[00:00:00] Speaker A: It undefeated Fayetteville Host Bentonville with the winner in the driver's seat for the Seven a West Conference championship.
The wild. Wild? Five. A west stays wild with Alma and Shiloh Christian out in front. And there are big games in the four A one, and three A one. All this and more on this week's Prep Rally.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: You're listening to the Prep Rally Podcast. Now here's your host, Graham Thomas.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: Welcome to the Prep Rally Podcast, sponsored by West, Termite, Pest, and Lawn. I'm graham thomas with the northwest arkansas democrat gazette. And northwest arkansas democrat gazette sports reporter rick fires joins us along with leland barclay from the river valley. We're all zooming in this week due to construction, our fable studio. We're getting it ready for future podcasts, and we're really excited about that. And there are a lot of huge games this week we want to preview. First, we're going to take a look back at the week that was in high school football and the and you know, Rick, we'll start off with, you know, you and I weren't together last week for our ball games, but we certainly had some good ones to watch.
And we'll start off with up here in Northwest Arkansas.
I was over at Rogers at Whitey Smith Stadium and seeing Bentonville West and Rogers played what ended up being a really exciting game. It didn't look like it was going to be that way for a long time. Rogers was out in front 17 to six for most of the second half, and then, boom, here comes Bentonville West. They get a turnover. They get a field goal. They get another turnover for a pick six, and then all of a sudden, that momentum, it starts going the other direction, and Bentonville West rallies to take the lead. Rogers comes roaring back to score to get within one and goes for two to take the lead. With 43 seconds left, bentonville west not done.
Dalton Rice shoots him right down the field and then throws a touchdown pass to Harris Vincent with 13 seconds left. And the Wolverines come up with a big win at Rogers. And I'd have to say that it was just another one of those exciting Seven A West finishes that we've seen all year.
[00:02:30] Speaker C: Rick, you know what? That's probably biggest surprise around a Conference Seven A, wouldn't you say.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: With the way Rogers play with Fayetteville, and I kind of thought that the Malleys would take care of Bentonville. Well, s it didn't happen for them. So you're right. It was a surprise.
[00:02:49] Speaker C: Yeah. Dalton Rice is our player of the week, and you got to give them a lot of credit for coming down.
They're way behind. I think they've only got one touchdown in that fourth quarter, and, man, they just turned it on. Rice a senior. He engineered it. He had some good receivers for him. So when I saw that, when you texted it, when your story, I said, man, that was a really impressive win for Bentonville West, because we know how good Rogers did back to back nine wins.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: A and, you know, the play of the night that really kind of turned things around was the interception return for a touchdown and didn't come without some controversy.
So what happened was and this is all on the far side of the field, so I can't tell you if what happened was legit or, uh, Dane Williams is trying to throw a pass to I believe it was Grayson Cash over a long pass. And Cash has kind of fallen to the ground on his back. It looks like the ball gets sort of kicked up in the air. And Rogers says that the ball was on the ground, but the referees didn't rule that. And Lance Stroud from, you know, catches the ball. There's no whistles blown. And so he takes off down the sideline, and Rogers doesn't go after him. And they this touchdown holds up. And after the ball game, Bentonville West was saying one thing and Rogers was saying another.
But what counts is what was on the scoreboard.
[00:04:34] Speaker C: What the referee say?
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Yep, that's, you know, that was a game changing play. And then, like you talked about, Dalton Rice with a lot of guts and that comeback from him, he made some really big plays. And Harris Vincent, also Jackson Bruss, the receiver for Bentonville West, had some big catches in that stretch, too. So this kind of goes to show you it's not over until it's over.
Then Rogers, they come back and they score and take the lead on a two point conversion. And then they kick it off and they squib kicked it. And that's another thing a lot of people were asking me. Why do they squib kick it? Well, it was a little colder. The wind was blowing, and I don't think Rogers felt like JT. Miller could have kicked it into the end zone. So they squib kick it, and west had good field position to start the drive.
Um, Leland, did you have anything on that game that you wanted? I know it was kind of a statistical it was interesting because Rogers led most of the time, but they weren't really gaining any.
