'Hawks blow away Wolves 62-14

John McGee

Special to The TIMES

The Wolves were huffing and puffing but it was mostly due to chasing so many Blackhawks across their goal line in a 62-14 drubbing administered by host Pea Ridge last Friday in front of a capacity crowd.

The 'Hawks scored on plays covering 23, 29, 50, 64, 74 and 100 yards with two other long scoring plays erased by penalties. Junior Hayden Holtgrewe sparked the onslaught as he scored three touchdowns, two on his six pass receptions that totaled 100 yards, and one interception return that also totaled 100 yards.

Several 'Hawks starred on offense as well with senior Zaine Holley rushing for 173 yards on 12 carries with junior Drew Winn picking up 116 yards on eight runs. Both players scored two touchdowns with both topping the 100-yard mark for the second straight game. Field general Jakota Sainsbury was eight of 12 passing for 147 yards and three touchdowns.

"Well, we played really well," Blackhawk head coach Stephen Neal said, "though we didn't start as fast as I would have liked."

"We will play a pretty good team next week on the road at Gravette. We still have a few things to work on and correct this next week, but this team has always responded well to challenges," Neal said.

The 'Hawks put the Wolves back on their heels on the game's first play after quarterback Jakota Sainsbury was nearly brought down. The slippery junior escaped the defender and threw a strike to Britton Caudill for a 31-yard gainer to the Lincoln 34. Holley burst up the middle for 8 on the next play, followed by a 13-yarder from Sainsbury to Holtgrewe to gain a first down on the Wolves 20.

The 'Hawks then absorbed the first of eight first half penalties that moved them back to the 30. Holley got seven of the yards back on the next play before Sainsbury hooked up with Holtgrewe again, this time covering the 23 yards to the end zone. With 9:32 left in the first quarter, the 'Hawks assumed a 6-0 lead.

Lincoln quarterback Swain demonstrated why he was an all-conference pick last fall, connecting on passes of 19 and 11 to Brent Crews and Braden Umberson to pick up 30 yards and a first down on the 'Hawk 30. The drive ran out of steam when Wolf runners gained but 9 yards on four plays to turn the ball over on downs on the Pea Ridge 21.

The 'Hawks shot themselves in the foot by drawing two penalties on three plays to back them up third and 21 on the 'Hawk 10. Lincoln's Umberson anticipated the third down pass, swiping it at the 30. Lincoln still had difficulty running the ball, picking up just 3 yards on three carries but Swain rescued them by hitting three of four passes for 26 yards and first down on the 'Hawk 1.

It looked like the 'Hawks were going to produce another one of their goal line stands that they have so successful with this season. On first down, the 'Hawks' Brett Scott stopped Swain for a 1-yard loss. On second down, Jacob Torres broke through to sack Swain for an 8-yard loss and on the next play, Holtgrewe tipped away a pass that would have gone for a score, forcing the Wolves into a fourth down play from the 15. Just as two 'Hawks converged on the Lincoln quarterback, Swain managed to barely get off a pass which was caught by Lloyd in the end zone for a touchdown. Their kick was good to give the visitors a surprising 7-6 lead with 2:02 left in the opening quarter.

On the kickoff, it looked like the Wolves lead was to last but for a few seconds as Carson Rhine scampered down the east sidelines 70 yards to the end zone to electrify the Blackhawk faithful. However, yellow flags were flying and the run was erased.

Undaunted, and even before all the fans could sit back down, Holley took the next snap from the 'Hawk 26 and shot through the Lincoln defense to sprint 74 yards to paydirt to regain the lead. Sansbury connected with Holtgrewe on the PAT to push the 'Hawks ahead 14-7 with 1:24 to go.

The plays by Rhine and Holley seemed to light a fire under the 'Hawks as they ratcheted up their game. On the kickoff to Lincoln, Torres made a great tackle to pin the Wolves back at their 24 to start their possession. The 'Hawk defense was swarming and forced their guests to punt after three plays. The rush the 'Hawks put on Lincoln helped lead to a shanked punt which traveled only 3 yards and gave Pea Ridge excellent field position at the Wolves 34.

Holley went halfway to the goal line on the first play, traveling 16 yards to the 18. Winn picked up 7 yards on the next play with Holley carrying again for 5 yards to the Lincoln 6. Two plays later, Holley scored his second touchdown on a 6-yard run with 10:34 left in the half. Nathan Spencer split the uprights to pad the lead to 21-7.

The ensuing kickoff pinned Lincoln back to their own 10. They finally got a little success on the ground with Swain gaining 6 yards twice on keepers, but the 'Hawks regained possession when Winn leaped high to outjump a Lincoln receiver for a pass, intercepting it on the Wolves 45.

Holley was rolling like a freight train as he ripped off two consecutive runs of 12 yards for a first down on the Lincoln 21. An 18-yard pass from Sainsbury to Holtgrewe netted 18 yards and Winn finished off the short drive with a 3-yard run to paydirt. Spencer came on to successfully boot the PAT, lifting the lead to 28-7 with 5:35 left in the half.

