[00:00:00] Speaker A: Week one of the Arkansas high school football playoffs is in the books. We're heading into week two with Fayetteville, Bentonville and Greenwood joining the party. We break it down next on Prep RaLLY.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: You're listening to the Prep Rally podcast now here's your host, Graham Thomas.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: Welcome to the Prep Rally podcast sponsored by West Termite, Pest and Lawn Graham. Us here with the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. I'm joined in studio with Rick Fires, Democrat Gazette sports reporting legend, and then the other legend, Leland Barclay in the River Valley. And guys, we made it through week one of the high school football playoffs. And several of our Northwest Arkansas River Valley teams, some of them traveled a long way to get to where they were, I might add. Some of them won, some of them lost. And we're going to dive right into last week's results, just starting off right here up in Northwest Arkansas and expect the unexpected in the playoffs. Rick Fires when you only have to win one time. And when you looked at the Bentonville west and Fort Smith north side matchup on paper, you had a team that was two and eight against a team that was seven and three and thought, oh, this isn't going to be a good game. But that's exactly what it turned out to be, was a really good game. Bentonville west hangs on for a 38 35 victory and advances on in the playoffs. Great effort by Fortsmouth Northside. No, they made, Coach Curry said they made a lot of mistakes in the game, but it was a ball game and they had a chance to win it.
[00:01:41] Speaker C: I'm not a big fan of first round with the buys. Like you said earlier, the big team, the big boys fix and join the party. There's a lot of lopsided games. I saw one where Elkins and Clinton, but man, that was an outstanding effort by Fort Smith's Northside came in with only two wins. They gave Bentonville west all they wanted, Bentonville west coming off another loss to their rivals, Bentonville High. But they were able to get out there in front and just hang on. And now they're advancing. So good for the.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Know you is a River Valley guy. I know it probably did your heart well to see Northside with a really good effort Friday night.
[00:02:27] Speaker D: Well, that and I wasn't know. We know what the seven a central is and what they've done the last six years.
So the fact that Northside was able to go up there and play a very competitive game didn't surprise me at, I mean, I look at this game and get this, I love the stats and looking at things. And McLean Moody and Dalton Rice, the two quarterbacks, threw a combined 89 passes in the game and no interceptions.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: How about that? That's a statistical anomaly. I think you do it enough times, you're bound to throw one, but great job by those guys. And McClain Moody is just a junior, is he not?
[00:03:14] Speaker D: That's correct.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:15] Speaker D: Obviously everybody knows about his arm from baseball, but it's pretty good in football, too. 477 yards passing, four touchdowns. He was 35 of 53. Cam Massey, also just a junior. Twelve catches for 208 yards and two touchdowns. And that's going to be one of the dynamic duos in the state to watch next year. I mean, it was this year, but next year it's really going to be fun to keep an eye on those two guys. And then JT Thomas, a freshman who was kind of elevated to the varsity this year, he caught five passes and a touchdown. And he may be the know we love talking about DeMari Smith. And JT Thomas may be the fastest to ever come through Fort Smith.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: Now, even though Northside now eliminated, I would think a coach can say, hey, this is a springboard, guys. You're going into offseason, you're going into spring, you're going in summer. So look what we're capable of doing. We got these core guys to build on. You just add some more grizzlies into the mix and even though they lost, but they gave a great effort. So I think this is something they can build on toward next year.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: I agree. And go ahead, Leland.
[00:04:29] Speaker D: Well, especially when we don't know where they're going to be placed next year yet either at this point. I mean, they may be coming back to the, you know, they started at one time on defense this year, five sophomores. So like you said, rick, they've got a lot to build on and a great springboard into building on that, off of this game, even though it was a loss.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: And congrats to Bentonville West. We'll talk more, a little bit about their matchup this week, but you win advance and it only gets harder from here. So the Rogers Mounties with a route over North Little Rock, and we thought.
[00:05:07] Speaker C: There would be a close game.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: We thought it would be a close game.