[00:05:42] Speaker D: You know, when when Rogers came down to south side and won that game, I thought, well, OK, depending on what Bentonville and Fayetteville did, I thought, OK, one, two, and three is Bentonville, Fayetteville and Rogers. And then everybody else is going to be fighting for four now.
And then Bentonville West pulls off that win. And I look at this and Rogers, or Bentonville West, held Dane Williams to ten of 28 for 101 yards.
I'd like to know how they did that.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Well, they were given what I would call a light box.
And Rogers, on their first drive, all they did was run the ball and they scored. And then they had some success running the ball, which was different, certainly from their previous two weeks, but they really could not get going in the passing game. And then the statistics prove that out. And then aside from their final drive of the fourth quarter where they took the lead again, they really didn't get much going elsewhere, either on the running game or the passing game. And Chad Harvested said they were flat, is the way he described.
I mean, it was just a very interesting ball game to watch. And no doubt it could have some implications down the road when it comes to seeding because Bentonville West is now two and one, and Rogers is one.
[00:07:12] Speaker D: And so well, and Bentonville West has to come to South Side to um, and not that it's over. There's still four weeks left, but I think still Bentonville and Fayetteville are at the top. And now it kind of becomes a race for that third spot, not just the fourth spot. So now it's going to make the last four weeks really interesting because that third and four spot is so important in the playoffs because those teams get a home playoff game in the first round. And of course, three is going to play the six from the Central, which is a winnable game, and then four is going to play a five from the Central, which gets a little tougher. But those seedings and those games now for third place are going to be gigantic.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Yeah. It just means the Mounties margin for error is not very good in terms of maybe trying to get a three or four seed to host that first round playoff game.
[00:08:11] Speaker D: Well, and it's also not too early to talk about the point system because Rogers has six points in their win over South Side. Benville west has six points in their win over, you know, that might even come into play.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So, Rick, you were over at Wildcat Stadium at Springdale Harbor. Tell us a little bit about the Bulldogs and the Wildcats battle Springdale.
[00:08:40] Speaker C: You talk about Ramification, people will say that's not very important. It absolutely is an important game. Nobody had a tougher schedule, non conference and starting off as harbor. But all of a sudden, man, they're two and one in conference play, two straight wins.
Yeah, harbor won that game. He was at Battle of Springdale. You always love it when the Springdale kids get together in any kind of athletic venue. Harbor won his second straight in a row with 41 24 over Springdale. Braden spray four touchdown pass. A lot of offense by harbor. They can score at Springdale. Got to love them. They scrap and fight, but, man, in the first half, they fumbled about six times.
Just kind of routine plays. I know they're going to more of a power attack, a running game, and they just could not get it going there. And in second half, they played a lot better. Once they cut down on their mistakes. It was more of a ball game. But Springdale Harbor wins that one. Nice win for them. That'll come in play later on in year when you got that 4th, 5th, 6th spot for playoffs.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: Now, Rick, Rick, I was going to ask you, I was looking at the stats from that game, and harbor or not Harbor I'm sorry, springdale throws the ball 26 times, which is easily a season high in passes for them. Did they ditch the run game for the passing game?
[00:10:10] Speaker C: Way behind. So they had to.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. All right. Also in the seven, A. West, Fayetteville beat Southside in another high scoring game. Southside kept it interesting there for a while. Leland, I know you weren't at that one, but I'm sure you've heard a lot about it.
[00:10:27] Speaker D: Yeah. Fayetteville scored right before the half, then scored two quick touchdowns in the third quarter. It was real close up to that point. In fact, it was 20 817 at the half, 20 117 before halftime, and then Fayetteville scored those quick touchdowns. That really kind of put the game away. Southside held Drake Lindsay 253 yards passing, but five touchdown passes, which has kind of become the norm for him. Jason De Lamar, four catches for 124 yards. So not really their usual offensive performance. In fact, Southside outgained Fayetteville four eightyn, but scoreboard 45 to 31, Fayetteville. And that sets up, like you said, the big game this week against Bentonville.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Well, Bentonville all over. Rogers heritage 84 to zero.
A lot of people have asked me about that one.
