Ep. 12 Touchdown History MADE & Upcoming May Bowl?!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the prep rally podcast. Your go to huddle for high school sports action in northwest Arkansas and the River Valley. I'm your host, Sydney Ruth Mullanon. [00:00:08] Speaker B: I'm Graham Thomas. Leland Barclay joins us in the River Valley. We've got the highlights, the hype, and of course, our gimme five and top five where we count down the top athletes of the week from the northwest Arkansas and River Valley Democrat Gazette. [00:00:24] Speaker A: Whether you're listening on the way to practice or sitting in the stands, we've got something for every high school sports fan. Let's kick it off with this week's biggest wins and wildest finishes as we reel it back. Welcome back to the prep rally podcast. Let's start. Start with who's looking good out here? [00:00:58] Speaker B: So you got any Halloween candy left? [00:01:00] Speaker A: No, I don't celebrate Halloween, actually. [00:01:02] Speaker B: Oh, my, yes. We actually forgot to give out our Halloween candy, so it's all sitting in the closet. [00:01:11] Speaker A: Oh, well, take it. Take it to the state championship and pass it out to people. I'm sure they'd enjoy that. [00:01:17] Speaker B: I ain't passing it out to nobody. [00:01:18] Speaker A: What, you gonna eat it all? [00:01:20] Speaker B: No, but just, you know, kind of a little bit here, a little bit there, spread out a little bit. Nah. [00:01:26] Speaker A: Sharing is caring. All right, guys, let's dive into some games. [00:01:33] Speaker B: All right. Good morning, Leland. [00:01:35] Speaker C: Morning. [00:01:39] Speaker B: So we're going to start off in the 7A West. We're not going to spend a whole lot of time in the 7A west because everything happened about like we thought it would with, you know, Bentonville west with a 56 to 0 win over Northside and Bentonville rolling all over Springdale. Rogers bouncing back with a mercy rule win against harbor. And Fayetteville being heritage. So no. No upsets there that could have. [00:02:03] Speaker A: So gutsy with your terminology today. [00:02:05] Speaker B: Hey, we got to get it. We got to get going here. You know, we just got to roll through some of these. So, you know, a lot of big games coming up in the 70 west this week, but we'll. We'll dive back into that in the next segment. But I do want to talk about the 6A West. [00:02:21] Speaker C: Probably. [00:02:22] Speaker B: Probably some very significant things happened over there. You have Greenwood with a huge win over Southside. And the biggest thing coming out of that one, Leland, has got to be Kane Archer making state history as a quarterback with 100 passing touchdowns and 50 rushing touchdowns. [00:02:43] Speaker A: Wow. [00:02:45] Speaker C: Yes. He's now thrown for 122 career touchdowns. He's rushed for 50, first quarterback in state history to go 150. And it's really not even close. He, you know, nobody's even really close to that. There's, you know, been some, you know, tie story, you know, other guys that. That have been close to that. But Kane Archer establishes really a new, I guess, set of metrics for a quarterback to be measured. At least a versatile run past threat. Did that on Friday night, and we'll get into that a little bit more later. [00:03:26] Speaker B: Well, you know, and I just want to say this. I didn't have this one on my bingo card this year. Maybe from the passing standpoint, but certainly not the rushing. The guy's got all these rushing touchdowns this year. It's wild. [00:03:39] Speaker C: He's now thrown 24 touchdowns this year. He's rushed for 20, which puts him in another category of a 2020 guy for a single season. And that list is also pretty small. I've got all those guys going back, you know, several years, and that's a small list, too, especially in the larger classifications, because coaches just don't want their quarterbacks running much. So a 2020 combination also a rarity among high school quarterbacks. [00:04:10] Speaker A: And I mean, another plug. But our prep rally road trip first episode was with Greenwood. So we got to talk to Kane before this season started. And I mean, you could tell that he knew he was going to have a season well beyond what he did last year. I think it's interesting how you guys meet these athletes, these D1 athletes, and he was determined. It was like, it was impressive to see the confidence of like, yeah, I know I'm going to do better than last year, but that just goes to show you the training at Greenwood and how well they train these athletes well. [00:04:40] Speaker B: And last year was so such a different kind of like, milestones. Like, it was his passing completion percentage. And this year it's been. Not that for sure. He has. He's not anywhere close to that, I don't think. But it's been the other things. So anyways, what's really interesting about this, Leland was good. As great of a season as Greenwood had. They're nine and, oh, six and oh, in the conference. Hey, they've done nothing yet. They still haven't. They haven't even clinched the number one seed in the conference. That's how, you know, they got to do that this week at Mountain Home against a really good Mountain Home team. [00:05:13] Speaker C: So, yeah, about the. About the only thing they've done to this point is they have at least clinched a share of the conference championship, which doesn't mean much to them. [00:05:23] Speaker B: Nope. And they've got