Rogers really came to play ball right off the bat. So they win in advance and other games up here in Northwest Arkansas. So I was at Shiloh Christian and saw them get out to a 58 to zero lead on Hot Springs and wasn't really expecting that, but that's what happened. So the Saints roll in their first round and they're heading off to Northeast Arkansas this week. The game that you predicted, Rick, in prep rally Live, you predicted a Camden Fairview win over Farmington. That's exactly what happened. So the five a West number one seed is out to the number four seed. Rick, you already mentioned Elkins wins big over Clinton Gravit with a big win over Stuttgart. And then that kind of leads us to in the River Valley. But before we can actually get to the games in the River Valley, we've got to talk about the win that Fort Smith Southside had at Jonesboro. I mean, shoot, they went from one end of the state to the other and had a great ball game. And the Mavericks are going to now they got to head to Fayetteville. But Leland, what did you learn about that one with Southside and Jonesboro?
[00:06:26] Speaker D: Well, it was kind of the modus operandi for south side. 58 rushing attempts for 393 yards, Amari Tucker, 166 yards, Isaac Gregory 126 yards and then Carter Zimmerman. Zimmerman the quarterback, eight carries for 84 yards and three touchdowns rushing, plus he threw a touchdown pass and south side Devin Huggins returned an interception for a touchdown. So contributions all over the place, and that's what it takes in the playoffs, especially going on the road against a really good Jonesboro team. So big win for Southside, and it's going to give them a springboard into Friday night's game against Fayetteville.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Yep. And we'll look forward to. Rick and I are going to go to that one and see in person.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: Now, sometimes when you get on a springboard, I've been on it, maybe I was a little overweight. Instead of springing, I just went straight down. So I'm not saying anything, but we'll see how that turns out.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: We got to talk about Van Buren. They also went clear across the state and hung, what, 55 points on West Memphis or whatever it was. And I kind of felt like that was going to happen.
Nothing against those six A East teams, but they went over four last week, and I just figured Van Buren would be a little bit difficult for them to stop.
[00:07:52] Speaker D: Yeah.
West Memphis kicked a field goal in the first quarter, went up three to nothing, and then Van Buren got a defensive stop and blocked a punt. And that just opened the floodgates. 27 points in the second quarter. Two more touchdowns in the third quarter and one going away, 55 to 32. Van Buren was able to. And this balance all the coaches love to talk about. Balance. Bambier and rush for 200 yards through for 363. Four touchdown rushing, four touchdowns passing great balance for them. And again, we'll talk about that springboard into their second round game as well.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, and Bryce Perkins, I should note, was our Northwest Arkansas River Valley Player of the Week this week.
Leland, you were at Ozark to see two of our local teams. Lamar at Ozark. And the final score was 35 to 20. Right, sorry, Lamar scored on the very last player. Otherwise it was a little more lopsided than that. But the hillbillies get the job done.
[00:09:03] Speaker D: Very good defensive effort by Ozark.
They got seven turnovers, three interceptions. They picked off three passes. They recovered two fumbles and two defensive stops on fourth down, which is the equivalent of a turnover. In fact, a lot of times we call it a turnover on downs. But what a great defensive performance to hold Lamar to 282 yards rushing, which even that is a little bit deceiving. They had 90 yards on their last drive, which included an 82 yard touchdown run. So less than 200 yards rushing during, I guess, the bulk of the game.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Plus those mean, honestly, that is a good know Lamar can really move the football know, they busted one there late. So other games down in the River Valley. Last Booneville. Dax Goff rewriting the record books over there.
He hit some milestones, if I remember Harold's story correctly, he hit some milestones they expected him to hit last week and then went above and beyond, hit some more. They weren't expecting, I think maybe the touchdowns or something like that.
He had a good night. And then over in Charleston, Reese Morechka with another big rushing performance. I think he had six total touchdowns, and that gives him 13 for the last two weeks.
The stars are starting to come out here in the playoffs for these two teams.
[00:10:46] Speaker D: Yeah, coaches love to talk, uh, riding the horses. And in fact, Ricky May made the comment, I guess it was two weeks ago, Reese Mariska was telling him in the second half, of course, he'd played a lot of defense that game, too. And he told him his back was hurting him a little bit. And he said, well, no wonder your back's hurting because you've been carrying.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Know about. I mean, we've. We've been talking about that kid all, um. If Booneville gets where they want to go, it's going to be on the shoulders and legs of Dax Goff.
