The football ’Hawks victory over Monticello last week showed how in touch the central Arkansas prognosticators are. Or aren’t.
Hooten’s Football predicted a 2 point win by the Billies over our Blackhawks, but instead the Pea Ridge gridders beat their foe to a degree I don’t believe I have ever seen them beat anyone. The Billies not only didn’t score in the game, they didn’t even finish the game with as much as a single yard of offense.
When I cover football games, just as I did when I covered and wrote the Harding University game accounts for the Arkansas Gazette in the 1970s, I write down every play including yard lines, downs, the plays, who did them and how, and yards covered. Of course, the ball often winds up between yard lines and so total yardage may differ a bit from one writer to another or one statistician to another. But most game accounts should come out fairly close if accurate.
The news accounts of the Pea Ridge/Monticello game gave the Billies anywhere from 4 to 20 yards of offense. Actually, the Billies ended with -13 yards, less than zero. The Billies jayvee running backs picked up some positive yards toward the end of the mercy-ruled shortened game or it would have been much worse. Meanwhile, the ’Hawks had piled up nearly 300 yards by halftime.
When the Democrat-Gazette released the latest listing of the state’s leading running backs, our own Dayton Winn had totaled more yards than any other tailback in the state, regardless of division. This may have led to the Billies over obsession with Winn thus allowing the ’Hawks other stars - of which there are many - to shine.
Both the fullback (Dalton Morgan) and quarterback (Austin Easterling) have the talent to take it to the house on any play, and with receivers Jack Rapp, Daniel Beard and Braxton Caudill all possessing good hands and vision, any team just stacking the line to stop the run does so at its own peril.
Even with the increased attention, Winn still got 117 yards, which has him at the precipice of going over the 2,000-yard mark for the season (1,991). Teams expecting to stop Winn to stop the Blackhawks will have a rude awakening.
As I predicted earlier, I fully believed that Heber Springs would defeat Star City in the game to produce the opponent for the ’Hawks’ next game. Since Heber had a No. 4 seed,that meant that Pea Ridge would host the second round playoff game, something that I don’t believe has ever happened before in history.
Should the ’Hawks take care of the Panthers this Friday, they will most likely be hitting the road to Pine Bluff next week. Whoever wins the Highland/Dollarway contest this week will host the next game against the Heber/Pea Ridge winner. Though Highland is undefeated at 11-0, they had a fairly soft schedule and got to play the state’s 38th ranked team in their firstround opener.
In an interesting side note, on some of the football bulletin boards on the Internet, there has been a running verbal feud between Highland fans and Dollarway supporters. While Highland has cruised the season with nary a loss, they haven’t been getting much respect from any of the state ranking agencies. This has led to much bragging on the part of Highland fans, claiming discrimination and asserting their belief in the Rebels’ excellent chances for a state championship.
Now Dollarway is a state top five team, and has lost but once this season. The Cardinals also have the distinction of being the highest returning finisher from last year’s playoffs as they took the second place trophy in the championship game against Pulaski, who has since moved up to 5A. The Cards naturally feel they are the better team, and who could have predicted that they would meet in the second round, albeit on the Highland home turf in Hardy. If it is not freezing cold in Hardy Friday, then the Rebels chances don’t look too hot.
The ’Hawks will have a battle royale if they get to take on the Cardinals.
However, Pea Ridge defenses have been proving the adage that offense wins games, and defense wins championships. Aside from that disastrous explosion of turnovers that led to allowing 24 points in one quarter against Prairie Grove, the ’Hawks have allowed only 50 points in their other 10 games, truly remarkable.
Now for the interesting news. It is quite possible that the ’Hawks could host the state semi-final game.
Ozark could well win their game this week which would probably put them in a quarterfinal game at Booneville, a team they have already beaten once this year. If the Hillbillies advance to the semi-finals, and the ’Hawks could do the same, then Ozark would make a return trip to Pea Ridge in late November. Interesting.
With Thanksgiving week coming up, I am thankful that if we do get past Heber and get to travel (likely Pine Bluff), there’s noschool that day!
Bugs decide game
I had an omen, a premonition, or a sign that the game was going to go well this past Friday.
Having worked in the Blackhawk rather-outdated press box for a number of years, I have encountered every kind of bug imaginable. Problems with wasps, yellow jackets, spiders and flies are not uncommon.
This past Friday while I was setting up my stuff on the counter by the window in the press box, several lady bugs flew in the window and landed on my clipboard, the scoreboard control and the windows.
Fully believing that lady bugs are good luck, I then realized that the game was in the bag - as it ended up being.
I’m in the market for lady bug lure now that the weather had turned cold.
The bugs may be packing it in for the fall.
Tower power
For those that noticed or saw the large sign hanging on the Monticello side of the field last Friday, it read “TOWER POWER.” If you were wondering what that was all about, because no one on the Billie roster was named Tower, it was a reference to Zac Tower, a player for their rival Star City.
In the last game of the regular season, Tower collapsed and had to berushed to Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. He underwent brain surgery and was in critical condition for over a week. He has been upgraded to serious but by no means is out of the woods yet.
From what I heard, all the teams in the playoffs from the 4A-8 had similar signs of support at their respective schools games last Friday, including Star City, Hamburg, Monticello, Crossett and Warren. Only Warren survived the first round.
Though on the field foes, all these schools took up the cause of prayer for a young man who is spoken of in the most glowing terms by people that know him. This is something that transcends sports and reminds me of the support Pea Ridge lent the Gravette community a few years back when a Lion died unexpectedly of a MRSA infections.
Sports are valuable and fun as well, but it is so much more invaluable when life’s real lessons can be taught and appreciated.
I applaud all the schools of the 4A-8.
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Editor’s note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He 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 [email protected].
Sports, Pages 8 on 11/14/2012