work to do then, you know. You know, Chris Young's got to love that corner this week. I mean, there's nothing they've, they've, they've accomplished, you know, everything to this point doesn't mean anything anymore. It's all about what happens this week. Speaking of Mountain Home, boy, they came down to Van Buren and just rolled up the Pointers in a big win. You know, that, that was a surprise to me. I thought Van Buren would bounce back. Mountain Home was all over them from the beginning. [00:05:49] Speaker A: I thought it would be close and especially with Van Buren's loss to Greenwood, I thought it would be. I thought it would be close. [00:05:56] Speaker C: Well, it started out bad and it even got worse. They Mountain Home got a safety early to make it two to nothing. They kicked off, they scored, and now it's nine to nothing all of a sudden before Mountain Homes offense really even touched the ball. And then Mountain Homes offense run up, you know, 366 yards. You know, Bradley Phillips and Barrett Miller is a really good combination and I think they're, they're going to give Greenwood some fits on Friday night. [00:06:29] Speaker B: We'll see. That's going to be a really fun evening in the, in the north central Arkansas mountains. A really pretty drive over there and then you can't see anything on the way back because it's so dark. Okay, let's stay in the six eight west real quick. I got to give Asylum Springs a shout out. 35 game conference losing streak is history with a 21 to 6 win over Russellville. Russellville is barreling toward oh and 10, but coach Doug Lockridge and the Panthers, you know, got another monkey off their back and you know, we've all, you know, with coach Lockridge being in Alma for so long, we all, we've known him a long time and really happy to see him turning things around over there. Leland. [00:07:12] Speaker C: Well, especially, you know, they've, you know, Titus Benson, the freshman quarterback they started the year with, he kind of went out and they played several guys at quarterback on Friday night, including his older brother, Boaz Benson, who actually completed 5 of 10 passes in that game. Salem springs 258 yards rushing and got a big 21 to 6 win over Russellville. [00:07:37] Speaker B: Let's go to the 4A1 Prairie Grove with a 52 to 50 shootout win over Gentry. We're going to talk some more about that one in just a little bit. I guess the biggest one there, Sydney, is Elkins wrapping up its fourth consecutive conference title with a 21 to 16 win at Gravett. Boy, that was just sound like a real bone crunching kind of football game. And the, you know, the stats kind of say that from everything we've seen. Speaking of bone crunching, a lot of bones were crunched to Charleston. With Boonville and Charleston Leland. [00:08:13] Speaker C: Yeah, that was kind of an old fashioned game, you know, 21 to 7 Charleston. But Charleston had the score with under four minutes left in the game to put that game away. Boonville had 63 rushes for 238 yards in that game. They, they scored on their second possession of the game. They had a 19 play drive that took 10 minutes and 2 seconds to tie the game at 7. 7. They lost a fumble on the opening on the second play of the game. Charleston cash that in for a 7 to nothing lead on Carter Little's 1 yard touchdown run. And then after Boonville scored on the second play of the second quarter, Bryson took the kickoff back 85 yards and it's 147 early in the second quarter. And that was all the scoring until the fourth quarter. Boonville had a 16 play, 9 minute and 25 yard drive. 9 minute 25 second drive. The Charleston stopped at the 13. Then they had a 15 yard play. Took 8 minutes and 7 seconds off the clock. The Charleston stopped inside the 1 yard line and then they finally got the decisive or the clinching touchdown with about four minutes left to win 21 to 7. Just a great defensive game back and forth between two rivals. Charleston or Boonville is going to go up to 4A next year but these two teams are going to keep playing in a non conference game. So great way to decide the number two seed and the number three seed in the 3A one. [00:09:56] Speaker B: Well, it's good to see they're going to keep playing. They need to. That's a great rivalry and it's good for everybody. So. And then the last thing you know, and just it was an exciting time Friday night. But how about, you know the Mansfield Tigers did wrap up the conference championship and you know I suppose one of these teams can still share it with them but they've got the tiebreaker over everybody and you know, you know, so they're going to be the number one seed and you know just Whit Overton, man, what a great job. He's our, he's already our River Valley coach of the year from this past year. What? And he just followed it up with another great year. [00:10:32] Speaker C: Having a great year. They can have their first ever 10 and oh regular season. In fact the last time they went Undefeated in the regular season was 1928 when they went 5, 0 and 2. [00:10:47] Speaker B: Wow. [00:10:48] Speaker C: And the. And the losses were to Havana and Hartman. Hey, even Hartman now is part of Johnson county west side. But shoot, not. [00:11:00] Speaker A: Not me thinking a lot of these high schools didn't exist before 1950. [00:11:04] Speaker B: Even Leland didn't exist in 1928. [00:11:07] Speaker C: So no, not even. No, not even me. I do not. [00:11:10] Speaker A: Leland wouldn't be alive if