[00:11:27] Speaker D: Well, and I understand that they keep thinking that they're going to get their full back, Rylan Ray back, which that would be a big boost for them because it's going to start to get tough, and it's going to get real tough for Charleston on Friday. Night, too. So it's that time of November.
[00:11:49] Speaker C: Hey, Leland, you're the high school historian in Arkansas, and I've been around a long time, but I can't think of very many high school athletes who have done more for their school than Dax golf.
If you ever do a list of the 1020 40 most productive without regard to what they did in cOllege, or maybe some of them went to the pro, but this kid has done a little bit everything for the Boomville Bearcats his whole career. And I know the record list is long and long, and to me, he is just, when you put up a sign, Arkansas High School football boom. I put Dax golf right on there.
[00:12:32] Speaker D: Yeah, and you're right. Sure, he has these statistics to back it, but just going by, just talking about maybe the perception of what a player is and what a player does for his school and his town and his community, you're right. He is probably in the top ten of all time as far as just the impact they make on and off the field.
[00:12:59] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:13:00] Speaker D: For a community and a school. Because you're know, we keep thinking that we'll never, we, we get to cover some of these guys, and we've all been doing it a long time, and we think, boy, we'll never see another one like him or we'll never see another one like that. And then a guy like Dax golf comes along. That just is amazing. I mean, he's a catcher in baseball.
He helped out with the track team last year, just kind of walked out there and did a couple of things and automatically did well. But you're exactly right. He's on another level.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Well, he's special. Kids like that are special. They're fun to watch. And I consider it a privilege to get to just even see a little bit of their careers whenever they roll. Know, whatever game we're, when we go watch Fayetteville play on Friday night, we'll say the same about Drake Lindsay and the job he's doing. And Leland will say the same about Reese Moretzka at.
You know, we'll get to this point of the season, just about everybody has a kid that's kind of special.
[00:14:05] Speaker C: That's what's always fun to me. I'll be watching a game, NFL.
My cousin said, oh, man. Yeah, I've heard of that guy before. I said, man, Scotty, dude, I've watched him play on Friday nights for four years. Go out. Oh, he's from there. He's from, you know, instead of sitting on couch and stuff your face with marshmallows, on a Friday night and watching Netflix. Get out there and watch some of these kids before they become, well, and.
[00:14:38] Speaker D: It'S so funny, too, because we kind of get spoiled. You walk into the press box at Booneville and have a conversation with Dax Goff's dad and then go to Charleston, go down on the field before the game, know, just to kind of soak in the moment. And I end up having a conversation with Reese Mariska's granddad, who played at It's. We're very blessed to be able to do what we do.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Absolutely. So we're going to take a break, and when we come back, we'll take a look at the teams that are left and this week's playoff games. You're watching prep rally stay on top.
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[00:16:04] Speaker A: Welcome back to Prep RaLly Sponsored by West Termite, Pest and lawn Graham Thomas Rick fires in Fayetteville, Arkansas, joined by Leland Barkley in the River Valley. And guys, so we're down to the final eight in Class seven A, and so we'll just kind of start right there. And it's second round of the high school playoffs. So as we mentioned before, Fort Smith south side will be playing at Fayetteville. Cabot will be at Bentonville, Rogers will have to travel to Bryant and Bentonville west will start at will play at Conway.
The way this is kind of shaping up is the winners of the south side Fayetteville game play. The winners of the Wes Conway and Cabot, Bentonville and Rogers Bryant are matched up with each other. So we'll start up here in the the intriguing game for me is the south side Fayetteville game. I expect to see a lot of points scored on both sides. And if you're Fort Smith south side, you're kind of thinking, man, all we got to do is win by one in this one. If they can figure out a way to score enough, mean we've kind of been talking about, don't count the Mavericks out in this one just because they're on the road at Fayetteville. They can score points. And when you can score points, it gives you a.
