Two other conference teams joined Pea Ridge's Blackhawks on the list of undefeated squads after Week No. 2 of high school football action. Surprisingly, the other two teams that have also started 2-0 are Gentry and Berryville.
Pea Ridge ran away from Green Forest by a 49-17 count that evened their record against the Carroll County school to six wins apiece since 2000. The past two years has seen the 'Hawks blow by the Tigers by lopsided margins. The Blackhawks seem to have become road warriors, winning their seventh straight game away from home. Their last loss as a visiting team came in the 2013 season.
Gentry gave their new head coach Paul Earnest a 2-0 start with their 35-7 drubbing of Class 2A neighbor Decatur. The Pioneers had originally been scheduled to play defending state champion Charleston but Prairie Grove picked up the 3A champs, giving Gentry the opportunity of playing much closer to home. The return of running back C.J. Taylor who moved to Oklahoma after the eighth grade has greatly aided Gentry.
Perrenial basement dweller Beryville kept their record perfect with a 21-6 win over West Fork. The Bobcats whipped Decatur in their season opener 34-0.
Prairie Grove rebounded from their previous 28-12 loss to Farmington by handling the Charleston Tigers 30-12. Picked to finish second in the 1-4A, Prairie Grove again relies on a stout running game to lead their attack.
Gravette lost their do-everything back from last year but have played well in their two games thus far. They actually led perennial playoff contender Pottsville before losing 34-27 in the season opener. They overwhelmed Mayflower 45-8 last week.
Huntsville lost their first game of the season but were impressive in doing so. They fell 28-21 to 5A Farmington, playing the Cardinals closer than did Prairie Grove the week before. Huntsville began their season with a 47-24 conquest of Green Forest
Shiloh had the referees on their side at home last week but it wasn't enough as Bastrop, La., handed the Springdale private school a 42-22 setback. Bastrop was whistled for a whopping 270 yards in penalties, a stat that had the Bastrop coach shaking his head. Shiloh started their 2015 football campaign by downing Charleston 77-49 in a game that featured little defense. In their two games, Shiloh is giving up an average 46 points a game.
The only school lacking a win so far this season are the Lincoln Wolves who were pasted by Westville, Okla., 49-19 to begin the season, then were edged by Keys, Okla., 21-18 last week.
The week to come
The 1-4A conference has a cumulative 10-6 record for total games played, but the league could conceivably go 8-0 this week with a bunch of winnable games on the schedule.
The Blackhawks finally get to come home as they host the Paris Eagles. Pea Ridge thoroughly dominated the Eagles last year in a game Paris was picked to win. The Eagles are 1-1 and will be the underdog this time around. Last year was the first time the two schools met on the football field.
Gentry will be hosting Greenland with a great chance to go 3-0. The Pirates are 1-1 but hold a 4-1 edge over Gentry in games played since 2000. Greenland is ranked in the mid 20s in 3A.
Berryville will likely stay undefeated at 3-0 when they play Green Forest this week. The Tigers are 0-2 and are ranked near the bottom of the state in the 3A classification. Green Forest does hold a 10-5 edge on games played this millenia.
With the way they played last time out, Huntsville will be heavy favorites to whip Elkins in Week No. 3. The Eagles hold a 6-3 edge in the last nine times they have played the Elks.
Prairie Grove has a 12-2 edge over West Fork in games played since 2000 and it almost certainly be 13-2 when the game is over. The 3A Tigers are 0-2 this year thus far.
Gravette will move to 2-1 for the season after they play Jay Friday. In four previous matchups, the Lions have come out on top every time.
If Lincoln is going to win a game this year, this will be the one they will. They play 0-2 Cedarville, ranked near the very bottom of class 3A. Cedarville has lost their two games by very wide margins.
Lastly, we come to Shiloh's game with Victory Christian out of Tulsa. This is the game the league is perhaps the least likely to win. Victory has put up some big numbers on offense in their two games to date, and unlike Shiloh, they also have a credible defense.
Hogs' season over?
The University of Arkansas has the fifth toughest schedule in the United States this year. Head coach Bret Bielema made a remark last week that it was unfair that the Hogs have such a tough schedule when the defending national champion Ohio State team only has a single ranked team on their schedule to date.
Saturday, the Hogs lost to a different Ohio school -- Toledo to be exact. Ohio State players were all over social media making hay with Bielema's earlier remark, ridiculing the Hogs as they lost to one of the non-ranked teams on the schedule that's close to their location.
The game was a head scratcher. The Razorbacks returned a heavily experienced, as well as heavily weighted offensive line. The Toledo defensive line returned nary a starter from 2014, and were much smaller to boot. No matter as the Rockets shut down the Hogs run game and stopped them from scoring a touchdown in the three times they were in the red zone.
It is fair to say that the Hogs won't have much of a chance to be among the final four when playoff time comes, unless they can turn the table and finish 11-1. At least the Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen put up some big numbers, throwing for over 400 yards, a week after he throw for over 300 yards against Texas-El Paso. The Hogs were supposed to be a run first team this year but unless they can do a turnaround, Hog fans will have to hope Allen can keep chunking the pigskin the way he has so far.
The SEC was tall and proud last week, boasting 10 schools in the nation's top 25, a feat no conference has ever accomplished before. The loss by Arkansas knocked them out of the rankings as did Tennessee's lost to Oklahoma. Missouri did manage to win but their narrow come from behind win over Arkansas State also dropped them from the top 25. Auburn's overtime win over lowly Jacksonville (Ala.) State dropped them from sixth to 18th in the rankings.
Still, the seven ranked schools the SEC has left are still way more than any other conferene.
St. Louis falls back to Earth
When it looked like the St. Louis Cardinals were just going to cruise to another division championship with a big lead and 30 games left, well the lead is not so big anymore.
Pittsburgh's Pirates have kept up the pressure and were just two and a half games back of the Cards Sunday. St. Louis avoided a four-game sweep by lowly Cincinatti with a 9-2 win Sunday with Pittsburgh keeping the pressure on with an extra-inning win over Milwaukee. The Chicago Cubs were 10 games back not that long ago but cut the deficit in half when the Cardinals lost eight games over a 10-game stretch.
I kind of saw that coming after watching St. Louis play Washington in the third game of a three-game series. The Cardinals won the first two games of that series and, I suppose, they decided they didn't need to win the third one. The regular starter was given the day off, bringing a minor leaguer up to pitch the game. Several other starters were given the night off with the result being a 4-3 Nationals victory.
I think it is bad luck, bad karma, or whatever, to not do your best to win every game. The probable thought at the Washington game was to give the starters some rest so they would be ready for the important stretch of games against Pittsburgh, Chicago and Cincinatti. They were so rested, however, that they only won two of 10 games, the first time all year they have played that badly for that long.
The Cards now have a small lead with 19 games left. The good news is that Matt Adams is finally back after an injury in May. He pinch hit Sunday and blasted a home run that contributed to the win. He was replaced after his injury in May by two first baseman who have both been having trouble batting over .200, so Adams, if he is really back, could make a big difference. There are rumors that both Matt Holliday and Adam Wainwright, both All-Star players, will soon be back in the lineup.
In the NL East, New York has built a nine-game lead and are looking good for a division title. Los Angeles has been maintaining their lead in the NL West. Over in the American League, Kansas City looks to coast to victory in the Central with Toronto keeping a small lead over the Yankees in the East with Houston barely ahead of Texas in the West with Los Angeles close behind.
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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 09/16/2015