterback.

Still, the fact Bentonville has relied so heavily on the run in recent years was never the plan. Lunney played an integral role in introducing the spread offense throughout Arkansas high school football, and his first two Tiger teams weren’t bashful through the air.

In fact, when Lunney arrived in Bentonville, there wasn’t much mystery about the type of offense he intended to run. Mahan remembered thinking Bentonville’s 2005 and 2006 teams would operate with quarterback Ryan Isabell solely in the shotgun.

“When we first got here, we pretty much were a spread team,” Lunney Jr. said. “We had small linemen, a good quarterback and good wideouts. So we tried to spread it out and throw it. We felt good about it at the time, but things changed (in 2007).

Lunney Jr. said the coaching staff noticed “bigger linemen” in 2007 and, of course, the Tigers had running back Anthony Blackmon, who’s now at Central Arkansas. So the switch to an offense operating “under center” seemed to make sense.

Blackmon ended up rushing for 2,596 yards in 2007, setting the single-season record for most regular-season yards.

“That’s the year we decided to hang our hat on the zone play,” Mahan said. “We decided we wanted to be great at that. We didn’t want to just be good at a bunch of things. We didn’t even care if other teams knew how to beat us.

“We just wanted to be able to line up, know exactly what we’re doing and run the ball well.”

Tiger Transition

Bentonville’s mastering of the zone play helped the Tigers win the state championship last season.

While their stingy defense fueled the Tigers’ state title run, the backfield combination of Boedeker and Erik Ragsdale aided them immensely. The Tigers still led the 7A-West in rushing, and Lunney Jr. didn’t figure he’d spend the summer adding formations on a dry erase board.

But then Haskell walked into Lunney’s office, a gift to an already stacked Bentonville offense for 2009. The Tigers’ coaches already believed they’d succeed on the ground this season with Gean and Boedeker behind an experienced, intelligent and athletic offensive line.

Haskell’s arrival changed everything.

“I’ve told my guys this,” Mahan said. “Very few times do you have a line like ours with an explosive back like Courtney. Usually it’s one or the other, but not both. I tell them we shouldn’t waste it.”

Lunney Jr. didn’t intend to. When asked earlier this week to draw out a few offensive formations for a reporter, he smiled. He didn’t mind describing a few, but he insisted Bentonville intended to expand their offense in the coming weeks and months.

The Tigers haven’t been tested offensively through two games, scoring 92 points, and they won’t face much resistance tonight against Nettleton. So expect the Tigers to unveil more of their offense when they begin 7A-West play next Friday at Fayetteville.

Expect more of Gean in the shotgun and expect more of Boedeker and Haskell in the backfield together — they had 15 plays at the same time last Friday night.

“We’ve always been fairly multiple, but this is the most versatile we’ve been,” Lunney Jr. said. “We’re the most broad as far as formations. We want to continue to do that down the stretch.

“I feel like we’ve almost come full circle with our offense, since we’re doing some things out of the spread now again.”

Three-Back Threat

Fort Zumwalt (Mo.) West coach Paul Day didn’t mince words last Friday night.

Bentonville’s running game pounded out 300 yards, and Gean completed passes to eight different Tigers during the 50-19 blowout. After the game, Day said Bentonville had “the best offensive team we’ve seen in more than 10 years.”

The fact each of Bentonville’s three backs possesses unique talents surely helps to explain that comment.

Haskell, a 5-11, 202-pounder with 4.4 speed, displays a rare mix of speed and strength. Warren coach Bo Hembree said he felt sick when Haskell informed him about his move to Northwest Arkansas for family reasons.

Hembree thought so much of Haskell to give him five carries in the Class 4A state championship game — as a freshman. Haskell battled injuries his last two seasons at Warren but played when he could, forever earning his coach’s respect.

“I wish I would’ve played him more that year to be honest,” Hembree said. “We may have won that state title game.”

Lunney Jr. said the Bentonville offense “doesn’t really play to Courtney’s strengths,” so that’s part of the reason he and Mahan have created plays for him. Boedeker does know the Tigers’ offense inside and out, however, he said Wednesday that Haskell has caught on so fast, the Warren transfer helps Boedeker during some practices.

Boedeker, 5-9, 197, possesses an uncanny ability to read blocks and cut back at the right time, Lunney said. And Lunney Jr. said Gean deserves to be referred to as “another running back. The junior quarterback has seemed increasingly comfortable running Bentonville’s zone option play out of the shotgun, sometimes run with Boedeker and Haskell on either side of him.

That’s a dangerous play the Tigers haven’t run much under Lunney before this season, another example of the offense’s 2009 expansion.

“The one thing I’ve really been proud of the last five years is that we’ve been able to adapt to our kids,” Mahan said. “You can’t recruit. You get what you get, and our system has been able to adapt to that.

“We have Pearson, Courtney and Shane now, and we have to get them all the ball. It’s no longer just two-tight, Blackmon back there and hand it to him. Now we have some weapons and we’ve adapted our system, without really changing it all that much.”