that. Well, actually you could. [00:11:14] Speaker C: I could, but I do not remember that season. If anybody is is asking. But you know, but they have bigger and better things that they want to accomplish. They're going to be at home in the playoffs, throughout the playoffs. They're in a tough side of the bracket with Salem and Bismarck, but they'll get them at home. Charleston and Boonville, they'll be on the road in the second round. So. [00:11:36] Speaker A: Well, it was the one team that I knew I once I had a good thing going. I just couldn't pick against them. Well, that being said, we want to thank our sponsor for today's show, West Termite. Take control of your pests with west. Whether it's termites, mosquitoes, bed bugs, weeds or lawn disease, Wes has the experience serving Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma since 2003. Book your free consultation online today at westermite.com all right, guys, ready? 1. No. 1. [00:12:08] Speaker B: Sorry I jumped the gun there. [00:12:10] Speaker A: 1, 2, 3. [00:12:13] Speaker B: After all, west knows. [00:12:18] Speaker A: Best. Leland. [00:12:22] Speaker B: There is a little bit of a delay, like probably about a half second delay, I think, and it's not instantaneous over there. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Oh, boy. We'll get it by state, guys. [00:12:32] Speaker B: We need to trick him into coming into the studio again. [00:12:35] Speaker A: Exactly. Prep Rally fans watching this episode leave comments. If Leland should be back in studio here for our state episode, say yes. [00:12:44] Speaker C: Hey, but I like my helmets. [00:12:46] Speaker A: We have helmets here. Look behind me, Leland. Okay, you're missing out the fun in studio. So drop. Drop that in the comments below telling Leland to come and we'll be right back. Welcome back to Prep Rally. Let's look ahead to some of these upcoming matches and make some predictions. [00:13:09] Speaker B: Okay, well, you know the big One in the 7A west is this week we have the battle of Bentonville Bentonville at Bentonville west from Centerton Wolverine Stadium. So as best we understand this, this can go a couple different ways. If Bentonville beats Bentonville west, they're the conference champion outright. No share, no nothing. That's the straight line. You know, Bentonville west can have a say in this though. If they beat Bentonville by two or more points. And Rodgers Beats Rogers Heritage, then there will be a three way tie and Bentonville west would be the number one seed and all three be able to share the conference championship. If Bentonville west only wins by one, I believe Bentonville will have the number one seed, which. [00:13:59] Speaker A: That's so funky to me. [00:14:00] Speaker B: Or maybe Throggers. I'm not sure because if it's only one, then maybe Rogers moves ahead of him. I'm not sure how this works. [00:14:12] Speaker A: I don't know. But a win should be a win. The point system thing is funky to me. [00:14:17] Speaker B: I would love to see the chaos so. Well, you know, it's fun. It's fun that way. We're expecting a great atmosphere. It's at Bentonville west and Centerton on Friday. That's a huge matchup. You know, the Bentonville Tigers, we haven't said a lot about them this past week. They, they hammered Springdale pretty good and, you know, they're kind of poised to do this. But Bentonville west, you know, be the first. Right? That's, that's what they want to do. They've never beaten Bentonville. And this is the. If they're. This is a team that can do it. [00:14:50] Speaker A: I think, you know, in general, I think it's so easy for, you know, I think a lot of teams just go against Bentonville. They're kind of the. The villain of the conference in a way. But they're. But they're a good team. They're a good team. [00:15:02] Speaker B: Oh, they're a really good team. They are so balanced and, you know, they just. They do everything right. And they're going to be a really tough opponent for Bentonville west on Friday. [00:15:13] Speaker A: But it's a different Bentonville west team and so I think it'll be a good matchup. [00:15:18] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Another great matchup we've already talked about at Greenwood, at Mountain Home. Greenwood's leaving today to get to get up to Mountain Home. It's gonna be a long journey by wagon. They'll get there in time. [00:15:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Geography lesson. Where's Mountain Home? [00:15:38] Speaker B: Oh, gosh. [00:15:39] Speaker A: Compares to Greenwood like, darn near Missouri. [00:15:42] Speaker B: No, it's a, It's a long trip. I'd say it's going to take Greenwood between three and a half to four hours to get there. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. [00:15:51] Speaker B: Wow. [00:15:51] Speaker A: For reference, I'm from northwest Arkansas, and if you're from northwest Arkansas, you kind of just know northwest Arkansas. [00:15:58] Speaker B: Well, Mountain Home is definitely not northwest Arkansas, but the, the very eastern fringe of northwest Arkansas for us is Harrison. And Mountain Home is a good 60 miles past Harrison. [00:16:10] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:16:10] Speaker B: Way over there. [00:16:11] Speaker A: Shoot. That is a wagon ride. [00:16:13] Speaker B: But Greenwood typically travels okay, and they'll be ready to go, and we all know Mountain Home will be ready to go. It's going to be an exciting game. South side, let's. Let's talk about Southside here. Leland. Pretty much the easiest way for them is when in your end, if they can beat Silent Springs, they're in. And. But nothing is assured yet. [00:16:38] Speaker C: No, very likely. If they beat Siloam Springs, which, you know, Silent Springs is going to come in with a lot of momentum. But if Southside wins, they'll be the fifth seed and they'll be on the road in the first round of playoffs. But it's, you know, the road is. At this point in the season, every team wants to hold their own, you know, destiny in their own hand. And Southside certainly holds that. Greenwood holds that in their game against, you know, Mountain Home. Bentonville holds that in the game against Bentonville West. And that's what teams want going into the final night of the regular season. [00:17:16] Speaker B: You know, I've been thinking about this, how the last couple of years, Van Buren's been those road warriors in the first round of the playoffs. I could totally see Southside doing the same kind of thing this year. You know, that's a team I wouldn't want to run into in the open around the playoffs on the road, I mean, because they can score, they've got potential. They just haven't been able to put it all together yet. But now's a great time to do it. [00:17:40] Speaker C: Absolutely. And they're going to take some, you know, hopefully maybe a lot of momentum into the playoffs and hitting the road, because obviously, like you said, their offense is capable. Peyton Zimmerman, one of the best players in the state at his position, wide receiver Malachi Warren and Ethan Dunn, two of the best linebackers in the state. So, you know, they've. They've got some guys that they can play. [00:18:04] Speaker B: All right, the 4A1 Elkins is kind of wrapped things up, and that's, you know, that's pretty set. But below them, there's a fight going on with Gravett and Gentry and Prairie Groves in the conversation, too. Now, Gravitz beaten Prairie Grove, Prairie Grove beat Gentry last week, and now Gravett and Gentry play each other. The western Benton county rivalry. Pretty intense, that Highway 59 rivalry. And, you know, the winner of that one's going to have a, you know, probably the number two seed from the conference, a home game in the first round of the playoffs. You know, we're excited to see how that one's going to go. Oh, and we. We can't not talk about the Mabel. [00:18:48] Speaker A: I'm excited for those. [00:18:49] Speaker B: I mean, you know, you've got Charleston head coach Ricky May going up against his son Brad Rock May from Greenland. You know, I don't know that I've ever remembered having a father versus son matchup as head coaches. I know they've been on, you know, I've seen it before where it's been like one might be an assistant or something. [00:19:08] Speaker A: I've only ever seen it, you know, in the NFL level with brothers, and it was the. Oh, my gosh, what are their names? [00:19:16] Speaker B: The Kelsey brothers. [00:19:18] Speaker A: No, I has head coaches. Oh, it was. [00:19:20] Speaker B: Oh, the Harbaugh. Harbaugh. [00:19:22] Speaker A: The Harbaugh brothers. Yeah. That was the only time I ever saw, like, family relation head coaches go head to head like that. [00:19:29] Speaker B: You know, you wonder who misses what, which side. I know. I know which sideline Mrs. May is going to sit on. She'll be on that Charleston sideline for sure. Probably secretly pulling for her son. [00:19:38] Speaker A: No, she might have a shirt that's half and half. [00:19:40] Speaker B: Leland, I know you're. We. We've been talking about this one since media day in July. [00:19:46] Speaker C: Yes. In fact, you know, I talked to Coach May and, well, the Coach May at Greenland up at media day, and. And he was already excited about that, except for the fact that Charleston's really good. And. And for two and a half hours on Friday night, Coach Ricky May of Charleston's. You know, I think he's going to probably put that aside. [00:20:11] Speaker D: Now, this conference week 10 is a long way away. It'll be before you know it. But week 10, green one's going to take on Charleston. Charleston's head coach is Ricky May, and his brother Bryson is the head coach there. And of course, mom Rachel, that night, is the cheer coach at Boonville. She won't be there, but what's that night going to be like for you? [00:20:29] Speaker E: It'll be fun. You know, I text my dad, call my dad, my brother, both of them, every week during football season. This. This year will probably be just a little bit different. You know, I may have to ask him a couple things about who they played and try to get some insight on some other people. But, you know, week 10 rolls around, we'll be ready for it. We'll be excited. You know, it's unique for sure, but, you know, I'm their biggest fan all year long, except for week 10, you know, but after that, I'll be going for them again. And in a perfect world, we play them week 10 and you know, later in the season. But, you know, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But, you know, it's exciting. It really is. [00:21:11] Speaker A: It's exciting. [00:21:11] Speaker C: As far as Mrs. May, you know, she. She carried that boy for nine months and she may be sitting on the Greenland side. [00:21:20] Speaker B: Well, and here's the. [00:21:22] Speaker A: I mean, from. [00:21:22] Speaker C: For some moral support. [00:21:24] Speaker A: I mean, we're getting close to