I'm not real sure what to tell them on that either, but I know Bentonville is a good football team and we thought they were going to beat Rogers Heritage. Certainly didn't expect it to be 84 to zero, though.
[00:11:42] Speaker C: Graham, some people, they see a score like that, oh, my goodness, they ran it up on them for a good but Benville emptied the bench in the second half, didn't they?
[00:11:53] Speaker D: Second quarter?
[00:11:56] Speaker C: Yeah. What can you do? Just from the story I read today, anybody that dressed out, almost anybody dressed out got to play. Which means if I know how I'd got to play in this game.
[00:12:07] Speaker D: Well, Benville only ran 40 offensive plays, and Carter Nye was out of the game early in the second quarter. He only threw nine passes. And then Trevor Grant, he comes in and goes seven for seven to give him a backup, a little bit of action, and then the third string quarterback comes in. So it was not a case of running the score up. Benville only had 40 offensive plays for 552 yards. Rogers Heritage, of course, it was 28 to nothing after a quarter, 49 to nothing at the half. I think I saw where Rogers Heritage had eleven yards on 13 plays in the first quarter. So the whole first quarter was played on that half of the field?
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
It's just a tough situation when you put your second string guys, even your third string guys, you want them to get in and play hard and play football.
You want them to be competing. And I know Rogers heritage would feel that way too.
Well, let's talk about the over in P Ridge. Alma got a really big win, five A West conference victory over the Blackhawks.
Now with Shiloh Christian going over to Harrison and thumping the Goblins pretty good. That sets up a couple of three and teams in conference that are do we have an Alma Shiloh showdown coming soon?
[00:13:46] Speaker D: Well, I don't think Alma is going to tell you that because Harrison coming to town on Friday for homecoming. That's a gigantic game for them. So I guarantee you the airdales are not looking ahead at all with Harrison coming up because Harrison has been one of those foes through the years. That's the longest running rivalry right now in the Five A West. Of course, part of that is Five A West has changed so much, but Alvin Harrison go back a long ways. In fact, Tom Tyce and Frank Vines played against each other. The two head coaches, Harrison and Alma, they went against each other more than any other coaching combination ever in state history. So that rivalry goes back a long ways and they're really good friends, but they went up against each other more than any other two coaches ever. So Alma is not looking ahead.
[00:14:46] Speaker C: Can I interject? Because I covered that rivalry for a long time, maybe 810 years. Man, I love that. Tommy Tice and Frankie Vine. Tommy Tice bringing down that black magic water from Crooked Creek. That is some of the best games. And I've covered games all over the state. That's one of the best rivalries. I'll always remember those rivalries between Tommy Tice and Harrison Goblins and Frankie Vines, and they'll fighting amma aridale love that rivalry.
[00:15:16] Speaker D: Well, and those two guys, you talk about stories. Now, those two guys have stories. They have stories upon stories. Inside more stories.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: We'll talk more about Alma and Harrison in a little bit.
Going down to the river valley. Leland, you had quite the thriller of a football game between Van Buren and Russellville.
[00:15:39] Speaker D: Yeah, for the second week in a row, I got to cover a thrilling second half homecoming rally. Van Buren was down 21 to seven at the half, and they came back and scored on their first and last possession of the game and then added one in between. Had some big defensive plays, big special teams play.
Hardly ever in game stories do we talk about extra points.
The kickers kind of get overlooked because we say that somebody scored and that bumped the lead to whatever. Well, there's also the extra points thrown in there, which we mention occasionally.
We may mention on the last extra point where a kicker kicked his fifth out of five extra points or something. We give him a little bit of maybe a half of a sentence occasionally. Well, Peyton Pashir, after Van Buren had tied it at 21 21, russellville answered with a touchdown, and Peyton Pashir blocked the extra point with 203 left, and that made it 27 21. That gave ambior and plenty of time. I think they needed five plays to go down. They got a good kickoff return by Peyton Pashir, and then that set them up for about I think it was a 58 yard touchdown drive. Senior quarterback Bryce Perkins was three for three in that drive. Calm, cool hit Weston Wilcox across the middle for a wide open touchdown with 58 seconds left. And Manning Dodson, Van Buren's kicker added the game winning extra point with the 58 seconds left. Van Buren still had to get an interception from senior safety Hayden Green to clinch that win, too. So lots of big plays by Van Buren special teams, defense and offense to win that game.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: That's a huge win for them because I know they got a tough one coming up this week with so, you know, to get two straight conference wins before having to face Know, it gives them a little momentum heading into that.
