568 yards?!?

As I edge ever closer to my 60th birthday next year, I can look back on the hundreds of football games I have seen personally seen, many of which I attended as a sports writer for one school or another. Teaching at five different football schools over the years gave me an opportunity to see my teams win big as well as lose big. I even spent three years covering Harding University’s football team, so I have seen a lot of football in a lot of places on a lot of levels.

Last Friday’s football game at Blackhawk stadium treated me to something that I had never personally witnessed in my entire life.

I had never seen any team ever rack up 568 yards of total offense. When 300 yards is a great night, and 400 to 500 yards is lights out, 568 yards is nearly unfathomable. That doesn’t even take into consideration the more than 100 yards in return yardage that Pea Ridge had. Even more incredible was that the effort came against the defending 4A state champion Shiloh team, a squad that has won 42 conference games in a row.

Five hundred sixty-eight is a lot of yards playing against a lousy team, a description that hardly fits Shiloh. When I toldfriends of mine how well the ’Hawks played Friday and how many yards they gained, the common reaction was “Yeah, right. That isn’t even possible.”

Dayton Winn’s 241-yard rushing total was even more incredible as his first quarter yardage wasn’t much. The Blackhawks came up with a lot, I mean a LOT, of big plays. While Shiloh is still defending a long winning streak, they are not the Shiloh of old as the new anti-recruitment rules begin to take their toll. They are still formidable though, as their kicking game might just be the best in the state in any classification. As Pea Ridge unhappily found out, Shiloh can also defend pass attacks exceptionally well.

Shiloh’s victory last week was a result of their avoiding any major mistakes while we made several. The three turnovers Pea Ridge suffered didn’t lead to any Shiloh scoring, but it did deny the ’Hawks at least one touchdown if not more.

For the first time this season, the ’Hawks played like they were faster thantheir competition. Was Shiloh slower than Elkins, Green Forest, Greenland or Gravette? The correct answer was that the ’Hawks were playing faster than I had ever seen them before.

In the three years of the Travis era, the gridiron ’Hawks have slowly been developing a character that has been lacking in recent years.

The kind of character I am talking about is the kind that drives kids to practice hard even when they are tired. It is the kind of character that drives kids to reject any thought of giving up, no matter the score or situation.

In last Friday’s game, after holding the Shiloh offense in check for their first three possessions, the ’Hawks were stymied by two interceptions and a shanked punt. If Shiloh had played a lesser team, the aforementioned situation would have led to a Shiloh rout and lopsided victory.

The ’Hawks did not fold and fought back, blow for blow until the final few seconds of the contest.

It must have seen odd indeed for the predicament Shiloh found themselves in the game’s final minute.

They had a fourth down and 1 situation near midfield clinging to a 4-point lead. If they went for the first down and didn’t getit, it would have given the ’Hawks great field position and enough time to win the contest. A punt had the possibility of involving a long run back, so the Shiloh coach elected to go for the first, then run the clock out when he made it. He was successful, so the Shiloh faithful were rewarded with a narrow victory.

The two top pre-season teams are now behind us in Gravette and Shiloh, but there are five conference games left to decide, games that will spell whether or not the ’Hawks go to the playoffs. If the ’Hawks can channel the energy used in the Shiloh game so that it can used in every other game until the end of the season, the Blackhawks will likely land a long audition into the state playoffs.

Travis was concerned about a Monday let down for the team after the loss on Friday. I think they will be OK in spite of the narrow defeat. How they play against Gentry Friday will tell us what we need to know.

What’s up with that?

I read a game report from another reporter concerning the Pea Ridge/ Shiloh game battle. Most curiously, the writer wrote of how the game turned out 968 yards of combined total offense in the Shiloh victory. Since when havewe been combing statistics of teams that compete against one another in football.

Would a proper game account for the Oklahoma/Ball State game be that both teams combined to score 64 points in the Sooner victory? No. They would say that the Ball State team got hammered by a 61-3 count.

There has long been a media bias in favor of the Shiloh team, a situation that I can’t understand. In northwest Arkansas, stories tend to go out favoring Shiloh. In the most instant case, Shiloh was savaged for 568 yards by a team which had not won a conference game since 2009.

Rather than just tell it like it is, that writer decided to cloak some of Shiloh’s embarrassment by glossing over and obscuring the facts.

In the Hooten’s annual high school guide, Shiloh was picked second in state for 2011 because as one person put it, “Shiloh was Shiloh.” Shiloh was picked over an obviously superior team in Heber Springs for the sheer reason that Shiloh had “savvy.” Blackhawks rank 29th in state

The Blackhawks hold down the 29th spot in the state 4A poll in the Max-Preps/CBS state poll.

Pea Ridge, with a 2-3 record, holds the sixth spot in the district rankings in the poll with Ozark taking over first in the rankings.

Below is a list of the rankings.

MAX PREPS 1-4A Poll

Dist State Team

1st 3rd Ozark

2nd 5th Gravette

3rd 8th Prairie Grove

4th 10th Farmington

5th 11th Shiloh Christian

6th 29th Pea Ridge

7th 31st Gentry

8th 46th Berryville

In the Hooten’s state poll, Shiloh is holding on to fourth place in the state polls, ahead of all other teams in the district.

Hooten’s is composed of northwest Arkansas sports personnel whereas the MaxPrep polls are more scientific, using comparative scores, strength of schedule, etc., to rate a team. If the MaxPreps poll turns out like predicted, Shiloh won’t even make the playoffs.

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Editor’s note: John McGee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@ nwaonline.com.

Sports, Pages 10 on 10/05/2011