Thanksgiving, so whoever wins this game is definitely going to have bragging rights at the dinner table. [00:21:30] Speaker B: Well, and there's some really, you know, important stakes here, if I'm not mistaken. And we'll have to go back and look, but Greenland really needs to win this game to make the play. And it would be rather crushing of daddy's Tigers, you know, kept the Pirates out of the playoffs. I'm just saying. I mean, you know, it's just the reality because it's really important for Charleston to. Charleston can't not win this game. They've got to win it. [00:21:52] Speaker A: All I'm saying is family is family, so. [00:21:56] Speaker B: Except when it comes to football. [00:21:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:58] Speaker C: But, you know, Friday night, like I. [00:22:01] Speaker A: Said, guys, holidays are coming up, okay. So, you know, need to be good sportsmanship, too. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Well, I'm sure Leland will enjoy visiting with those guys later this week. Probably the lead off his notebook. I can't imagine that it wouldn't be. So let's just go right into who you got. And this is our bonus pick, the May Bowl. You know, you can't go against Charleston here. They're a really good football team. They're my. They were my pick to win the state title in 3A, I think. And so I'm going Charleston. Who you got? Sydney. [00:22:31] Speaker A: I'd love to see where, you know, the sun wins and everything like that, but can't go against Charleston. I'm going to have to pick Mr. May, the original. [00:22:43] Speaker B: The OG who you got, Leland? [00:22:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Ricky May's Charleston Tigers are. I'm not going to say they're rolling because they were held under 200 yards of offense against Boonville on Friday night. Now, a lot of that was the fact that Boonville run 64 offensive plays total in that game. Mansfield had 34 offensive snaps in that game, including 14 in the first half. I don't see Greenland being able to hold down the Charleston offense. And I think Carter Little and Charleston rolls in the May bowl, low key. [00:23:19] Speaker A: I thought you were going to pick May junior. [00:23:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I had no doubt. He was not Going to pick May Junior Gravity Gentry. It's a 41 showdown in Western Benton County. So you know, Gravett coming. You know, both teams coming off tough losses. Grab it with a tough loss at home against Elkins. Gentry with a tough one. It's Prairie Grove. You know what? I'm going to take the Gentry pioneers. Talon Williams threw for 500 yards last week. He's going to. He's going to be firing away again this week. Give me Gentry to beat Gravett at home and get the inside track. Maybe that number two seed in the conference. Sydney, who you got? [00:24:03] Speaker A: I'm going to pick Gentry as well. [00:24:06] Speaker B: He didn't seem like you really liked that one, though. [00:24:09] Speaker A: No, I'm going for. Grab it. That didn't sound right, saying that. I didn't trust that. [00:24:13] Speaker B: So Gravity or Gentry? [00:24:15] Speaker A: Grab it. [00:24:16] Speaker B: Okay. Grab it. Leland, who you got, man? [00:24:18] Speaker C: And this is a tough one to pick because Talon Williams is coming off a monster game last week, like you said, over 500 yards passing. He's had a great career at Gentry since transferring from Shiloh Christian. I guess after. After his eighth grade season, he's had a tremendous season. But I think Gravett makes enough defensive stops to win the game on Friday night. [00:24:41] Speaker B: All right. [00:24:42] Speaker A: If I've learned anything in football, mainly from the Hogs. Okay, you can have one really stellar game. And that don't mean anything the next week. [00:24:50] Speaker B: No, it's right. I mean, it doesn't. It doesn't do a hill of beans for you for this upcoming week. Speaking of hill and beans, Clinton at Ozark 4A4 showdown. Leland, you're going to be there, so I'll let you lead us off here. Who you got? [00:25:09] Speaker C: You know, this is for the second seed in the conference, which means it's for a home playoff game in the conference, which we all know is. Is huge, especially in 4A that is so balanced with so many good teams and it playing at home to start the playoffs is just vital. The second seed is a really good draw as well. Even though they go on the road some, it's a good draw based on the bracket and the teams that kind of line up ahead of a huge fan, you know, huge game in the 4A4, and Ozark was so close against Darnell. I think they get over the hump against Clinton, which is maybe, from what I understand from other coaches, maybe this is the best Clinton team ever. But I think Ozark gets over the hump after barely losing to Darnell. They win this one, they get to play at home again in the first round of playoffs. [00:26:04] Speaker B: I also got Ozark and Josh Watson continuing to add to his case for being the River Valley Democrat Gazette coach of the year amongst a very crowded field of really good coaches down there. So give me Ozark to be Clinton. Who you got, Sidney? [00:26:19] Speaker A: Well, because I've never heard of Clinton in my life, I have to go to Ozark. [00:26:23] Speaker B: All right, sounds good to me. Greenwood at Mountain Home. Who you got? Man, you kidding me? Greenwood. [00:26:31] Speaker A: Yeah, Greenwood. Like, do we all need to just say it? On