Football: Scrimmage roundup

Springdale Har-Ber’s Brock Pounders (1) tries to shake multiple Bixby, Okla., defenders Thursday during a scrimmage at Wildcat Stadium in Springdale.
Springdale Har-Ber’s Brock Pounders (1) tries to shake multiple Bixby, Okla., defenders Thursday during a scrimmage at Wildcat Stadium in Springdale.

Har-Ber edges Bixby in intense scrimmage

SPRINGDALE -- A pair of border state heavyweights fought to the final play of Thursday's one-half scrimmage at Wildcat Stadium.

As the game clock expired, Springdale Har-Ber defensive back Matt Scirto's open-field tackle inside the Wildcats' 10 sealed a 17-10 win against Oklahoma power Bixby. Minus one blemish, coach Chris Wood walked away pleased with the effort.

"Against a real good Bixby group, I thought our defense played really well," he said. "We had the one series with the personal fouls -- and that's unacceptable. But we'll grow from that."

Leading 10-3 midway through the second quarter, Har-Ber was hit with three 15-yard, dead-ball penalties following a kickoff return that ended near the Bixby sideline.

One unnecessary roughness and two unsportsmanlike flags later, the Spartans were inside the Wildcats 20. A handful of plays later, Bixby running back Tucker Pawley knotted the score with under six minutes to play.

But on the ensuing possession, quarterback Grant Allen (117 yards, 2 TD) and the Har-Ber passing game got going. Allen hit Brock Pounders for 20 yards and Bryton Cook for 14, pushing the Wildcats into Bixby territory. A bit of good fortune then intervened as an Allen pass was deflected back into his hands at the Bixby 6, where he gathered himself and scampered in for the game-winning score.

"Offensively, I thought we put some real good possessions together," Wood said. "Yeah, it was kind of a fluke play where we get it batted back into our hands, but I thought our guys were resilient, played hard. We've got a lot of things to get better at, but I liked the resilience of the group."

Pounders finished as Allen's top target in the win, collecting five catches for 64 yards and a touchdown. A penalty negated Pounders' first touchdown grab in the first quarter, but three plays later, Allen found him again to put Har-Ber up 10-3. Nick Parchman also caught a pass for 33 yards.

Special teams played a big role for Har-Ber as well. Wildcats placekicker Jesus Zizumbo was steady throughout the night, regularly booming kickoffs for touchbacks. His 40-yard field goal in the first quarter handed Har-Ber an early 3-0 lead.

And to open the second quarter, Matt Phipps created a turnover, forcing a fumble on Bixby's kickoff return. Recovered by Scirto, the takeaway set up a short field and led the way to Pounders' scoring grab.

-- Scottie Bordelon • @NWAScottie

North Little Rock 41, Bentonville High 18

The beauty of a benefit game, Tigers coach Jody Grant said, is it doesn't count against you.

North Little Rock ran wild in its two-quarter scrimmage against Bentonville Thursday, totaling nearly 300 yards on the ground. Charging Wildcats quarterback David Chapple rushed for three scores and running back John James ran for another 118 yards -- including a 48-yarder on his first touch -- on nine carries in a decisive win.

"I've never seen anything like that from a Bentonville Tiger defense, and I told them that," Grant said following a lengthy postgame speech to his team. "We'll fix that. I didn't really like our effort. When we got down, our kids aren't used to being in a situation like that, and didn't know how to handle it.

"It's my hope that that effort you saw you'll never see again."

Both offenses, though, came storming out of the gate. Bentonville scored on its opening two possessions, once on a 2-yard fade route to star receiver Kam'ron Mays-Hunt and again on Easton Miller's one-yard run. But that's all the offense the Tigers mustered until Tyler Johnson's touchdown catch with two minutes, 20 seconds left.

Miller's touchdown run gave Bentonville a 12-7 lead at the time, but North Little Rock strung together defensive stops and allowed its offense to reel off 34 unanswered points. Chapple was efficient through the air as well, completing 8 of 11 passes for 120 yards and a 51-yard touchdown strike to running back Oscar Addaway.

Mays-Hunt led Bentonville offensively with six catches for 72 yards and a score. Johnson added 47 yards on three grabs.

"We learned a lot about ourselves right there," Grant added. "We're not ready yet. There are a lot of things that are correctable. That's not who we are and what we're about. But that's what these things are for."

-- Scottie Bordelon • @NWAScottie

Russellville 7, Rogers High 3

The Mounties gave up a score in the final two minutes and had three passes to the end zone come up empty -- the final one as time expired -- Thursday evening in a two-quarter varsity scrimmage at Cyclone Stadium.

Rogers struggled offensively much of the night. The Mounties didn't manage a first down in their first three possessions and lost a fumble at the Russsellville 35 on the fourth. Rogers put together its lone scoring drive of the night, after the Mountie defense picked up its third stop on downs of the night.

Rogers kept the drive going on a nice catch by Colin McWhorter for 14 yards on fourth-and-7. Rogers had first down at the Russellville 5. But the Mounties were forced to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Willie Hernandez with 1 minute, 34 seconds left in the second quarter.

However, the Cyclones went 70 yards in five plays for the 7-3 lead in only 30 seconds.

Rogers coach Mike Loyd said his team didn't start well.

"You drop four or five passes to start off the game," Loyd said. "You've got to tackle better. We had opportunities, turned the ball over on a drive. Get down there on the 2 or 3 yard-line, somebody busts. But we're young. We've got to learn, had a breakdown in the secondary on that last drive. You've got to communicate. I just want to find 11 guys [who] are going to compete.

"You can't let a guy come up and strip you. You've got to make a play when you have to. It's just a learning process. At the end of the day, it's about how competitive are you?"

The Rogers defense forced a turnover as a linebacker came up with a fumble inside the Mounties 20 and also held when Russellville missed a 23-yard field goal.

Bentonville West 35, Poteau, Okla. 3

Will Jarrett was as close to perfect as he could be Thursday night in leading the Wolverines to a blowout win on the road in a two-quarter scrimmage.

Jarrett was 11 of 12 passing for 229 yards and five touchdowns as West dominated the scrimmage in their final tune-up before hosting Pryor, Okla., next Friday in the regular season opener.

"We played pretty good," said West coach Bryan Pratt. "We did what you like to see in a scrimmage, which is fly to the ball and execute. We made some key plays on defense, and we passed and caught the ball on offense, which is kind of our deal."

Jarrett spread the ball around to a number of receivers with Stephan Banda leading the way with two catches for 88 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Jackson Prince had two catches for 54 yards, and Jaden Jackson added three catches for 51 yards. Jonas Higson and Koilas Swell also caught touchdown passes.

West's defense held Poteau to just 28 yards of total offense on 27 offensive plays. The Pirates scored on a late field goal.

Linebacker Jason Gloeckler had two interceptions for West, and Caleb McSpadden forced a fumble.

"I like where we are compared to where we were a year ago," said Pratt, whose program opens its second season this year. "I like our mentality and I like our work ethic. But we have to continue to get better. It's a long road and our conference is tough, but compared to where we were a year ago, I like where we are."

Sports on 08/25/2017

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