Starting from their own 33, Lincoln tried again to establish their ground game but only got 2 yards on three carries. Swain hit Cruz for 15 yards to the Lincoln 49 but two plays later, Duncan Truesdell intercepted a third down pass and ran the ball back 19 yards to the Lincoln 36.

Pea Ridge kept running afoul of the officials, though, drawing two penalties to get moved back 15 yards for a first and 25 on the 'Hawk 49. Holley got most of it back on two runs totaling 17 yards and a 6-yard pass to Holtgrewe nearly got a first down on the Lincoln 28. Hollley smashed up the middle to gain 3 yards and a fresh set of downs on the 25. A 10-yarder from Sainsbury to Holtgrewe got the 'Hawks another first down on the 15, and Winn outran the defenses for a touchdown on the next play. However, flags flew at the 7 yard line and the score was vacated. After moving the ball back to the 17, it only delayed the score slightly as Sainsbury lofted a pass to Caudill in the end zone for the score. The score left the 'Hawks ahead 34-7 with 0:23 seconds before intermission.

The second half was a bit unusual as the visitors ran 34 offensive plays to the 'Hawks eight plays. The reason mainly being that the 'Hawks defense ran back two of Lincolns passes for scores, keeping the ball with the visitors nearly a whole quarters worth of time.

Though down, Lincoln wasn't going to play defeated, taking the second half kickoff to drive 81 yards to score their second touchdown.

Lincoln came out firing passes, with Swain completing four in a row for 54 yards to the 'Hawk 16. A holding call pushed them back 10 to the 26, but a 7-yard run by Swain and a penalty gave the Wolves a first down on the 14. Jacob Anderson bulled ahead for half the distance to the 7 with Swain finding Umberson open for a yard pass to the end zone. The kick was good to draw Lincoln a bit closer, trailing 34-14 with 8:23 left in the third period.

After beginning their first possession of the second half, the 'Hawks wasted no time, taking less than 2 minutes to get back on the scoreboard. Winn took the first two handoffs for 12 and 7 yards to get the 'Hawks across midfield at the Lincoln 45. Holley broke loose and took the ball to the end zone but another yellow flag flew to wipe out most of the gain. The flag was thrown at the 32 with the 10-yard penalty moving it back to the 42. Robby Pickthal picked the 'Hawks up by slashing for 13 yards and a first down on the Lincoln 29. Sainsbury went to his favorite target Holtgrewe on the next play, resulting in a 29-yard scoring strike. Spencer converted the kick to set the score at 41-14 with 6:47 left in the third.

Lincoln gained only 1 yard in their next possession punting the ball to the 'Hawk 41. After the 'Hawks absorbed their 13th penalty of the game, Winn exploded for 64 yards to activate the Mercy Rule on his second touchdown. Spencer was again accurate on the kick to balloon the lead to 48-14 with 5:39 left in the third period.

After receiving the kickoff, Lincoln got something going, using a pass from Swain to Lloyd for 8 yards followed by runs by Lloyd for 3 and 4 to move the ball to the 50-yard line. At this point, Swain had his best play of the night, threading a pass to Umberson that nearly scored, moving the ball to the 5 before the 'Hawks' Moises Davila saved the play with a leaping tackle.

Proving once again that no matter how close an offense may be to scoring against Pea Ridge, it isn't conceded until they actually cross the goal line. The first two Lincoln runs were stuffed at the line of scrimmage with a third down run resulting in a loss of two yards.

Swain threw it into the end zone on fourth down but an alert Holtgrewe sniffed the play out and darted in front of the receiver to intercept the pass and return it 100 yards to the other end zone for the 'Hawks' eighth touchdown. Spencer was good again and the 'Hawks led 55-14 with 2:06 left in the period.

With the 'Hawk reserves taking over, the Wolves began to make some offensive headway, using runs by Anderson and Christian Crittenden to get close to midfield early in the fourth quarter. Their drive went off the rails when the 'Hawks' Romeo Torres correctly anticipated where a pass was going, sprinted ahead to pick if off in stride and race 50 yards to the end zone. Spencer converted his sixth PAT to set the final score at 62-14.

The points scored was the second most points ever scored by the 'Hawks , with the most being the 72 points the 'Hawks tallied against Gentry last year. The 48-point margin of victory tied the record of a 48-point differential earlier set against Berryville.

The victory improved the 'Hawks' record to 5-0 on the season, matching the 5-0 starts Pea Ridge began with in 2014 and 2015. As in 2015, the next two games, both on the road, will be against two of the top three other teams in the league. The Blackhawks visit Gravette next week and Prairie Grove the following Friday.

Pea Ridge heads into next week's game riding a 12-game regular season road game win streak. While the 'Hawks have an 2-8 record against Gravette since the year 2000, Pea Ridge hasn't lost at Gravette since 2010.

The win against Lincoln helped boost the 'Hawks into the sixth position in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Super Six 4A Poll.

Kick off time for the Gravette game is 7 p.m.