three. One, two, three. [00:26:37] Speaker B: Greenwood. [00:26:38] Speaker A: Leland. [00:26:39] Speaker B: Leland's going with Mountain Home. Watch him. Watch him. Look at him. [00:26:43] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. [00:26:44] Speaker C: I am not. Like, it's impossible to. I mean, if you go back 25 years from that first state championship that Greenwood won in 2000, it would be very difficult to pick against Greenwood because mathematically, you know, it's just. It's not going to pan out very well if you get, you know, picking against Greenwood each week. Even though I think this is going to be a very competitive game, I think Mountain Home is really good. They're at home. It's going to be a cold, frosty night in the upper Ozarks. But Greenwood prevails and finishes the regular season undefeated. [00:27:26] Speaker B: All right, we're going to do two more here. We're going to roll through this one real quick. Seven A West battle. Kind of a. Maybe a rivalry. Not like the battle of the Bulldogs with Fayetteville and Springdale, but Springdale harbor at Fayetteville. So, you know, one of the closest games Greenwood played was against Harbor. They've not been able to recreate that against some of the upper echelon teams yet, but maybe this week. Springdale harbor at Fayetteville. Who you got? Sydney. [00:27:54] Speaker A: Listen, I just want you to just, like, zoom in. Zoom in on my stuff right now and play Purple Rain. Okay. Fayetteville all the way. [00:28:07] Speaker B: Okay. Do not zoom in on my stuff and do not play Purple Rain. But I'll go with Fayetteville, too. Who you got? Leland? [00:28:17] Speaker C: You know, you talk about Purple Rain. This was so funny. Boonville plays Purple Rain when they win after their games at home at Charleston on Friday. [00:28:26] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:28:28] Speaker C: Charleston played purple right after the game. One of the things about high school sports that is just, I think, really funny is the little digs that teams make at each other, especially on the banners when they run out before the games, you know? But again, I will. Fayetteville will be playing Purple Rain on. [00:28:47] Speaker B: On Friday night, and they play it really, really loud. Yeah, it is like. I mean, Prince Is really letting it go at Harmon Field. [00:28:57] Speaker A: It's their style. [00:28:58] Speaker B: Rest in peace. So our final game, we talked about it all show Bentonville at Bentonville West. Boy, be the first. Sydney. Is Bentonville west going to be the first? Who you got? [00:29:11] Speaker A: I want them to be. I want Bentonville west to be the first to beat Benville just because I think they're just a determined Benville west team. They're not the same team last year, and they have some determined seniors, and I really do think they could. I. I want it to be close. I want it to be a good game. Like the Springdale Harbor Battle of the Dale. That was close. I want this one to also be close. [00:29:32] Speaker B: But is it going to be. [00:29:34] Speaker A: I said it. Bentonville West. [00:29:35] Speaker B: Bentonville West. Okay, Leland, who do you got? [00:29:39] Speaker C: West is very good offensively. I mean, they're really good offensively. They're very versatile. Bentonville West. I mean, Bentonville's defense makes really good. Offensive teams look very, very normal and average. So Benville's defense is the difference in this game. [00:29:57] Speaker B: You know, it's funny, when I go to these. These schools are like, who are you going to pick? Who are you going to pick? Can you not pick us? We need. You know, I've heard, like, I think some teams. [00:30:05] Speaker A: Some teams are shocked because I've had that question asked to me, and I tell them I'm over. [00:30:09] Speaker B: And I'm over in Bentonville's field house the other day, and they're like, boy, your name is mud around here. This is after I picked them to lose to Fayetteville, and they. Well, they enjoyed using that as some motivation. [00:30:19] Speaker A: Well, I think if some of them watch the show, I think it's obvious that I'm a Purple Rain stand. [00:30:25] Speaker B: So they were talking to me, though, about my, like, how, you know, and they're like, can you pick us to lose again against Rogers? I'm like, well, I can't do that. And they said, sure you can. I said, well, no, we literally just shot the show, and I can't go back and change it. [00:30:37] Speaker A: Pick you to pick and pick them to lose so that they. [00:30:40] Speaker B: So I'm sure Bentonville wants me to pick Bentonville west to win. I'm sure west wants me to pick Bentonville to win. And so only one team is going to be happy. [00:30:47] Speaker A: All I have to say is be confident in yourselves, gentlemen. Just say you're going to win or you're not. [00:30:52] Speaker B: You know, it would be, you know, a great night at Bentonville west if the Wolverines were able to win. So here's the motivation they need. I'm taking the Bentonville Tigers to beat. