Blackhawks rise to No. 11 in state poll

The Blackhawk football team's momentous victory over Prairie Grove edged it up from 12th to 11th the CBS/MaxPreps Arkansas State 4A poll.

The 'Hawks climbed into the 11th spot after Shiloh dropped from 10th to 13th in the poll. Although the Springdale private school won their game 36-6 over Gentry, they were up only 15-6 at the half. The poll now ranks Pea Ridge as the best of the 4A-1.

Dardanelle still tops the overall poll after crushing all seven of their foes in their season up to now. Beside the 'Hawks and the Sand Lizards, the only two undefeated 4A teams left in Arkansas are Gosnell's Pirates and Pocahontas, all at 7-0. The number of undefeated teams will decrease by at least one as Gosnell and Pocahontas will battle this Friday night.

With a win at home against Berryville, the 'Hawks could make it into the top 10 as No. 10 Malvern travels to play No. 7 Fountain Lake in the only top 10 matchup of the week.

I got three of four

In my predictions for last week, I was mostly right, correctly predicting Pea Ridge's, Shiloh's and Gravette's wins over Prairie Grove, Gentry and Berryville last week. I missed the Huntsville win over Lincoln.

Huntsville 41, Lincoln 24: I figured the entire Huntsville offense rested on the shoulders of their good tailback Cain. While Cain got his yards, although they were tough ones through a Lincoln defense who sought to slow him, another back (Elzey) gained as many yards as Cain on less carries (98-96). Elzey also scored five of the six Eagle touchdowns (the other by Cain) as they bested Lincoln convincingly.

Shiloh 36, Gentry 6: The Pioneers kept the game surprisingly close, trailing only 15-6 at the half. Both teams couldn't score in the opening period and Shiloh didn't break it open until the second half, outscoring the Pioneers 21-0. Shiloh's offensive burst in the second half helped them roll up over 400 yards of total offense by game's end.

Gravette 35, Berryville 8: Cedric Duarte ran wild as expected as the Lions demolished the Bobcats easily.

My predictions for week No. 8 in Arkansas high school are generally no-brainers. The upper four teams in the 4A-1 will play the bottom four teams, and I think the chasm that exists between the upper and lower halves of the district will only widen.

Predictions

Prairie Grove 40/Gentry 7: The Tigers saw their only chance to still come up with at least a co-championship went by the wayside with the loss to Pea Ridge. After having unblemished 7-0 records the past two seasons, Prairie Grove is now saddled with a 2-2 conference ledger, tied with Gentry and Gravette. I think it will spur them on to a big game against the outmanned Pioneers.

Shiloh 42/Lincoln 14: Shiloh is an offensive-minded team playing a team with decided defensive shortcomings. The Springdale school will break a lot of big plays, many of which will score. They may already be thinking about the big game with Pea Ridge two weeks hence but it won't matter in this game.

Gravette 39/Huntsville 14: The Eagles won't stop Duarte who will get his yards and touchdowns though the Lions could have a slight problem with Huntsville's running game. Being a slight problem won't be enough for Huntsville to turn back the playoff bound Lions.

Pea Ridge 42/Berryville 0: This could be a danger week with Homecoming distractions and following a very wrenching, hard-fought victory last week over perennial powerhouse Prairie Grove. However, I believe this year's edition of the 'Hawks are a very disciplined team of players with plenty of backups available to fill in the gaps if they arise. I believe the 'Hawks will be just too much for the Bobcats, but being high school football, anything could happen. The Bobcats upset the 'Hawks last year in the season finale.

4a-1 District standings

Pea Ridge 4-0

Shiloh 4-0

Prairie Grove 2-2

Gravette 2-2

Gentry 2-2

Huntsville 1-3

Lincoln 1-3

Berryville 0-4

Official problems

I have noticed in the past couple of weeks some very peculiar calls made by Arkansas high school football officials, none of which were any help to the Blackhawks.

In a close game with Gravette two weeks back, officials wiped out two scores by the 'Hawks on dubious calls by the officiating crew.

The game at Prairie Grove was replete with unusual official conduct. The first came when Cody Foltz took a handoff and went from the 41- to the 44-yard line before being pushed back to the 42 where he went down. The officials didn't honor the rule of forward progress but placed the ball where he went down.

The second gaffe occurred when the Tigers were facing a fourth and 1 on the 'Hawks' 49. After placing the ball from the previous play one yard short of the first down, an official decided a new ball was needed and but replaced the ball about 18 inches closer to the first down. Fortunately, the Tiger signal caller got overly excited and moved before the snap, resulting in a flag and 5-yard penalty. However, the ball was marked off only 4 yards from the previous spot, a yard short of the penalty requirements. Prairie Grove went ahead and punted so it didn't matter.

Another instance of official blundering occurred when the 'Hawk quarterback was caught 4 yards deep trying to get off a pass. Tiger defenders arrived en mass and pushed him back from the 36 to the 30 resulting in a 10-yard loss, rather than a 4-yard loss by the forward progress rule.

In the third quarter, a 'Hawk running back was brought down after a short gain around right end. On the way to the turf, a Tiger defender grabbed a facemask and another defender kicked the 'Hawk player on the ground a few feet in front of an official who watched the incident and let it go unflagged.

The final peculiarity occurred when the Tigers were first and 10 on the 'Hawk 32 with 1:28. The Tigers tried a passing play which was ultimately incomplete but only two seconds ticked off the clock during the play. The officials called time out, but instead of lowering the time left to 1:21 or 1:22, they put more time on the clock than existed before the start of the play. Blackhawk defenders still made the Tigers use up over a minute in getting those final 32 yards to score with 0:26 left.

This past Friday, there was another game in Arkansas where officials ruled that an offensive player's fumble out of his own end zone wasn't a safety but a touchback. It should have been a 2-point safety and the other team should have gotten the ball on a free kick, but apparently, there are high school officials that aren't aware of basic rules.

I like Major League's Baseball's new replay technology that teams can use to protest bad calls. Quite a few calls were overturned and MLB used this data to determine what umps will officiate playoff games. The higher scoring umpires got the plum assignments instead of the old way which used seniority and standing to line-up their officials crews.

I just hope that the officials we have been seeing lately aren't the best of the crop.

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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].