District football battles begin in earnest

The non-conference football season has been completed, and now the battle for district supremacy and playoff berths begins in earnest. Six of the eight district teams won their last non-conference battles Friday, with only Gentry and Shiloh ending the night with another mark in the "L" column.

I predicted a 4A-1 sweep last week, and while it didn't turn out that way, I did pick six of the eight games right. I went against the prevailing media wisdom in picking Pea Ridge and picking them big.

The game summaries for last week:

Prairie Grove 42/ West Fork

This game was a no brainer as the PG Tigers have more of everything compared to the WF Tigers. It was 35-0 by the half. Prairie Grove had nearly 500 yards of offense, 380 yards on the ground with 14 different ball carriers gaining yardage. It was vintage Prairie Grove offense.

Gravette 41/ Jay 7

A good game against a not so good team, Gravette again relied on the legs of running back Cedric Duarte who topped 200 yards for the second week in a row. Until someone can stop Duarte, the Lions don't need to throw.

Lincoln 45/ Cedarville 22

Lincoln finally got some defense going after giving up a lot of points in their first two games. The Wolves rushed for 378 yards in the game but were actually behind 16-8 at one point. However, 22 points to a weak offensive team like Cedarville was still too much.

Berryville 36/Green Forest 34

I thought the next door neighbor teams were evenly matched, and they were as the game wasn't decided until the very end.

Huntsville 31/Elkins 14

Huntsville struggled mightily against the Elks, trailing by a 7-3 margin at the half. The Eagles' deeper roster was too much for the Elks as it was all Huntsville in the second half. Eagles running back Christian Cain averaged less than 2 yards a carry on 17 attempts in the first half, but averaged nearly 7 yards a carry on 14 totes in the second half. Depth matters. Cain had 129 yards and three scores.

Victory Christian 41/Shiloh 27

Shiloh's passing attack finally got untracked with sophomore quarterback Conner Reece throwing for 316 yards on 21 of 43 passing. While Shiloh may have lost their best receiver, they still have two good ones left in Matthew Solomon and Adler Goode. Still, Shiloh didn't have enough defense to carry the day.

Greenland 24/ Gentry 15

The Pirates' decision to drop Pea Ridge as a non-conference foe in favor of Gentry paid off for Greenland as they logged a victory instead of the lopsided losses they had been absorbing from the 'Hawks the past few years. Gentry completely dominated Greenland in the first half, leading 15-0 and were near the Pirates' goal line twice early on without scoring points. Greenland scored 16 points in the final five minutes to win the game.

Now there will only be four games to predict with district competition beginning this week. After scoring only a 75 percent this past week, I am almost certain to grade out at 100 percent this week as all four games have heavy underdogs in them.

This weeks predictions:

Gravette 42/ Lincoln 7

The Wolves will likely not be able to solve the Lion's tailback Duarte and he will top 200 yards and more again. The Wolves are short handed which could lead to a long season.

Shiloh 49/ Berryville 7

With the old Shiloh coach gone (and his penchant to run up scores), the private school from Springdale will certainly win on their own turf but it won't get too out of hand. Shiloh has a losing record leading into district play and they will be focused on ending that distinction.

Prairie Grove 45/ Huntsville 0

Huntsville couldn't score a TD against Elkins until they wore them down with their superior numbers in the second half. The Eagles will not have superior numbers in this contest, or superior talent as well and the game will be over before intermission.

Pea Ridge 35/ Gentry 0

The Pioneers have just not played well this season though they have the talent to kick it up a notch or two at some point. The 'Hawks have the unaccustomed to advantage of having depth. Even in the ultra successful 2012 season, depth was a problem for the 'Hawks. Pea Ridge has a lot of weapons and has also developed a pretty salty defense.

Like I said, it is safe to bet on all four of the aforementioned teams with only the margin of victories likely to be in dispute.