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Bentonville west, so I'm the only one picking west here. [00:31:05] Speaker B: You're the believer. So with and, well, you know, if. [00:31:10] Speaker A: Bentonville loses, they're going to be like, graham, it's because you picked us to win. [00:31:14] Speaker B: You know, if only I had that kind of power, you know, that would be truly amazing. [00:31:18] Speaker A: Well, they think you do. They think you do. They want you to pick them to lose. [00:31:21] Speaker B: So. [00:31:24] Speaker C: Well. [00:31:24] Speaker A: All right, guys, before we get into the gimme five and the top five, we want to remind everyone that nwaonline.com and the rivervalleydemocratgazette.com are the premier spots to get all the latest news on high school sports. Additionally, you can follow our Instagram and Facebook at Prep Rally Sports to get all exclusive interviews and and to watch all the fun antics on what we do on the show. So with that being said, let's get into the Gimme 5. [00:31:48] Speaker B: Yo, this is Shane Davis. This is River Valley Gimme 5. [00:31:52] Speaker C: These are the top five performances of the past week in the River Valley where we like to celebrate champions. Number five, champion number one. The Mansfield Lady Tigers won the Class 3A volleyball state championship on Saturday. Late Saturday night with their ninth state title in school history underlying. [00:32:14] Speaker B: Late. [00:32:16] Speaker C: Very late. In fact, we got in very late, but I'm glad the clocks went back an hour, so that made it a little bit better. Defeated Harding Academy three games to one. Mansfield won the first two sets and then won the fourth. And decisive or clinching set to put it away, most valuable player was Kaylee Ward. 19 kills and eight digs in the game. [00:32:39] Speaker B: Six. [00:32:40] Speaker A: Kaylee Ward, six foot four. [00:32:43] Speaker B: You didn't see her immediately. Oh, you weren't at River Valley basketball. Me today. She's. She's a. She's a stud, okay? [00:32:50] Speaker C: In fact, we've got video of. I talked to her and also senior Daisy Nelson after the game. And Daisy Nelson is a. She's much smaller, shorter. So the video is kind of funny because Kaylee Ward is 6 foot 4, but Mansfield trail 9 to 5 or 9 to 3 in the first set. Came back in one. They trailed 9 to 5 in the second set, came back and won. Harding Academy won the third set. Mansfield trail 14 to 10 in the fourth set and came back to one, so really rallied to win their ninth state championship. They were defeated last year in the quarterfinals after winning four straight in Class 2A. So this was the first one since way back when, winning the Class 3A state title. [00:33:46] Speaker F: Oh yeah, we were coming out with fire for sure. Yes, we we're a fighting team. We're kind of young. We told them just have confidence, play your best fight. And that's what we did. We went up, we said we was going up, up last year, we were going up from there. That's what we did. [00:33:58] Speaker C: We went up. [00:34:00] Speaker F: The world every girls. [00:34:02] Speaker A: I'm so proud of them. [00:34:04] Speaker F: Everybody doubted us and saying 2A, it's just 2A. Obviously we're gonna win 2A and they said we wouldn't have a chance in 3A and here we are with the state title. So their, their doubt fueled us and it made us push to the end. [00:34:17] Speaker C: Number four, the other state champion on Saturday, the Hackett Lady Hornets won the Class 2 to a volleyball state championship with a clean sweep of Taylor 30 Most Valuable Player McKaylen Friend Freeman, 15 kills, 12 digs, won her second straight Most Valuable player award because Hackett also won last year in a clean sweep when they went 36 and 0 in a dominating season. They come back this year and back it up and win again. Number three, John Skolarski of Ozark, a sophomore in a 47 to nothing win over Lamar. He returned the opening kickoff 81 yards for a touchdown out of the starburst formation. He was the third guy to touch the ball, ran it back 81 yards for a touchdown. Seven minutes later he returned a punt 95 yards for a touchdown and then early three minutes into the second quarter returned a punt 67 yards for a touchdown. He also rushed six times for 84 yards and Ozark won 47 to nothing to set up that big game against Clinton on Friday night. Number two John Crank, a senior running back for Subiaco, rushed 38 times for 338 yards and six seven touchdowns on Friday night including touchdown JS of 75 and 70 yards in a 5424 win over Marshall to set up Subiaco Academy who will play Corning on Thursday night at Arkansas Tech for the big school eight man state championship game. Number one our River Valley Democratic is at Player of the week Samuel Schlegel, senior from ALMA in a 3520 win over Pea Ridge. He had eight rushes for 40 yards and three touchdowns. He also caught seven passes for 163 yards and a touchdown. He now has 10 rushing touchdowns on the season receiving. He has 130 catches in his career which is number two on the all time list at Alma for 2051 yards and 13 career reception touch receiving touchdowns. He also has Thrown a touchdown pass this year for, for Alma. So very versatile player for the Airedales. We also have special shout outs. Of course, we already talked about Kane Archer a little bit Friday night. He threw, he completed 24, 28 passes for 313 yards and six touchdowns. He also ran for a touchdown to become the first quarterback in state history to go over 150 in passing and rushing touchdowns in his career. He also went to 24 and 20 on the season in passing touchdowns and rushing touchdowns, which puts him in a very exclusive group as well. And also Randall Rogers each week in the Thursday River Valley Democrat Gazette we have, we have a cast of, you know, our, our sports riders who pick games well this past week and we also have a guest picker