PEA RIDGE 30, SHILOH CHRISTIAN 24
PEA RIDGE -- As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Pea Ridge fans debated storming the field before deciding against it.
It would have been understandable if they had.
[HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD: Full results + recaps, photos and more]
Pea Ridge earned the school's first trip to the state championship game by holding off 4A-1 Conference rival Shiloh Christian 30-24 on Friday night in a state semifinal game at Blackhawks Stadium.
Pea Ridge (13-1) will take on Warren at 7 p.m. Friday in War Memoria Stadium in Little Rock. Warren knocked off Prairie Grove in the other semifinal.
The Blackhawks made two second-half touchdowns stand up by shutting out Shiloh Christian (11-3) in the second half as the Pea Ridge defense turned in several crucial stops late in the game.
The biggest came with just under five minutes left when Pea Ridge stopped the Saints short on a fourth-and-7play at the Blackhawks' 22, clinging to a six-point lead.
"That was the season," Pea Ridge coach Stephen Neal said. "We knew if we could come up with a stop there, we could maybe get the ball out and run the clock down some, and we did.
"But it wasn't just that play. It was play-after-play-after-play tonight."
Pea Ridge trailed 24-17 at halftime after Shiloh Christian's Patrick Williams kicked a 27-yard field goal just before intermission. It could have been worse, but the Blackhawks clamped down after Shiloh Christian moved inside the 15 on a 10-yard keeper by quarterback Connor Reece.
The Blackhawks' Justin Koon made a big play on the second-half kickoff as the sophomore went high to catch an attempted onside kick, giving Pea Ridge the ball at the Saints' 43. Three plays later Drew Winn ran 24 yards for a touchdown, tying the game at 24-24 with 10:47 left in the third quarter.
"That was huge, a huge drive," Neal said. "They had the momentum going in at halftime. We figured we could run the ball a little bit on them, but that was a huge deal. Koon recovering that onside kick was big to give us that great field position."
Pea Ridge had a chance to take the lead late in the third quarter, but missed a short field goal try. The Blackhawks also had a 100-yard interception return by Winn negated by a penalty at the end of the third quarter.
But the Blackhawks managed to take the lead early in the fourth quarter, marching 85 yards in 8 plays, keyed by an 18-yard pass from Jakota Sainsbury to Hayden Holtgrewe, and Winn capped the drive with a 31-yard run up the middle and a 30-24 lead.
A missed PAT on that touchdown loomed large when the Saints moved from their 40 to inside the Pea Ridge 20 with a little more than five minutes left. Reece and Broc Berus keyed the drive and a 5-yard run by Berus moved the ball to the Pea Ridge 25.
After Berus gained 7 to the Pea Ridge 18, he was dropped for a 4-yard loss on third down. On fourth and 7, Reece's pass to Jaret Russ resulted in a 3-yard loss and Pea Ridge took over.
"We never really thought about [a field goal]," Shiloh Christian Coach Jeff Conaway said. "Our offense has been real explosive all year long and we felt like we needed to get a touchdown early because three points were not going to win it. We need a touchdown and we lost by six."
The Blackhawks moved to the Shiloh Christian 40 before punting the ball away as Pickthall's punt pinned the Saints back at their own 9 with no timeouts left and under a minute to play. Reece hit Berus for 26 yards, but Seth Trammell came up with two big sacks of Reece and the clock ran out.
Sports on 12/03/2016