'Hawks host Pioneers to begin district play

It all starts to count this week with Gentry coming to town to test the state's number No. 1 4A team.

The Pioneers haven't had much success with Pea Ridge, losing six of the last seven starts to the Blackhawks. Last year's game saw Pea Ridge open district play with a 50-21 victory over their cross county rivals.

With Pea Ridge coming off a grinding 24-7 win over the 5A Farmington Cardinals, the Pioneers suffered a 76-71 scorefest setback against 3A Greenland.

The Pioneers are led by 6'4" senior quarterback Jon Faulkenberry. A three-year starter in that position, the lanky signal caller carried the team against the Pirates, accounting for an astounding 467 total offensive yards of the team's overall total of 512.

Faulkenberry had a 127 quarterback rating for the Greenland game, and it would appear that if the Pioneers hope to spring the big upset, it will involve Faulkenberry either passing the ball or running it. He picked up 170 yards on the ground against the Pirates with 297 more yards through the air.

Pea Ridge will counter with a multitude of weapons. Game breaker receivers Jordan Witcher and Hayden Holtgrewe will provide headaches for defensive backs with Jakota Sainsbury having two elusive targets to throw to, and there is always the specter of Drew Winn breaking loose for long runs.

The Blackhawk defense has steadily been making strides in the three games played thus far. A bunch of players have seen significant playing time with points allowed over the last three games shrinking from 30 to 19 to 7.

The Pioneers will find the offensive going much tougher than last week, and they will be faced with a much more potent offense than they have seen all year. Gentry has a good team, but without the depth that is sorely needed by any team wanting to make a run to a championship or a run into the playoffs, they will have their problems breaking into the upper tier of the conference.

4A-1 teams split final

non-conference tilts

The richer get richer and the poor get poorer.

The top four ranked teams in the 4A-1 district recorded victories in the final week of non-conference action with the second tier teams taking it on the chin.

On perhaps the most interesting game of the evening, Gentry fell to the Greenland Pirates by a 76-71 count. No, they weren't playing basketball.

The two teams were tied 21-21 after one period, with Greenland surging to a 49-35 lead by intermission. The Pioneers came back in the third quarter to tie it up at 56-56 going into the last quarter. The Pirates then outscored the Pioneers to take a narrow 5 point win. I think that Gentry may have set some kind of record for the most points ever scored in a loss.

The Prairie Grove game with West Fork was predictable, as the south Washington County Tigers were bulldozed by the west Washington County Tigers by a 40-6. Prairie Grove played the whole second half with reserves with the result that no further scoring was recorded. That meant that there was no mercy rule invoked to shorten the game, with Prairie Grove 1 point short of triggering that event.

It was a weird game at Lincoln, with the Wolves getting run over by winless Mansfield in the first half, losing 27-0 at the half. Lincoln came boiling out of the locker room to rack up 21 points in the third quarter to climb to within six. The Wolves outscored Mansfield 15-12 in the final quarter but it wasn't enough to pull out the win.

Winless Gravette is winless no more, taking down 2-0 Jay by a score of 26-7. Gravette led at the half 19-7 then added an insurance score in the fourth quarter. Jay gave up three interceptions that greatly aided the Lions. Lion tailback Austin OBrien picked up 144 yards on 21 carries to pace the team.

Shiloh was favored to beat Pottsville and they destroyed the Apaches, winning 49-0. Shiloh was without their best tailback (ankle injury) so they countered with 11 different ball carriers, none having more than five carries. Eight different receivers caught passes, with the private school boys racking up 473 yards of offense.

Huntsville lost a close one to Elkins by a 38-33 score. The Eagles led 13-8 after one period, but fell behind 22-19 at the half. Huntsville outscored the Elks 13-8 in the fourth, but were outscored 11-8 in the third period.

Games around the

district and state Friday

This is the first week of conference play and now the games have impact on the upcoming state playoffs set to begin in November.

There will be three other 4A-1 league games this week in addition to the Pea Ridge/Gentry dust up.

The first game will see the top half of the conference playing the bottom half. Last year's results saw the elite four whipping the lower four by an average of more than 30 points per contest. Prognosticators predict the same results for this season.