each week. Well, this past week our guest picker Randall Rogers of Greenwood went nine and one which is the first time this year that we've had anybody do that. But he went 9 and 1. He's on the chain gang at Greenwood football games and also works at Granger. So he's first one to go nine and one this week. So Friday night be sure and check out the Rex Nelson call in show. Walter Woody, who I think has a PhD in playoff brackets. He'll be going over the playoff brackets about 11 o' clock on Friday night with Rex Nelson. He'll go through the whole thing. I'll also post the brackets late on Friday night as well. And then Saturday morning the AAA will release the official brackets but they kind of have to wait to get with the conferences on Saturday morning. But we'll know what it's like on Friday night. So check in, be sure and check in what Rex Nelson's show on Friday night. Hi, I'm Miles Cowdaugh and this is the NWA Top five. [00:38:42] Speaker A: We're gonna get into the Northwest Arkansas. [00:38:45] Speaker B: We're gonna do that. We're gonna shake it out, the vibe. [00:38:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:48] Speaker B: And get into the Northwest Arkansas top five. More like the top 15 this week. [00:38:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I just picked five. [00:38:57] Speaker B: All right, these are the top five for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette this week and I'm going to lead off with my bonuses and we're going to give a shout out to the Farmington and Fayetteville volleyball teams. Both of them finished state runner up in Hot Springs over the weekend. Great season for both teams and really just a shout out to all of our area volleyball teams in Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley. A lot of great stories coming out of volleyball this year and a lot of our teams had very successful seasons. So number five we're going to lead off with the Gentry offense and a losing effort against Prairie Grove. We'll lead off with Talon Williams of Gentry completing 33 of 49 passes for 524 yards, six touchdowns. He rushed for a touchdown. I'm going to butcher this name, but a Trey banks for Gentry. Five catches, 119 yards and a touchdown. Nine tackles on defense. C.J. bollinger, seven catches for 102 receiving. Eight tackles on defense. He's caught three touchdown passes as well. Jackson Holt seven for 155. Leland that count them up. That's three receivers with 100 yards. So watch out. Grab it. Number four, Leland. Ari mentioned him. Mason Short of Siloam Springs rushed 26 times for 177 yards and a touchdown. Siloam Springs gets its first conference wins. It's 2020 and broke a 35 game conference losing streak. So really happy for the Panthers there. Number three. Oh my goodness. Cole Creighton of Shiloh Christian Sydney. Shiloh Christian Saints just dismantled Lake Hamilton 63 to 12 on the road at Lake Hamilton. So that's, that's not an easy trip. I like to see it but listen to this. And I don't have, you know what the percentage is, but he completed 22, 24 passes for 504 yards and eight touchdowns. [00:40:56] Speaker A: This is me saying go Shiloh. [00:41:01] Speaker B: Oh my goodness. [00:41:02] Speaker C: I think. What? Weren't those all in the first half? [00:41:05] Speaker B: You know, I do not know that. [00:41:07] Speaker C: But I think they were all in the first half which would tie a state record. [00:41:12] Speaker B: They did score 59 points in the first half or I'm sorry, 49 points. And then Zane Slider caught 11 passes for 252 yards of three touchdowns. So he was. Shiloh's got a really good team. They're on a collision course with Greenwood again and I'll be there for it. Number two, a couple of guys for Elkins who really came up big Friday night in the win at Gravett. Uh, Connor ham 27 carries for 142 yards and he caught two passes for 23 yards. And then Ben Napier of Elkins completed 14 of 23 for 177 with a touchdown. He also rushed for two touchdowns and the Elks survived the trip to northwest Benton County. Number one, our. Our Northwest Arkansas player of the week is Elijah Sugg of Prairie grove who carried 32 times for 273 yards and two touchdowns. He also played a big role in Prairie Grove winning this game on defense. So Prairie Grove was up 45, 42 and Gentry was facing a fourth and four at the 34 yard line. Talon Williams drops back to pass and Sugg, who's an outside linebacker as well, made inside move against an offensive lineman and just dropped Williams for an 18 yard loss and a turnover on downs. Then right after that he scores a 13 yard touchdown to put Prairie Grove up 52:44 with a minute 22 left. He also caught a two point conversion pass which ended up being huge in a 52 to 50 win. So boy, there's just a lot, a lot of great athletes being recognized this week and we try to keep it to five, but sometimes it's just not possible. [00:43:02] Speaker A: We try to keep it at five. [00:43:04] Speaker C: We try. [00:43:06] Speaker A: Quote that. Quote that. [00:43:08] Speaker B: Try try. [00:43:09] Speaker A: Exactly. Well, we hope you enjoyed today's show and just wanted to remind everyone, if you're not following us at Prep Rally Sports, on Facebook or on Instagram, what are you doing? Okay, follow us for all the fun antics and interviews for post games and just all the stuff we do at Media Day and and things after that. So we hope you enjoyed our show today and we'll see you next week. [00:43:33] Speaker B: Sa.