[00:17:25] Speaker D: You know, if you talk to Coach Kim Damron at Southside, he'll tell you that, and we can look at, know, look at their season. The only game that they weren't competitive in was against Bentonville, and Bentonville was just that much better than Southside. They were competitive in every other know. They lost a close game to Rogers early. They tied it late, gave up the long touchdown.
The Bentonville west game was a field goal, and the Fayetteville game was closer, too, than probably the score indicates. So Southside thinks they have a shot against a, and obviously winning and going on the road and winning last week, they're going to go into that game with a lot of confidence on Friday night.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Well, Rick, we'll see what Fayetteville looks like after having had a week. Were, they were rolling pretty good, and all of a sudden they had a.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: Um. I was talking to Coach Casey Dick, and I asked him something. I said, man, you preferred a week off. Or he said, you can see it both ways. But they had a couple of kids bang up.
We see a lot of these rematches in Class seven A. There's a limited number of teams there, and we've seen it 40, 8100 times where the team that wins in regular season loses in the playoff.
South side scored some points. I can't remember exactly what it was, maybe 42, 28 or something like that the first time they played, but south side, they got that ground game. And even though Fable has been pretty good on the interior and defense, that's a challenge right there, man, that could really go either way. But, man, that is a great. Sometimes I don't like to see rematches, but that is a good rematch right there.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: Well, and one of the things I've been thinking about, too, if you think about the games that Fayetteville has won, when they beat Rogers, when they beat Bentonville, neither Rogers or Bentonville was really able to run the ball effectively on Fayetteville.
[00:19:26] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Southside was. So that, you know, it's a little bit of a difference. And I think a lot of that goes back to Southside's big offensive line.
[00:19:34] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:19:35] Speaker D: Well, that, and I've always thought that rematches favor the team that lost the first time because they can go back and look at things and see what didn't work and change things. It's hard for the team that won that first matchup to change things because, well, it was successful and they won. Now, Fayetteville is a very good team. So also there's that theory of they beat them once, they beat them again.
But I do think that rematches a lot of times somewhat favors that team that lost the first game because especially if you go back, I think it was 1995, Southside beat Jonesboro 54 to six in the first game of the regular season.
They also met in the first round of the playoffs at Southside, and Jonesboro won. That was after losing 54 to six in the regular season. Now, granted, it was ten weeks later, but strange things. A lot of things happen in the playoffs.
[00:20:39] Speaker C: Yeah. Leland psychologically said, oh, my God, we whipped those boys. We got to play them again. Oh, that's nothing. And I remember I was there at that game. I'm glad you remember what year it was. And Jonesboro came all the way over here and beat him on this. I don't know if it was Zach Painter or the brother Zane Painter or one of those guys, and they just beat mean. It wasn't a fluke. They beat him on the field and coach Lenny admitted it.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: Well, and so the other game that's matched up with that one is going to be Bentonville west at Conway. And it's a tough assignment for Bentonville west, but it's not know. Conway looked a little vulnerable the last half against Bryant and coach PRatt over Bentonville West. He's a good coach. They're going to figure something out that works for them. And going up against Coach.
So I'm excited to see how that one turns out. Then on the other side, you got Bentonville up here, who had a week off after earning the number two seed, and they're going to host a Cabot team. And the last time that we saw Cabot up here was against Fayetteville. Didn't look real good, but I bet they're a lot better now.
[00:21:48] Speaker C: Didn't Cabot come up here and beat Bentville a year or two ago? Is that right?
[00:21:54] Speaker A: They lost to Bentonville 15 to 13 in a real slobber in the semifinals last year at Bentonville.
[00:22:01] Speaker C: Slobber knocker. Man, I like a young boy right there.
My old guys right there. Slobber knocker.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: I like that you're calling me young. Yeah.
[00:22:09] Speaker C: Well, you're younger than me.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: That's for, you know, Cabot has to make the trip up to, you know, again, Cabot looked really good against Harbor. It looks like they kind of put things together the night Rick and I saw him against Fayetteville was a tough night for the Panthers, but Scott Reed's a good coach.
[00:22:27] Speaker D: Well, and I think they've made a change at quarterback, too, which I think might make a difference as well. Very.
