Pea Ridge head coach Tony Travis invited superintendent Rick Neal into the locker room following the ’Hawks’ road win last Friday so he could make the announcement that “we’re going to play at least one more home game before closing out the old stadium.”
Bouncing back strong from their first defeat last week, the Blackhawks completely dominated and upset a good Farmington Cardinal team in a 36-0 drubbing that earned Pea Ridge a No. 2 seed in the 4A state playoffs. The victory clinched second for the Blackhawks in the conference and sealed Ozark’s third seeding as well. Prairie Grove has already clinched first place in the 4A-1 with the fourth and fifth playoff spots likely going to Gravette and Farmington, contingent on this Friday’s contests.
It was a career night for senior tailback Dayton Winn who shredded the Cards defense for a whopping 289 yards of rushing offense on 28 carries. The nimble back also scored a pair of touchdowns. Seniors Daniel Beard, Austin Easterling and Dalton Morgan all scored touchdowns with senior kicker Nick DeLeon adding a field goal and 3 extra points.
“We’ve hung our hat off Winn’s success all year, but tonight we got a superlative effort from our offensive line that went a long way to producing our rushing yardage.” head coach Tony Travis remarked.
The ’Hawks went into the game as the underdog with one ranking service predicting a Farmington victory by 7 points. However, the Cards never threatened and were outgained 387 yards to 128 in total offense.
The ’Hawks’ defense forced the Cards into a three and out in the game’s first series, with Pea Ridge then launching a six-play, 61-yard drive to score early. Winn had runs of 7, 15, 14 and 6, to gain a first down on the Cardinals’ 1-yard line. On the next play, Winn ran left, then seeing a wall of defenders blocking the path, shifted gears running to the right to cross the goal line standing up for a 6-0 lead with 7:00 left in the first quarter.
The stunned Farmington squad was determined and decided to go to a balanced pass, then run offense on their next possession. Their first two passes were complete with Brackett to Boudry hookups netting a first down at mid-field. The Cards’ next three running plays were thrown for losses, however. Klein broke through to drop the Cards’ Boudry for a 1-yard loss, with Jonah Torres breaking through to throw the Farmington tailback for consecutive 3-yard losses on running plays. Farmington completed one more pass but was forced to turn the ball over on downs on the ’Hawk 35.
From there, Pea Ridge started a nine-play 65-yard drive that ate up 7 minutes on the clock. The big damage done to Farmington was a 25-yard dash by Winn for a first down on the Cardinals’ 38. A great fake and keeper by Easterling covered 13 yards on the next play for a first down on the 25. A Winn run up the middle netted 5 yards for the first quarter’s final play.
On the next play, Easterling executed a tremendous fake, allowing the ’Hawk field general to slip through the defenses for 13 more yards to the Farmington 9. After Winn gained 4 more yards to the 5, Pea Ridge was whistled for a 5-yard penalty on the next play.
Facing a third and 10 from the 10,Beard took a reverse and just out ran the Cardinal defenders to the west goal line pylon. The score boosted the ’Hawks’ lead to 12-0 with 9:52 left in the half.
The Cards were forced to punt on their next possession, in large part to the large loss Morgan dealt to Famington on third down. The ’Hawks, due to penalties and a pair of quarterback sacks, were forced to punt the ball right back however.
This time around, the ’Hawks’ Braxton Caudill provided the heroics as he blew up a pair Cardinal running plays that resulted in losses. A third down pass from Brackett to Woods was sniffed out by Torres, with the diminutive defender tackling the receiver well short of the first downmarker, thus forcing a punt.
After Morgan opened with a 4-yard run, Winn picked up 39 yards on four carries, before catching a 13-yard pass from Easterling for a first down on the Cardinal 20. Easterling then rushed for 10 yards to the Farmington 10. With the clock under 10 seconds left in the half, Easterling tried running left to get in but was pulled down by his face mask. The penalty put the ball on the 5 with a couple of ticks on the clock left. Travis elected to go for the sure thing, sending in DeLeon to attempt a 23-yard field goal.
The boot split the uprights as time expired to put the ’Hawks on top 15-0 going into intermission.
If the Cardinals were going to come back in the second half. Winns’ 48-yard scoring run on second down for the ’Hawks’ fourth score probably extinguished whatever hope the homeboys held. DeLeon’s kick was good as Pea Ridge led 22-0 with 11:01 left in the third quarter.
The defenses then held sway over much of the quarter as neither team could get so much as a first down over the next five possessions. Farmington’s third possession was jump started by an excellent punt return by Boudry that placed the ball at the ’Hawk 34. Two runs were nowhere and two incomplete passes on third and fourth down turned the ball back over to the ’Hawks.
After a holding call pushed Pea Ridge back to their own 20, Winn broke loose, shedding tacklers like bird dogs shed water, dashing his way 62-yards to the Farmington 18. Winn and Morgan bashed the ball up the middle to the 11 where Easterling ran for 2 more yards and a first down on the Cardinal 7. A holding call then cost the ’Hawks 10 yards to the 18. Winn got back 5 of the yards on second down. Easterling thenexecuted a masterful fake pitch to Winn, which sprang him for a 13-yard run to paydirt. Deleon’s kick made it 29-0 with 11:08 left in the game.
Farmington tried one more running play but when that play lost a yard, they went to the air.
Though completing 3 for 28 yards, the Cardinals last series saw them go 1 for 4 through the air for -2 yards with 8 minutes left in the game that turned the ball over on downs. The ’Hawks then went to managing the clock, running the time down to 2 minutes left before turning it themselves over on downs. The Cardinals first two passes fell incomplete with the third one winding up in the wrong hands as Morgan picked it off then wove 30 yards into the end zone for the ’Hawks’ last score. DeLeon’s kick made it 36-0 which activated the mercy rule with a minute left.
Besides Winn, Easterling picked up 52 yards on 11 carries with Morgan garnering 7 on five rushes. Beard added 10 yards on one foray.
The ’Hawks travel to Berryville this Friday for the last regular season game of the year. Two years ago, the ’Hawks lost to Berryville on the last game of that season that left Pea Ridge in last place with a 0-7 conference mark. This year, the ’Hawks hit town sporting a 8-1 overall mark, 5-1 in conference play. The Bobcats, meanwhile, are 0-6 in league play, 2-7 overall.
The ’Hawks will be back home the following week to host the opening round of the state 4A State Playoffs regardless of what happens in Berryville. The team is set to take on the 4A-8 conference’s fourth best team.
The 4A-8 conference consists of teams from southeast Arkansas which has yet to determine their seeding.
Sports, Pages 7 on 10/31/2012