The 'Hawks' big win last Friday cleared a little haze from the playoff picture, but the Birds still have to go to Shiloh in November to seal the deal.
Pea Ridge is alone in first place at present with a 4-0 record with Shiloh and Prairie Grove right behind with 3-1 marks. With the three bottom teams of the league on the Tigers menu for the last 3 games, Prairie Grove looks like a lock to finish 6-1 for the conference season.
Shiloh has Lincoln this week, but has to go to Gravette the next week in what could be a trap game for the privateers. O'Brien will get a lot of yards for the Lions on the ground against Shiloh and if Gravette could somehow slow down Shiloh's air attack, they could have a chance.
The Springdale boys will likely win, though, and host the Hawks in a big stakes game. Shiloh lost the Prairie Grove game by more than 13, so they have no shot at the No. 1 seed. Even if they beat the 'Hawks by 13+, it would only gain them the No. 2 seed.
The Blackhawks, on the other hand, can just simply win and the top seed is theirs. Lose by 4 or less, and the top seed is still theirs according to the point differential the AAA has in place.
Gravette will almost certainly grab the No. 4 seed, and if they could spring the upset on Shiloh, they could walk away with the third seed. Gentry is looking like a very likely fifth and last seed playoff qualifier.
Besides the big game in Pea Ridge last week, three other league games were played Friday.
Shiloh broke open a close game in the second quarter scoring three times to take a 28-0 lead over Gentry. They built their lead to 38-0 before allowing a Gentry touchdown in the games last 38 seconds. Gentry got into the red zone three times in the first half but were stymied by mistakes and dropped passes to come up empty.
Lincoln evened their league mark at 2-2 with a narrow 35-28 win over Huntsville, who sank to 0-4 in this their last year in 4A football, moving up to 5A in 2018. Huntsville led by a point, 28-27 in the fourth, and had a dropped pass that could have scored in their narrow loss.
Gravette ran over hapless Berryville 37-7. O'Brien scored five times and gained 195 yards in the win.
This week in the 1-4A: Pea Ridge will be at Berryville with Gravette visiting Huntsville. Gentry will have the unenviable task of visiting a motivated Prairie Grove team with Lincoln rounding out the schedule by visiting Shiloh. Another week of the top four conference teams battling the bottom four.
Across the state
There are two games this week with great playoff implications.
First of all, Dardanelle will be visiting Booneville with the 4-4A conference championship likely landing in the lap of the victor. Both teams are 4-0 heading into the fray. The 4-4A District has the top bracket spot on one side of the playoff seedings, meaning that the district champion will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
This may affect the 1-4A champion if both the 4-4A and 1-4A champions win the first two rounds. That would place the quarter-final game in either Dardanelle or Booneville with our local champ having to make the trip. Of course, upsets along the way would scramble that equation.
Down south, Ashdown will be at Arkadelphia with a lot on the line there as well. If Ashdown can beat Arkadelphia, it will give them a shot at the last undefeated team in the 7-4A in Robinson. Robinson has already defeated Arkadelphia, so an Ashdown loss will make the Senators from Little Rock nigh on to unstoppable in winning the league crown.
An Arkadelphia win will probably almost lock down a No. 2 seed for the Badgers.
Batesville Southside should cruise to the 2-4A title, with Warren a runaway winner in the 8-4A. Gosnell has the inside track to the championship of the weakest district of the 4A, the 3-4A.
Has the 7A been flipped
Bentonville has been the large school world's King Kong over the past decade or so, and when the school decided to split the high school and build Bentonville West, it was commonly thought that was the end of the football domination of Benton County.
Reading the Sunday sports and seeing the 7A West standings was a bit shocking. Bentonville and the upstart Bentonville West enjoy a two-game lead of the district with games against the Rogers high schools over the next two weeks. They will wind up the season with Bentonville West hosting Bentonville in the Bentonville High School stadium.
It appears they have already locked up the district crown for someone from Bentonville. Even if they lost a game against a Rogers team, very unlikely, they would still have the tiebreakers against also-rans Fayetteville and HarBer. What would be even greater would be for there to be an all-Bentonville game in the state finals, something that very well could play out. Who knew?
Hawks stay on top
in Gazette poll
Prairie Grove moved down, Batesville Southside moved up but the 'Hawks stayed on top in the Democrat-Gazette 4A football poll. This was the sixth straight week the Blackhawks have been the state's biggest newspaper's top-ranked team
Over in the Hootens Poll, nothing changed at all. Warren and Pea Ridge have been ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in that order since last December.
In the MaxPreps/CBS 4A poll, the 'Hawks jumped up three places to third. Robinson was the top team in that poll for the second straight week, with four other teams having been atop that poll in previous editions this fall, including Pea Ridge.
Democrat-Gazette 4A poll
1. Pea Ridge^7-0
2. Warren^6-1
3. Robinson^7-0
4. SS Batesville^7-0
5. Prairie Grove^6-1
6. Arkadelphia^6-1
Hooten's 4A poll
1. Warren^6-1
2. Pea Ridge^7-0
3. Robinson^7-0
4. Arkadelphia^6-1
5. Prairie Grove^6-1
6. Ashdown^6-1
MaxPreps/CBS 4A poll
1. Robinson^7-0
2. Arkadelphia^6-1
3. Pea Ridge^7-0
4. Warren^6-1
5. Prairie Grove^6-1
6. Ashdown^6-1
7. Nashville^4-3
8. Booneville^6-1
9. Shiloh^5-2
10. Southside^7-0
11. Dardanelle^6-1
12. Stuttgart^4-3
13. Riverview^5-2
14. Ozark^5-2
15. Gravette^3-4
16. Bauxite^4-3
17. Central^6-1
18. Fountain Lake^3-4
19. Trumann^6-1
20. Gosnell^4-3
21. Pottsville^4-3
22. Hamburg^4-3
23. Heber Springs^4-3
24. Malvern^2-5
25. Dumas^4-3
•••
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. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 10/18/2017