It's. I don't want to say it's a whole different team, but that kind of changes the dynamic a little bit. So they're going to be able to throw it a little bit more, I think. And they've gone with the know, their punter, he was invited, I guess he's going to be playing in the All American game in San Antonio in January.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: You know what's funny about that is it was their special team. It was Cabot's special teams unit that let them down against Fayetteville, which put them in a really big hole. We were looking forward to watching the punter, and they couldn't get to him. But once they finally were able to.
[00:23:11] Speaker C: Get that, it was about 45 yards.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: For 60 yards, and he hangs them up. We don't spend a lot of time talking about punters, but he's the real deal.
[00:23:19] Speaker C: He is the real deal.
[00:23:21] Speaker D: I think he's had a 79 yarder this year.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Yeah. The big thing with him is he can hang them up there.
They never come down.
[00:23:30] Speaker C: I'm standing outsideline a lot of times, the high school, I say, okay, went 35, went for, and then when I saw it was just like a boom off his foot, I thought, holy moly.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So the other game, the winner of the Cabot Bentonville game will have to face the winner of the Rogers Bryant game. And for the mean, this is a tough draw. This is, a lot of people believe maybe the number one team in the know, certainly they were the number one seed out of the seven a central. And so the Rogers Malleys have a tough assignment going to Bryant. But again, the Malleys can score points when they're really feeling in the mood, and that's got to give them some optimism heading down into this one. They know it's a tough assignment.
[00:24:16] Speaker C: Well, one thing with the boys back in East Arkansas, Arkansas, they ain't scared. They ain't scared. So if you ain't scared when you go down there, if you're ready, know, they may eventually take you down. But if you get off the bus thinking you're going to get beat. But these Rogers Mount, I've seen them enough, and they ain't scared.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So that kind of is the slate of the seven a games we're keeping an eye on for six a Van Buren is going to be at Little Rock Christian. So I just keep looking at that Van Buren helmet over by your head there, Leland, and thinking, man, what a great win they had at West Memphis. But, man, they've got to go to Little Rock Christian. And Little Rock Christian's had a week to stew over their performance at Greenwood. And another tough assignment for Van Buren. Already played Little Rock Christian one time and got hammered pretty good in that matchup.
[00:25:12] Speaker D: Yeah, Little Rock Christian won that 158 to three. Now, Rice Perkins did not play in that game, and they had a couple of other starters that they kind of held out of that game because they knew they had, that was week eight, so they knew they had a couple of games coming up that they needed to win, or at least one of them to get into the playoffs. So they kind of held a couple out that maybe could have played, but getting ready for that stretch run. So now it's hard to make up a difference of 58 to three, but obviously it's been done before.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Yeah, well, maybe they hear that Jonesboro south side Story and get a little inspiration out of that. If I were Coach Henry, I might have coach Lunny come speak at the team meal on Thursday night, something that way he can relive probably not one of his finer moments. Anyway, Mountain home is going to head to Greenwood and enjoy the ride, man.
Well, Greenwood has just been clicking all year and I think everybody would expect them to handle Mountain home. It's been a good year for Mountain home. They've won five games, I think, and done a nice job, but it's tough assignment. Heading to Greenwood on Friday night, Shiloh Christian is headed over to Jonesboro, to Valley View to play a really good Valley View team. But I tell you mean, having seen the Saints last, really, they can really got, they just run their offense a lot like watching Greenwood, actually. They just don't make mistakes.
[00:26:50] Speaker C: Yeah, but people got to realize, I remember staying at Prairie Grove one year and they were hosting Valley View. Valley View. Where's Valley View at when they found out? Valley View is a suburb of Jonesboro. It's a growing community. They haven't had a football that long. I don't know.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Let me tell you about that, actually. So when I was working at, when I was working at the Jonesboro sun and I got sent out to a junior high football game out at Valley View, this is before the stadium was even finished out there, before they had their turf, before they even had a press box, they had rolled out one of those scissor lifts behind the stands, behind the makeshift bleachers out there, and that's where we sat, was on that little deal out there.
[00:27:38] Speaker C: How long ago was this?