[00:17:52] Speaker D: One for and, you know, their offense is one can I think can match PA's offense. I mean, they're good enough to do that. Now the question going into PA, everybody always it comes down to how many onside kicks can they recover?
That's where PA is. I forget what Kevin Kelly told me at one time, that if they recover one onside kick in a game, their winning percentage is extremely high. And if they recover two, I think they'd only lost one game ever recovering. So that's such a huge thing in that game. But I think Van Buren's offense can certainly match Pulaski Academy. Of course, then after Know, they also have Little Rock Christian left, too. Two very tough games.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker D: And then they also go to Mountain Home, too, which is also a tough one.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Yeah. The trip there is just the equalizer on its own. Also on the River Valley, charleston, in a defensive battle, beats Mansfield 14 to seven. Harold Mcelbane was there for us, and all the points were scored really early. And then it was just a defensive slug fest.
[00:19:12] Speaker D: Well, a couple of things out of that game. Charleston got Reese Morishka back, which is a multipurpose. He's a big defensive player for them, big offensive player for Know. He was a key to them last year as a junior. But they had so many other seniors that were big Know guys that I won't say he got overlooked, but he was kind of just another one of the guys this year. He's their main guy, and he was hurt early, very early. I think the first series against Ozark in non conference play, and that was his first game back on Friday night. So it was big for them to have him back because he's a big part of their team.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Yeah, he'll be a difference maker moving forward.
Another impressive outing. They didn't get the win over in Jonesboro, but Northside scored a lot of points. They gave themselves a chance.
You talk about a bus trip, they went from one end of the state to the other and then some.
Northside, the final score was about 55 41, something like that.
[00:20:22] Speaker D: Yeah. McLean Moody, 32 of 60 for 391 yards and four touchdowns. Cam Massey, 13 catches for 201 yards and a touchdown. And then Ezra Phillips.
They've been trying to play Ezra Phillips more on defense because they feel like they've got a good core of receivers, including a freshman named JT. Thomas, who watch out for know we've been talking about how fast Smith was is the last couple of years. JT. Thomas may be the fastest person to ever come through Fort Smith, and he's a freshman anyway. He's kind of worked into the lineup as a receiver, but they felt like to get maybe a little more continuity going and just some more consistency on offense. Ezra Phillips is now playing much more on offense, too. He had eight catches for 96 yards and three touchdowns, so he may not come off the field at all the next four or five weeks, but they gave up a little too much. It was 27 27 at the half, but Jonesboro is very much improved, and they put up 550 yards of offense and won that game going away.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: All right, well, let's move on into this week's schedule, guys. And obviously, we're going to start off with the big matchup at Harmon Field, Bentonville and Fayetteville. And while we do have four games left, including this week's games, the winner of this game is going to be in the driver's seat for the Seven A West Conference championship, because as we've established, we kind of feel like these are the two best teams in the conference.
[00:22:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
And the possibility they can meet in the postseason, during the playoffs and everything. But you know what? Winning conference championship still means something. You still want that. And my goodness, these guys are just marching towards each other, both of them coming off impressive wins. I'm waiting to hear to hear back from Casey Dick, even though Fable six and oh, I think they got to play their best game against Batonville.
And Fable has already played some good team. But I wasn't at the South Side game, but surely they got to play better than they did at Southside. So this is going to be one of the biggest games in state, if not the biggest game in all year, maybe on Friday night. So really looking forward to this showdown, and nobody's surprised that the Bulldogs and Tigers are going at each other again for first place.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Now, Leland, you're going to have to tell me if I'm wrong, but was the last team that won a seven a west title that wasn't Bentonville or Fayetteville. Was that rogers in 2006?
[00:23:24] Speaker D: I guess it would be.