Shiloh will be hosting Berryville with the private school boys seeking to add to their eight-in-a-row victory streak against the Bobcats. Included in that streak was the infamous 65-0 beatdown Shiloh inflicted on Berryville in 2008. That contest saw players and boosters from the Springdale school exhibit unsportsmanlike conduct on such a grand scale, it eventually led to the 4A-1 expelling Shiloh from district junior high athletics with the high school making a disastrous two year move up into the 5A classification.

Gravette will hoping to even their season record to 2-2 with a win over 1-2 Lincoln. Gravette whipped the Wolves 33-0 last year in Lincoln.

Huntsville will be hosting defending league champion Prairie Grove, having lost eight in a row to the Tigers. The Eagles lost 41-12 in 2016, and are averaging losing to Prairie Grove by about 30 points per contest. Don't look for that tendency to change.

In other games with statewide import, Nashville invades Arkadelphia, Batesville Southside hosts Stuttgart and Fountain Lake will be at home against Robinson.

Nashville has long dominated the 4A-7 but that may be about to end on this first week of district competition. The Scrappers have one of the most potent offenses in the state, averaging 51 points per game. However, they still have defensive shortcomings, surrendering 33 points per. Arkadelphia has offensive muscle, averaging 44 points per outing, but they are allowing a big fat zero from their opponents so far in 2017.

Stuttgart has won all 11 games with Batesville Southside, dating back to the first year Southside had a football team in 2005. The Southerners had a very young team in 2016, finished third in the 4A-3 but managed to whip the conference champion toward the end of the season. They are rolling so far at 3-0 and just might change the district landscape with an upset win over the Ricebirds.

Fountain Lake hosts Robinson in an important game to the rankings. Robinson has a lot of talent, but they always do. They can never seem to put it together when they really need to. The game is a 4A-7 contest, with the league certain to place five strong teams into the playoffs.

MaxPreps/CBS 4A state football poll

Pea Ridge retains the top spot, Warren rises a bit to knock Prairie Grove out of second, with Shiloh edging up a bit to the sixth slot. Gravette made the biggest jump of any 4A school, rising eight spots to the 17th position.

The four other 4A-1 members sank in the rankings, with Gentry dropping five spots as did Huntsville with both teams losing to 3A teams. Lincoln fell six positions with Berryville dropping three to near the bottom of the 4A.

Baptist Prep hung on to their ranking as the worst 4A team in the state. With their basketball team the defending 4A state basketball champion, you would think there would be some carry over sport to sport.

The 4a state rankings

1. Pea Ridge^3-0

2. Warren^2-1

3. Prairie Grove^3-0

4. Arkadelphia^3-0

5. Ashdown^3-0

6. Shiloh^3-0

7. Robinson^3-0

8. Booneville^2-1

9. Mena^3-0

10. Ozark^2-1

11. Riverview^3-0

12. Nashville^2-1

13. West Helena^3-0

14. Dardanelle^2-1

15. SS Batesville^3-0

16. Stuttgart^1-2

17. Gravette^1-2

18. Hamburg^1-2

19. Pottsville^2-1

20. Trumann^3-0

21. Dover^3-0

22. Fountain^Lake 2-1

23. Malvern^1-2

24. Heber Springs^1-2

25. Star City^1-2

26. Bauxite^2-1

27. Monticello^1-2

28. Gosnell^0-3

29. Waldron^2-1

30. Dumas^1-2

31. Pocahontas^1-2

32. Brookland^3-0

33. Westside^2-1

34. Dollarway^0-2

35. Lonoke^1-2

36. Gentry^2-1

37. Huntsville^1-2

38. Crossett^0-3

39. DeWitt^1-2

40. Lincoln^1-2

41. Cen. Arkansas^0-3

42. Highland^0-3

43. Harrisburg^2-1

44. Berryville^1-2

45. West Fork^0-3

46.Cave City^0-3

47. Baptist Prep^0-3

48. Subiaco^1-2

•••

Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. The art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, he coaches elementary school children in 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 09/20/2017