[00:27:39] Speaker A: This had to have been back in 2004.
That's the year I started the Jonesboro sun, and that was just junior high football, and they've just come leaps and bounds out there. Valley View is probably best known for BeiNg such a strong volleyball school, but they've been really good in baseball.
They've been successful in girls basketball.
It's really just a tremendous little community out there, and I say little. It's growing like crazy.
[00:28:12] Speaker D: So you covered a game from a scissor.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: You know, I can't even imagine you.
[00:28:21] Speaker D: Got me beat there.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Well, it was a big scissor lift, too, and I don't even know what I was thinking even getting on that.
So, anyway, Shiloh heads over to Valley View.
[00:28:32] Speaker C: Just be careful. Shiloh. I mean, because they're legit.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Well, and I'm sure Valley View is saying the same thing. They probably watched film of Shiloh dismantling hot Springs like they did, and they're saying, whoa. So, class foray game. So Monticello is at Elkins Lincoln with a big win at Hebrew Springs there in Lamar, and Gravit has to go all the way to Rivercrest. You ever been to Rivercrest? Rick Fires?
[00:28:58] Speaker C: Absolutely. I cover a lot of games over there.
It's just the school just right in the middle of a bean field. And if you're headed over there, who's playing over there? Gravit.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: Gravit. Yeah.
[00:29:09] Speaker C: Grab it. All right. Grab it. People keep driving to the Mississippi river, but if you hit water, turn around and come back about three or 4 miles, and you'll be at River Crest.
[00:29:20] Speaker D: I went over there and covered Booneville against River Crest when Rivercrest had, you.
[00:29:28] Speaker C: Know, that's the home of Cortez Kennedy, the great hall of Famer. I mean, Danny Graham, the coach. They got a great history. Rivercrest is just a consolidated school. Little bitty towns over there, farming town, but you know what? They know how to play.
[00:29:41] Speaker D: Wilson, Arkansas Wilson.
[00:29:43] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: I apologize. I think I said Lincoln at Lamar. I meant Lincoln at Ozark. So that's two more of our local teams playing each know, the Lincoln Wolves have had a really good year, and it's been fun to kind of document that a little, you know, we can't say enough about to. They're going to host the Monticello Billies, man. How you like the Billies?
[00:30:07] Speaker C: The Elks going up against the Billy Goats. I know they go billies, but it's still a billy goat to me. The Elks against the Billy Goats, man.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: How's that for Arkansas high school football, Class three A? So we mentioned the Oceola a little bit. That's Rivercrest. Big rival over there. But the Oceola Seminoles are heading to Booneville, and Bismarck is heading to Charleston, and Mansfield travels to hoxey. And off the record, I have to tell you a rhyme. I heard about Hoxie back in the day. So a lot of these Northeast Arkansas schools like Oco and Hoxie, man, I've got some really fun memories of going and covering things over there.
Just some really good communities. And, man, Oceola, they're going to have some speed. Booneville better get ready for that. Leland, you're going to go to this Bismarck Charleston game. I think you think it's going to be a pretty good one.
[00:30:59] Speaker D: I think it's going to be a really good one. I mean, you look at Bismarck, they're second seed, but their two losses are to Prescot in non conference play and Glenrose in conference play. That's their only two losses. That's two conference champions, one of which is probably the best team in Class three A. So that's really good now. But Charleston can also say, you look at their three non conference losses.
Elkins.
[00:31:33] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:31:35] Speaker D: Gosh, who else did they lose to at non conference? Nashville. And then conference play was to Booneville.
[00:31:42] Speaker C: Booneville.
[00:31:43] Speaker D: All three of their teams. Ozark.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:46] Speaker D: All three of the teams that they've lost to in non conference play and conference play, they're all still playing.
[00:31:55] Speaker C: Now, where is Bismarck? I assume it's in Southwest Arkansas.
You have any idea towards Arcadelia down there.
[00:32:04] Speaker D: It's down in that area.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Okay, well, and then last week said Mansfield at know. Good to see Mansfield get a win last week at home against Centerpoint. If I'm not, you know, that's kind of the wrap on the games this week, and we just don't have enough guys to beat all these games. I know we'd like to be. So be sure and pull up your app for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette on Saturday morning and see how these things turned out.