[00:23:26] Speaker C: Sounds right.
[00:23:27] Speaker D: I'll have to go back and look because for the longest time, fayetteville had not won an outright conference championship since 1965 or 66, but they had won three state championships even though they didn't win the conference.
[00:23:46] Speaker C: Because number four seed.
[00:23:48] Speaker D: Yes, they won it as a fourth seed. So the conference championship, it sets teams up, but it sure doesn't define a season.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And several times I think either Bentonville or Fayette will win the conference title and the other one will win the second match in the mean, it's happened that way before, too.
I'm really looking forward to that one. I hope the weather is really nice and I think it will.
We got to make our picks later this week, Rick. And as of right now, I don't know what I'm going to do because there's so many reasons to go either way on this one.
[00:24:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I got my coin and my nickel right here. Which way I'm going to go head through tail right.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: Another big seven. A west matchup. It's certainly not what Bentonville At fable is going to be, but how about Springdale, Harbor At?
You know, two teams know we kind of written off harbor, like you said, Rick, they're two and one in conference. Bentonville west is now two and one in conference. I mean, there's a lot riding on.
[00:25:08] Speaker C: This one, but that's how huge that west win was. I've kind of forgotten about them. I was just thinking Rogers, Rogers and all the top teams, and here comes Bentonville West. They pull that. That is such a huge win for them. Now see if they can follow it up. That's a question.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: Well, and you harbor, man, we talked about it last week. They can really score. You saw it last week now. So I hope I was telling you the truth, wasn't I, Rick?
[00:25:36] Speaker C: Absolutely. I don't see how you guys can keep up these stats anymore. I'm on the side, I'm trying to keep up and I look around, I don't know, I get maybe a caramel apple or something. I turn around and they're scoring again. Up and down, up and down. But you got to have some defensive plays. Leland has said it many times, you don't win championships without some defense. But down here, as you get closer and closer, some people are going to have to make some defensive plays.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And then back on with Rogers. They're going to be at Springdale. Both those teams really need to win in the conference. So we'll see how the Mauis bounce back at Gerald Williams fort Smith. Southside is going to Rogers heritage, and I feel like the Mavericks ought to be able to get back in the women column in that game. And then north side's hosts in Conway, which is going to be a really tough matchup. So as far as the Seven A slate this got we got a couple of games that could be some thrillers and a couple that we feel maybe could get away a little bit, but that's why we play. I mean, you just never know what may happen.
[00:26:48] Speaker C: Hey, Graham, I'm really interested to see how the Heritage kids, people probably making fun of them a little bit and walking down the hallway. That Rogers heritage. Oh, my God, you guys got big. I'm interested to see how that I'm not going to say they're going to come out and beat Southside, but I hope them kids come out and get back on the field and really play.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: West. So Greenwood is going to Lake Hamilton. Lake Hamilton got shut out at Greenbriar. Man, that one surprised me a little bit.
Van Buren, as we said, is at PA. Go ahead, Leland.
[00:27:25] Speaker D: From what I understand, Lake Hamilton has lost their quarterback for the so he.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Got hurt at Siloam Springs a couple of weeks ago. I noticed. He came out of there.
[00:27:35] Speaker D: He is lost for the season. So, boy, it's tough anywhere, anytime but in that conference to lose a quarterback midway of the season, boy, that's tough. Van Buren was four and last year or a year before last when they lost Bryce Perkins and then didn't make the playoffs. So you lose a quarterback because all of these offenses now, most of them are quarterback centric, right? And so to lose a quarterback, especially in the middle of the season, is tough. So that's, I think, has a lot to do with that one.
[00:28:14] Speaker C: That may be Greenwood. They can punch in about three or four of them, can't they?
[00:28:18] Speaker D: Well, it's funny.
I went down to Greenwood yesterday. I talked to LJ Robbins, the senior receiver for them, and I asked him specifically about adjusting. I said, gosh, you guys have had three starting quarterbacks this year. How tough has that been for you as a senior receiver? And he just kind of shrugged and, you know, it's no big.
