The undefeated and No. 7 in the state Pea Ridge Blackhawks open their conference schedule this Friday at Gentry. Both teams are coming off strong showings in non-conference action with the Pioneers having a 2-1 mark, winning the last two after a season opening loss.
The 'Hawks have a slight edge in games played since the year 2000, with our locals maintaining a 7-5 advantage. The 2015 battle was a wild one with the Pioneers refusing to yield until late in the game in a 72-34 scoring extravaganza. The victory in '15 marked the fourth time in the last five games that the 'Hawks have beaten their cross county rival.
Gentry is led by quarterback Jon Faulkenberry, a sizable signal caller at 6'1" and 200 pounds. While not throwing much to date, the junior field general is the Pioneers' leading rusher after three games. He has completed four passes for about 100 yards this season.
A straight A student, Faulkenberry completed 56 percent of his passes last season for 1,251 yards. He led his team to an upset win over Greenland last week, a team Gentry has had a great deal of trouble beating the past several years. Greenland finished 10-2 last year and were expected to be better this year, currently ranked among the state's top 10 3A teams. The win broke a six-game Greenland winning streak over them.
The Pioneers' track and field program has helped produce a number of running back candidates, with several of them close to 6 feet tall. Regarding their line, their most decorated player is 6'4" 265 lb. junior lineman Mason Clark who was named an all-conference tackle last year as a sophomore. With quite a few 200-plus pounders , the Gentry roster is as deep as it has been in some time with 40 players listed.
Up until now, the Pioneers' bread and butter offense is running the ball with the team averaging more than 340 yards per game this year. Faulkenberry leads their ground assault with an average of 118 yards per week. Miles McFerron (5'9" 200 lbs.) is averaging 60 yards a week toting the pigskin, with Cole Cripps averaging 48 yards per contest while also handling kicking responsibilities. Cripps is averaging 40 yards per punt, one of the best in the league if not the best.
While the defensive game last Friday that Pea Ridge participated in with Farmington brought down their offensive statistic somewhat, it did reveal something important.
Until you cross the goal line against the 'Hawks, there are no certain scores. Turning over the ball that close to the end zone three times would usually mean 21 points for the other team. Against Farmington, they could only muster 7 points from the many golden opportunities.
On the defensive side, the 'Hawks were lights out. According to my stats, which are not official, the first team defensive line is giving up less than two yards per carry to opposing running backs.
It would appear that Gentry's strength lies in running the ball and the Blackhawk's strength lies in stopping the run. Against Farmington, the 'Hawks ran up against larger, taller competitors but it made no difference.
Last Friday was a weird experience with the weather delays and all the mistakes the 'Hawks avoided in the first two games. The game may well have the effect of improving the team's level of play as everyone knew they could have easily lost that game.
I fell quite confident that the 'Hawks' coaching staff will make the adjustments necessary to avoid some of the pitfalls of last Friday. With regards to the officiating, you can never prepare for the things that they brought to the game last week, but on the other hand, I can't imagine another game that will be as poorly officiated.
As they say, officiating is a part of the game and the refs are as human as the coaches and the athletes so mistakes will always be made.
Just hopefully, not as many of them next time.
Conference schools win 7 of 8
The 4A-1 had a great week going into the first week of conference play. The eight member schools won seven of the eight battles, half by large margins.
Prairie Groves' 53-0 dismantling of West Fork was expected but not Lincoln's 51-24 smackdown of Mansfield. Shiloh ran all over Pottsville 48-19 by a bigger than expected margin with Berryville taking down Green Forest 25-3.
Gravette outscored Jay 47-41 in what was supposed to be a close game while Gentry upended the predictions by downing Greenland 19-13.
The only conference school to lose was Huntsville who was blown out by resurgent Elkins 46-16. The Elks continue to amaze. They look destined to have their best team in a very long time and are now considered threats to take the 3A-1 championship.
CBS/MaxPreps 4A State Football Poll
The top two teams in the state (Nashville and Warren) continue to be ranked and rated as the best two teams in 4A again this week..
Ashdown dropped from third to eighth after their loss this week with Shiloh ascending into the third spot after their crushing of Pottsville, a former top 10 team. CAC also fell in the polls, dropping from fourth to 10th while Arkadelphia debuted in the top 10 at the No. 6 spot.
In addition:
MaxPreps State 4A football poll
School won-loss pwr rtg +/-
1. Nashville 3-0 46.6 -2.6
2. Warren 3-0 38.3 -0.7
3. Shiloh 3-0 34.7 +1.6
4. Robinson 3-0 34.5 +1
5. Prairie Grove 3-0 34.4 +2.2
6. Arkadelphia 3-0 25.5 +6
7. Pea Ridge 3-0 24.5 -1
8. Ashdown 2-1 20.8 -9
9. Malvern 2-1 17.7 +4
10. CAC 2-1 15.9 -10
21. Gravette 2-1 1.9 +1.9
34. Gentry 2-1 -9.3 +3
36. Lincoln 1-2 -10.4 +5.1
42. Huntsville 1-2 -14.4 -2
43. Berryville 1-2 -19.5 +4.5
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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. Mr. McGee can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 09/21/2016