We're going to take another little break, and then when we come back, we will jump into the top five of the week.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: If you're enjoying this podcast, consider a newspaper subscription to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette or the River Valley Democrat Gazette. We have a special offer for our podcast listeners, so visit nwanline.com Podcast 23 to get started. You can also click the subscribe button on our websites, nwanline.com and rivervalleddemocratgazette.com. Or call us at 479-684-5509 and be sure to say that you're a podcast listener. Now back to the show.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: We're back with prep rally podcast sponsored by West Termite, Pest and Lawn Graham Thomas and Rick fires here, Leland Barclay with us in the River Valley. And we're going to start with the top five of the week. And I'm going to lead us off this week. I'm going to go with the small schools, the Class six A and below, not River Valley. We like to save those for know first and foremost Shiloh Christian. Man, I did not expect to see what I saw on Friday night. I thought it'd be a pretty good ball game with Shiloh and Hot Springs. And, man, it was 51 to zero at the half. It was 58 nothing in the third quarter. And Hot Springs got three touchdowns against Shiloh's second string defense. But it wasn't close. I mean, Cole Creighton had four touchdown passes in the first quarter. Evan Bacon, the backup quarterback, ran for 150 yards and he had a 79 yard touchdown run.
If anybody might be able to stop Park View, maybe it could be Shiloh. I don't know. We'll see the Elkins trio last week and you got to help me, Rick. I know Deshaun chairs had a big night, five Russian touchdowns. Then you had Dizzy Dean, 20 of 25 for 205 yards and two more touchdowns. Is it Pookie?
[00:34:43] Speaker C: His name on the roster is John. And somehow when they send me stats and everything, Pookie and Woods, he's got another brother. I said, what is Pookie? A third brother, but I guess that's his nickname.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Well, if we're saying it wrong, I apologize. But Pookie Townsend had eleven catches for 90 yards. John Townsend, they just kept hitting him for whatever they needed. A little short game.
[00:35:08] Speaker C: Just a little short.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: You get eleven catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns.
[00:35:14] Speaker C: What is that? What is that, nine yards of catch?
[00:35:17] Speaker A: About eight.
[00:35:17] Speaker C: Eight.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Okay, eight and some change, but moves to know. I'm looking at the Gravit Lions. They picked up a nice win, good win. And blew out Stutgart. It looks like gravitate. They're kind of peeking right now.
[00:35:33] Speaker C: I was very surprised by that.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: You look at the Lincoln Wolves. I mean, they go over to Heber Springs and win.
That's a big deal for those guys. And another one of those rematches, one of those conference rematches with Ozark this week at Ozark.
[00:35:50] Speaker C: Now, Ozark handled them pretty well. Maybe it was like 44 to 1044 to three and Lincoln had some guys hurt. They didn't play very well. They was coming off a loss that they gave up a late touchdown and coach said it kind of bled in that Ozark game. But I think they'll play much better against Ozark this time around. I'm sure they will.
[00:36:15] Speaker A: I agree. It'll be a fight. And last for the top five this week. I'm going to go a little basketball and just taking a little detour here.
Shep Newcomb of Ozark Catholic scored 38 points in a win over Kingston last weekend. We saw the Ozark Catholic boys here at media day in the faithful offices and really enjoy visiting with those good looking athletes. Coach Cody Vaught and 38 points, man, that's a lot of points in a basketball game. So that does me for the top five. Leland, I'm going to kick it over to you for your top five.
[00:36:52] Speaker D: I'm going to start with Ozark. Of course, the defense, seven turnovers. Kobe Willbanks accounted for all five of the touchdowns, three rushing, two passing. Demetrius PArrish, two interceptions and a touchdown grab that helped Ozark advance to the second round. And then, of course, we talk about Bryce Perkins a lot and we know he's a good quarterback. He's in fact, the single season record holder at Van Buren now for touchdown passes thrown. Trenton Cooley, nine catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns on Friday night. Cam Keller, two more touchdown rushing.