Archer Kane archer went out, and then Cooper Goodwin come in, and Cooper Goodwin went out, and Scott Holland came in, and we kept doing what we do.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: There are a lot of teams that will be up a creek if the QB one goes down. So we talked about the Harrison Alma matchup in the five A west. I think that game I can just imagine how fun that's going to be if you've not been to a high school football game at Alma or at Harrison for that matter. They're really fun to do.
Also in the Five A West, prairie Grove is at Dardenell and the Tigers, man, that's a game that maybe they can get back on the stick and get going. That five a west is really interesting. If you look at the standings, there are several teams sitting there, one and two, they've got to make a move here to try and get in this.
[00:29:39] Speaker C: Thing for they got to cut down on their turnovers. I've talked to Coach Abstract about it, and they're really having a lot of turnover. But like you said, we've seen Farmington bounce back. And so that is wide open, right. Highly contested right there.
[00:29:55] Speaker D: Well, and we talk about quarterbacks and teams losing lost their quarterback, who was going to be a senior, Cameron Van Zant, and they've lost him and they've struggled a little bit there. But the Five A West is just it's one of the favorite conferences to follow.
And you talked about Dardanelle. Well, they have a sophomore quarterback named Creed Vega, who is the head coach's son, and he had over 200 yards passing and rushing week before last, which is that's a rare feat in Arkansas High School. So that conference is wide open. And you talk about those one and two teams, that's another one, another spot where it could come down to the point system.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: Yep.
And Harrison is one of those one and two teams, aren't they? I think? Yeah, because they lost to Farmington and they lost to, you know, if they go down to Airdale Stadium and get them a win, then that really kind of shakes things up. And they're certainly capable of doing that. Oh, absolutely, yes, we'll see Farmington is going to be at Clarksville. I think the Cardinals ought to be able to win at Clarksville, but you just never know, I guess. How about the 481 real quick? Best game of that? Kind of looks like it's going to be Ozark at Gentry. And, you know, the Pioneers, this is one that they need to win, I mean, if they're going to make a move in that for a conference.
So kind of looking at that and what are you all thinking on this ball game? Because Ozark and Elkins are kind of the teams to beat in that league.
[00:32:02] Speaker C: Well, for me, I was kind of expecting lincoln was riding high there for a while and, my goodness, Ozark, they just whipped them. I mean, the thrill, Billies, they do that to a lot of people right there. So good luck to the Pioneers. But, man, Ozark, they're a traditionally winning team down there and that's going to be tough, I think, for Gentry.
[00:32:25] Speaker D: Well, this was a stretch that I talked to Coach Jeremy Burns about a couple of weeks ago, about having to play these quarterbacks consecutively because Drew Moore is a senior at Lincoln who's had a tremendous career, went over 6000 yards for his career, I think, last week.
And I really thought this would be a challenge for Ozark. And they went 44 to seven, gave up one touchdown. They had, I think, four sacks. They also returned a punt for a touchdown, an interception, and really, hell, Lincoln's passing attack kind of in check. But now they have the same kind of challenge because Talon Williams and we talk about all these. Know, Slade Dean, who was kind of trained at Greenwood talon Williams, is a shiloh Christian guy who transferred to Gentry. And he stepped into that starting lineup, and he had a tremendous game about three weeks ago. So that's going to be another challenge for Ozark. So once Ozark gets past that one, then maybe we'll be ready to talk about that Elkins Ozark game.
[00:33:37] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: The three a r1. Quick, Leland, before we take a break here, but Charleston and Hackett, that's going to be a good ball game, too.
[00:33:46] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, I guess. Two games that I'm really interested in keeping an eye on. Friday night, of course, I'll be at Charleston and Hackett because Hackett's quarterback is another one that's put up some big numbers. And we talked about Reese Mariska coming back for Charleston last week, which was a big boost for them. Well, I think Hackett is going to get Bryson Hamilton back, who kind of turned heads at the Arkansas Razorback camp last summer with I forget what it was. I think it was like a 4440. So they're supposed to get him back this week. So that ought to be a really interesting game and a key one in the three A one.
[00:34:27] Speaker A: All right. Well, and certainly there's much more that we could talk about regarding all these conferences, but we're going to take a break. And when we come back, we will get into our top five of the week.
