Andy Couture is healthy, and it shows.
Couture rushed for 224 yards and four touchdowns, and passed for 223 yards and one score to lead Rogers High to a 62-38 win against Van Buren on Friday. He is this week’s 7A-West Conference Player of the Week.
Couture worked his way into the starting role at quarterback the final six games of his sophomore season, and started the first eight games last year before a torn ligament in his right thumb sidelined him for the final two games.
“He’s overcome some injuries,” Rogers coach Ronnie Peacock said. “He’s played for us for three years. He started some as a sophomore and got hurt last year.”
Couture is the most experienced quarterback in the conference and is the only senior starting at the position in the conference.
“He’s a leader for us,” Peacock said. “He’s a real hard-working kid. He’s diligent in the weight room.”
Friday against Van Buren, Couture did most of his damage with his legs.
“We were just taking advantage of what Van Buren was giving us,” Peacock said. “They were mixing it up with their stunts and dropping people back. He rushed for 224 yards and four touchdowns, and he completed over 50 percent of his passes. He did a real good of running our offense.”
Couture also shredded Van Buren last year with 161 yards passing and a touchdown, and 115 yards rushing with two scores.
“He can run,” Peacock said. “He’s a double threat.”
Rogers has scored 62 points in each of the last two meetings with Van Buren.
Conference Play Begins
Conference play begins this week with Rogers hosting Fort Smith Southside, Fayetteville hosting Bentonville, Fort Smith Northside hosting Rogers Heritage, and Springdale High hosting rival Springdale Har-Ber.
Rogers yielded more than 500 yards twice in nonconference play, giving up 575 in the season-opening loss to Webb City, Mo., and 541 yards to Van Buren last week.
That’s certainly a concern for the Mountaineers.
“Yes, it is,” Peacock said. “We’ve given up some yards. We can’t hide that.”
Rogers is still smarting defensively from the loss of eight starters from last year.
“We can look really good against the run and then can’t stop them,” Peacock said. “We can look really good against the pass and then can’t stop them. We just need to be consistent.”
Southside leads the all-time series against Rogers, 29-13, which began in 1968.
Looking Ahead
The 7A-West teams will have a drastically difference look for nonconference schedules next season as a new two-year cycle begins.
Bentonville could have two new nonconference opponents next year. An appeal by Searcy will be heard this week by the Arkansas Activities Association for next year’s conference alignment. That will affect which conference Conway plays in, which will affect if the Wampus Cats stay on Bentonville’s nonconference schedule.
“The appeal could change a lot of things,” Bentonville coach Barry Lunney said. “There are a lot of tentative games.”
Bentonville and Fort Zumwalt, Mo., have verbally agreed to continue their series. Nettleton was only a two-year deal with both years being played in Bentonville. Kansas City Rockhurst, Texarkana, Texas, or a Tulsa school could fill a playing date as well.
With possibly Conway, Fort Zumwalt and then any of the other possibilities coupled with Fayetteville and Fort Smith Southside to open conference plays gives Bentonville no breathers in the first half of the season.
“That’s a brutal five-game stretch,” Lunney said. “It’s just tough getting games. People don’t want to travel.”
Situated in the corner of the state creates travel problems. Bentonville has also grown into one of the largest schools in the state, and the Tigers are coming off a state championship, so teams in lower classifications shy away from playing them as well. There once was a time when Bentonville was a choice as a lot of team’s homecoming opponent.
“I guess that’s better than everybody calling you up and wanting you on the schedule,” Lunney said.
Undefeated Again
Rogers Heritage is perfect again in nonconference play, but this time there’s a little different attitude.
“We’ve improved,” Heritage coach Perry Escalante said. “The kids are further along. We’re ahead of the game this year.”
Heritage was 3-0 last year in its inaugural season heading into conference play, too.
“Last year, we were so young and so small,” Escalante said.
Heritage’s offense with returning quarterback Reed Brown at the controls has been steady. Brown has already thrown 14 touchdown passes.
“We’re a lot more efficient this year,” Escalante said. “We’ve been consistent on offense and defense, and we’re not shooting ourselves in the foot.”
That may be the most pleasing aspect to Escalante and the War Eagles. Heritage has not committed a turnover this season.
Heritage committed 27 turnovers during the 10-game schedule last season and committed at least two in every game.
Offensive First
Bentonville’s 54-0 win against Nettleton added another entry in the Tigers’ history book.
Coupled with the previous week’s 50-19 win against Fort Zumwalt, it marks the first time in school history in which Bentonville has scored at least 50 points in consecutive games.
The school record for points scored in a game is a 122-0 win against Prairie Grove in 1921.
Remember When?
Springdale started the season atop the Associated Press poll in 2005, stayed number one throughout the season and finished 14-0 to win the state championship?
That was the last time a team went wire-to-wire No. 1 in the poll, and the last time a team started the season No. 1 and finished No. 1.
Bentonville will try to accomplish those feats this season after starting the season as the top-ranked team in the Associated Press poll.
Bentonville is the 15th team from the 7A-West to begin the season No. 1 during the past 24 years. During that time, only nine teams that started the season ranked first actually won the state title.
With Class 4A Shiloh Christian being knocked off on Friday by Greenwood, the talk of a team from a lower classification being ranked No. 1 overall will end. The team that wins the state championship in Class 7A will now undoubtedly be the overall No. 1 at season’s end.
Leland Barclay is the author of the Almanac of Arkansas High School Football. His column appears each Tuesday. E-mail: barclayalmanac@yahoo.com.
SPRINGDALE — Springdale Har-Ber coach Chris Wood wasn’t very happy with how the Wildcats played offensively against Fort Smith Northside.