He's rushed for 15 this year. He's rushed for or caught three. So he scored 18 touchdowns for Van Buren this year and he's just a junior, junior running back.
But really, I think Peyton Pashir, the senior, he blocked that punt early in the second quarter that really, or I guess late in the first quarter that kind of got Van Buren going. They scored, I think two plays later got him going to that big win. He's the one that blocked the extra point.
He's the one that blocked the extra point against Russellville in that 28 27 win, which is the reason why that Van Buren is even in the playoffs and still playing. And then, of course, the duo, or the trio, really. South side Amari Tucker, Isaac Gregory, Carter Zimmerman, they rushed for 388 yards behind what I think Southside thinks they have the best offensive line in the state and they continue to kind of prove that. The Mansfield duo, Tyler Turnip seed and Daniel Burton helped the Tigers rush for 362 yards in that 57 to 22 win over center point of course. And then rish Mariska six rushing touchdowns on Friday night, 13 touchdowns scored in the last two weeks. And last and definitely not least, Dax golf, he's over 5000 career rushing yards. Wow. And Friday night he rushed for five touchdowns, returned a punt for a touchdown. He's now scored a school record 78 career touchdowns.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: How long is a mile?
[00:39:15] Speaker C: Pretty long.
[00:39:17] Speaker D: It's like 1800 yards.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: Okay, so he's rushed for almost 3 miles in his career now carrying the.
[00:39:24] Speaker D: Football and a lot of those have been carrying opposing tacklers, would be tacklers.
[00:39:31] Speaker C: I don't even think I can walk.
Is it my time, Rick?
[00:39:36] Speaker A: It's all right.
[00:39:38] Speaker C: You know, we talk about impressive numbers. We just got through talking about with Das golf statistics. Here's a guy right here, right here in northwest Arkansas that tied a record that will never be broken.
And I talking about Jacob Jenkins 99 yard touchdown pass in the first quarter from Dane Williams versus North Little Rock. We thought there was going to be a pretty close game. Boom, right off the pat, right off the real quick right there. I think it was in first quarter, 99 yard. I mean you backed up your goal line, you throw it out there. Dane Williams hit him in stride and he just outran everybody. Love to see that play. Rogers won 44 to six over North Little. Another impressive win by the Rogers Mounties. They got eight wins now after coming off with nine consecutive nine win seasons. I know they got a tough challenge going down to Bryant this week but congratulations to Rogers and coach Chad Arbison. Just another great year for them. Bentonville West, Northside, they had a fight off Northside. You knew Northside was going to come up here and play. Well, Bentonville west was coming off as a loss to Bentonville High and you're going to be in down in the dumps and you're going to be moping around. But the coaches did a good job getting them back up.
Everybody else at playoff time. Nice bounce back win. They're now eight and three on a year. A good year for the Wolverine. You're talking about combo. Dalton Rice, the quarterback and Jason Brust quarterback and receiver Combo. They continue to make big plays for the Wolverines. They need some more of them this week and I got to go back to seven eight Central Cabot, who's coming up here to play? Who are they playing?
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Benville.
[00:41:30] Speaker C: Bentonville 42 to six over Harbor. Gunner Poe, three interceptions for Cabot Harbor. They finished two and nine. Brent Eckley, you knew it was going to be a challenge. They got a lot of work to do. And they got to get back in the weight room and the spring ball and everything. So that's it for Harbor.
They won a couple of games, but you got to build that program up. Still a lot of work to do over there at Harbor.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: All right, well, folks, that's going to wrap us up for prep rally this week. You can listen to prep
[email protected] or wherever you get your podcast. You can also watch it on YouTube. And we'd like to thank our sponsor, west termite pests and Lawn. Be sure and check out prep rally Live this week where Rick fires and I are going to give our predictions on the best games in and out of this area.
And just, it's just, man, I love the playoffs.
[00:42:33] Speaker C: I love this time of year.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: So much fun.
[00:42:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
Get you a coat and get you some hot chocolate and get out there and support these.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: Uh, but that'll do us for this week for Rick Fires for, I'm.