[00:34:48] 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 rivervalleydemocratgazette.com, or call us at 479-684-5509 and be sure to say that you're a podcast listener. Now back to the show.
[00:35:17] Speaker A: Welcome back to Prep Rally, sponsored by West Termite, Pest and Lawn. I'm Graham Thomas. Rick Fires. Leland Barclay. We're all on a zoom for you this week, and we're going to get into our top five. So, boys, I think I'm going to start us off this time. I never get to go first.
[00:35:38] Speaker C: Go ahead.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Yep. So I'm going to start us off with the Farmington Cardinals. I felt like got a big bounce back win this last week. They were at Dardnell. They were up 28 21 at halftime, and they go 28 nothing in the second half for a 56 21 win at Dardenell. So that really caught my attention.
They made some adjustments on defense and shut out the sand lizards and did a good job over Gentry pioneers Caden Coons, 200 yards rushing in a win against Green Forest.
On the road at Green Forest. That can't be an easy trip to make. And he had a big night. But I'm also going to highlight our boy Ridge. Gordon squawford at Green Forest had 150 Russian yards. Again, just having a big year for the Red Tigers over there.
So, man, this one had Henry Apple all excited on Saturday morning. But Graviton score, he's an offensive lineman now, and he scored on a 50 yard hook and lateral play for Gravit the other night. That just seemed like it was a really fun play to be a part of. Anytime the offensive lineman gets the touchdown, I know everybody gets excited.
[00:36:57] Speaker C: So he had a rumble about what, how many yards? 50 yards.
[00:37:01] Speaker A: 50 yards. I mean, that's crazy, isn't it?
[00:37:04] Speaker C: I like to see video on that.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: When I talked to Henry on Saturday morning, he goes, I have got to do something on that. So we'll see what he comes up with. How about the Shiloh Saints 39 straight conference game victories? Now, it's not all in the Five A West, obviously in the Four A one, too, but with their 30 point win at Harrison, their streak of conference wins is now up to 39 in a row.
We talked about the wide open Five A West, but they just seem to be beating everybody in their path, so we'll see if they can finish the job. I'm going to give a little bit of love to the Silent Springs Panthers. I know they're owing seven and haven't really kind of fallen on some hard times, but they've got a kid named Nohe Hernandez who got his second pick six of the season last week against Pulaski Academy. He had one against Greenwood on September the 15th, and he got another one the other night on homecoming. And so I thought that was just a really cool thing to mention here on top five.
[00:38:11] Speaker C: Nohe.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: Nohe. N-O-H-E no hay, I think that's how.
[00:38:15] Speaker C: You say it sweet.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: This is a hard working kid that Coach Craig over at Siloma says has done a good job for them. And then as a bonus, I'm going to give a shout out to the Hackett volleyball team getting a three two win at Shiloh Christian last night.
It's a non conference game, but Hackett improves to 31 and two on the season. That is my top five. Rick, I'll turn it over to you.
[00:38:43] Speaker C: All right, you know what? Hey, we play a lot of sports you want to play for conference champion, state championship. So I got to start off with the Rogers Mounties golf team. They won down at Cabot. They won the Class Six a championship at Rolling Hill. The Cabot congratulations to the Mounties, and let's say with another kind of different kind of sport besides football. How about the state tennis going on six A state tennis going on right now at Rogers Heritage.
Fable boys and Bentville girls are defending state champions, and I think they got the quarterfinal no, the semifinals, finals today. Jacob Norton, Spencer Holloway from Fable. They're defending champions in doubles. Let's see how they do it. Stella Devera from Heritage, let's see how she does. She wanted the top siege. Now let's go to football. We're going to overlap a little bit. I know Leland's talked about Fable Fort Smith Southside, but I was interested in seeing that Drake Lindsay had four or five touchdown passes. But Christian Seltzer, 26 attempts, 135 yards rush, and one touchdown, I think that's going to be key when Fable can run the football. That helps them out tremendously in their passing game. So I'm going to be looking for that on Friday night, see if Fable can continue to run the ball. What can you say about the Bentonville game? 84 to Carter knife.