Having said that, it is still high school football and strange things happen. Teams that get too overconfident can be taken down by lesser teams with grit.

I believe that the biggest problem that beset Paris Friday was perhaps believing the predictions. Their offensive line looked stunned by the fierceness of the 'Hawk defenders and going for it on fourth down deep in their own territory early in the game would seem to be something they would never try against a superior team.

The Hooten's football magazine and website predicted Pea Ridge would prevail against Elkins by 3 (we won by 14), that we would beat Green Forest by 1 (we won by 34) and that we would lose to Paris by 6 (we won by 35). As we get further into the season, I believe that folks will realize that the Pea Ridge Blackhawks are much better than advertised.

Blackhawks climb CBS football poll this week

Pea Ridge jumped six spots in the 4A State Poll as well as passing up two teams in the 4A-1 poll as as released Sunday by the MaxPreps CBS Football Poll.

The lopsided win allowed Pea Ridge to climb over Gravette and Lincoln to now rank as the No. 3 team in the district. In spite of their loss Friday, Shiloh cracked the top 10 coming in as the 10th ranked squad, just ahead of No. 11 Prairie Grove.

The 'Hawks won't see Prairie Grove until week No. 7 with Shiloh coming into town on week No. 10.

CBS MaxPreps state 4A poll

1. Arkadelphia 3-0

2. Nashville 3-0

3. Dardanelle 3-0

4. Dollarway 2-1

5. Star City 3-0

6. Pottsville 2-1

7. Warren 1-2

8. Hamburg 2-1

9. Malvern 2-1

10. Shiloh 1-2

11. Prairie Grove 1-1

23. Pea Ridge 3-0

24. Gravette 3-0

32. Lincoln 1-2

35. Huntsville 2-1

41. Berryville 2-1

43. Gentry 0-3

4A-1 District standings

Conf. games All games

Pea Ridge 0-0 3-0

Huntsville 0-0 2-1

Berryville 0-0 2-1

Gravette 0-0 2-1

Prairie Grove 0-0 1-1

Lincoln 0-0 1-2

Shiloh 0-0 1-2

Gentry 0-0 1-2

News of note

In an interesting sports score, Two Rivers High School defeated Atkins 71-69. No, that wasn't an early basketball contest but rather a rather defense-less game held in the Arkansas River valley. Two Rivers scored last, got the ball back on an onside kick, then ran the clock out. If they hadn't gotten the turnover, Atkins would have probably won 76-71, which would have been an even cooler score.

On another note, I have been to literally hundreds of cross country meets over the years, from the collegiate level all the way down to grade school. I had an experience going to the Shiloh Invitational that I had never previously experienced, that is being forced to pay parking for the event ($5). The meet was sponsored so I'm not sure why the school needed the money (they made a pile of it as their parking lot had a lot of cars in it). There have been a lot of radio ads imploring kids to enroll in their private school, so maybe they are having financial issues. At any rate, many visiting fans left Springdale with a lesser opinion of the school.

Speaking of Shiloh, former coach Josh Floyd has his new team, Trussville-Hewitt High ranked 22nd (among 32) in 7A in Alabama. He was 0-2 until a 64-63 win last week over Spain Park.

Former Lincoln star quarterback Drew Harris moved to 6A Benton and has been a big part of their resurgence this year. Although he moved to a school that already had a quarterback, he has made a big splash as a receiver. His team upset Greenbrier 52-32 last week with his 12-reception 174-yard total a big part of the victory.

People are now predicting the demise of the vaunted Bentonville football program as they have gone 0-3 in their pre-conference games. While they weren't expected to go winless at this date, all three losses were against power teams from other states. They lost to Broken Arrow, Okla.; Kansas City Rockhurst; and Bergen Catholic from New Jersey.

They have not played anyone from Arkansas yet so we will have to wait and see. The neighboring Tigers opened 1-2 last year and won the 2013 7A state title anyway.

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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 on 09/24/2014