Class 5A/4A report

— Panthers winners in wild game

Steven Janski said it was "the wildest game I've been involved with."

With a basketball-like score of Heber Springs 76, Southside Batesville 48, it's hard to argue that point.

The Heber Springs coach watched in dismay as Southside compiled more than 500 yards of total offense, but his team still managed a 28-point 4A-2 conference victory.

"We were fighting for our lives," said Janski, whose team improved to 4-4, 2-3 in the 4A-2 Conference. "We had a problem stopping them.

They scored on all but threepossessions and we were never ahead by more than 20 until the final minutes."

Both teams had their share of standouts.

Southside quarterback Dean Rawlings completed 21 of 30 passes for 339 yards and 3 touchdowns and Southerners running back Richard Hughes ran 22 times for 158 yards and had 144 yards on kick returns.

Heber Springs running backs Braylon Mitchell (15 carries, 176 yards) and Ryan Grist (16 carries, 147 yards) combined for six touchdowns.

Janski said Southside (2-6, 0-5) pulled off one of the most amazing high school plays he had ever seen. The Southerners attempted a hook-and-ladder play. Janski said the pass was tipped by one of the Heber Springs players, but caught by Southside's David Landers.

Landers then tossed the ball while falling down to teammate Justin Moser, who scored after taking the lateral.

"It was a great game for our fans," Janski said. "But for our players and coaches, we were exhausted."

The game lasted 3 hours and12 minutes.

"I was miserable while it was going on," Janski said.

"Nothing against Southside, but I thought we could have done a better job defensively."

Janski said he was been made more miserable by the fact that unbeaten Newport is next on the Panthers' schedule.

"That kept crossing my mind every time one of Southside's players broke loose," Janski said. "Newport's got a lot of speed."

The record for the most combined points in a game is 145, which was set in 2006 when East Poinsett County defeated Hughes 73-72.

FAIRVIEW No surprise here

Camden Fairview has scored 41 or more points in its past seven games, but that comes as no surprise to Cardinals Coach Buck James.

"We've got a lot of weapons," James said. "We have five guys who can score almost anytime they touch the ball."

Fairview's latest victim was Hope, which entered last week's game having given uponly an average of 10.4 points a game, the best average of any Class 5A team. While Fairview was without star halfback DeAnthony Curtis, the Cardinals still managed to roll up 319 yards on the Bobcats.

"I'm surprised we did that without DeAnthony," James said.

What James was not surprised about was the play of quarterback Jim Youngblood, who completed 20 of 32 passes for 205 yards and 3 touchdowns.

"Jim has never gotten the credit he deserves," James said.

"He completed 20 passes and he had seven more that were dropped. I'm talking right in the hands dropped. Jim was right on the money on Friday."

Receiver Corey Bailey caught all three of Youngblood's touchdown passes and finished with 11 catches for 125 yards. Jonathon Browning ran for a team-high 61 yards on 12 carries, scoring on two of those runs.

James said Curtis has been cleared to play Friday, but the decision to play Curtis has not yet been made. Curtis is the Cardinals' leading rusher with 658 yards on 68 attempts for anaverage of 9.7 yards a carry.

Fairview (8-0, 5-0) hopes to continue its winning ways Friday against Hot Springs Lakeside.

"You have to beat Hot Springs Lakeside because they aren't going to beat themselves," James said. "We may outplay them, but they're not going to play poorly.

They've played good solid football all year."HOT SPRINGS

Playoff-bound Trojans

Hot Springs Coach Bill Timmons said he usually does not want his players to watch too much video of the Trojans' opponents, but the Trojans coach said he's made an exception for Friday's game against Little Rock Fair.

"There are a lot of things on film you can't really see," Timmons said. "You can't tell how quick a team is by watching a tape on them, but we showed them Fair. We let them watch as much Fair as they wanted to watch. Fair is physical and if our guys aren't worried about Fair and if our guys don't have their minds on Fair, then we aren't deserving of anything."

The Trojans (6-2, 4-1) have won five of their past six games and have qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2002. A victory Friday would set up a conference championship game against Camden Fairview on Nov. 2.

"We need to win on Friday," Timmons said. "We can't worry about two weeks from now. But we've got a lot of seniors who are three-year starters who have been working for this. To have a chance at a game like next week, we can't allow ourselves to slip up."

Fair (2-6, 1-4) is coming off a 28-26 loss to Malvern.

"Fair is one of the more athletic teams in this conference," Timmons said. "They're really scary to me. If they put it together, and I know they'recapable of doing just that, they could be really something."

Jeremiah Maglero has been a threat for Hot Springs as both a runner and a receiver this season. Maglero has rushed 90 times for 571 yards and 13 touchdowns and has caught 51 passes for 782 yards and another 6 touchdowns.

Quarterback Dezhe Willis has completed 89 of 174 passes for 1,350 yards and 11 touchdowns. Mario Goines has been the team's leading tackler with 81.

WHITE HALL

A tie turns into a loss

It's not enough that White Hall is holding at 1-6-1 a year after an 11-victory season. Now, the Bulldogs are looking at that record falling to 1-7.

White Hall Coach Mike Vaughn confirmed that the program has reported itself to the Arkansas Activities Association for an unspecified misinterpretation of rules in its nonconference game against Sheridan, which ended in a tie.

Vaughn said the violation does not relate to players or player eligibility, and that it should not affect the team for the rest of the season. As of Wednesday, Vaughn was still awaiting an official ruling from the AAA.

"It's not a big deal, so we fixed it," Vaughn said.

Count it as another rough patch for a team that lost 10 offensive starters and eight defensive starters from a year ago.

"Oh man, can you imagine?" Vaughn said. "Sometimes it happens. You have good years and bad years. We never dreamed it would be like this." - Doug CriseHigh-scoring affairs A list of the highest-scoring games in 2007: 124 Heber Springs 76, SS Batesville 48 104 LR Christian 55, Siloam Springs 49 99 Foreman 50, Horatio 49 96 CAC 61, Fountain Lake 35 95 Fairview 54, Malvern 41 91 Murfreesboro 50, Jessieville 41

Sports, Pages 20 on 10/25/2007

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