Nine passes completed. Eight of them, four of them. So four of them for touchdowns. Half your passes go for touchdowns. I don't care if that's two passes. I don't care if it's eight. But good job there by Bentonville. Hopefully Rogers heritage will bounce back, get back on the field and represent themselves.
Springdale harbor, they had a brutal non conference schedule, but they've won two in a row. They're two and one after the 41 24 victory over Springdale. Springdale has got to hang on to the ball better, and I think the coaching staff over there get that through their heads this week. Moving down to the Central, you're talking about a collision course. Bryant and Conway, they both won. They're ranked number one and two in the state. So every time I see our results of our teams up here, I always got to look at the Central. These two are headed for a showdown. Going to be the biggest game of the year. If everything progresses as is on November 6 at Conway, that'll be the game of the year. That's all I got.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: All right. That is going to be a big one. Leland, what have you got for us?
[00:41:23] Speaker D: I'm going to kind of skip over the two big schools in Crawford County because we've already mentioned Van Buren's win over Russellville that come from behind win and the excitement of that and how that happened. Also, we mentioned Alma, even though we didn't mention Jackson daily 20 carries for 179 yards and three touchdowns. I know that's a little bit of a letdown after having 320 last week.
[00:41:47] Speaker A: But you can do better than that.
[00:41:49] Speaker D: But 179 is still pretty good, especially on the road to get that win. So I'm going to skip to North Crawford County. Now, where the mountainburg dragons? About a month ago, they got the treasure chest trophy back from Cedarville. Friday night, they were able to even their two a one conference record at one in one, sophomore quarterback Ryan Allen had 27 carries for 266 yards and three touchdowns and also through a touchdown pass.
Senior Garrett Jones had eight tackles, one for loss, and went down to Mountburg yesterday and talked to him. And Bobby Dean, a two way lineman, got to talk a little weightlifting with Bobby Dean.
He benches 315. And we got to talk about when you slap those 45 pound weights up against each other on the bar. It creates that sound in the weight room that everybody turns around and looks at. That so Mountainberg even their record at one in one. And then Ozark quarterback Kobe Willbanks carries for 209 yards and four touchdowns in that win over Lincoln, 44 to seven.
Drake haddock had a safety off a sack, eli Gilstrap returned a punt for a touchdown. And then Booneville's DAX Golf went over the 4000 yard mark in rushing yards in a 42 to 14 win over Greenland. Golf had touchdown runs of 1330, 613 and ten yards, and he now has 4083 yards rushing, which is third in school history behind Alan Ray and Randon Ray, two names we're very familiar with.
Lavaca's. Jimmy Baron returned a fumble for a touchdown and caught a touchdown passes, caught a touchdown pass and had eight tackles on defense in Lavaca's 49 to twelve win over West Fork. And then finally Subiaco won 70 to six over Rosebud Brody. Coke had 17 carries for 181 yards and four touchdowns. Also had eight tackles, a sack and two fumble recoveries.
That's eight man football, and they've been ranked second all year. They're ranked right behind Mountain View. They played earlier. Mountain View won by two touchdowns, so they might be on a collision course for the non sanctioned state championship in eight man football.
[00:44:23] Speaker A: Well, you know, we didn't mention it in the first part of the show, guys, but Booneville at Mansfield, that might be a sneaky kind of good game. Mansfield, they're five and one, they played Charleston tough, and they get Booneville at their place, so we'll just see what happens.
[00:44:41] Speaker D: Absolutely. That's another big game in a three. A one.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: All right, well, that's going to wrap up this week's edition of Prep Rally, folks. You can listen to Prep
[email protected], or you can watch it on YouTube, and you can also listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. We'd like to thank again our sponsor, West Termite, Pest and Lawn. And be sure to look out for Prep Rally live later this week for Leland Barclay in the River Valley, for Rick Fires, who's somewhere in Prairie Grove, I think, amongst all of his sports riding awards.
I'm Graham Thomas signing off, and thank you for watching Prep Rally.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: The proceeding has been a production of Prep Rally podcasts. Find us on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more. And be sure to follow our hosts on social media.
