Football: Pea Ridge advances past Hamburg

PEA RIDGE -- Drew Winn's last carry Friday night wasn't highlight-reel exciting, just a basic seven-yard touchdown run that put Friday's playoff game out of reach.

Over the course of this season, the Pea Ridge senior has had plenty of electric runs in reaching the end zone 29 times, but this one is something he will always remember because of the milestone it achieved.

Pea Ridge 37, Hamburg 7

Hamburg^0^0^0^7^—^7

Pea Ridge^0^24^13^0^—^37

Second Quarter

Pea — Holtgrewe 28 pass from Sainsbury (Green kick), 10:46.

Pea — Holtgrewe 19 pass from Sainsbury (Green kick), 8:12.

Pea — Winn 26 run (Green kick), 3:11.

Pea — FG Reyes 35, :54.

Third Quarter

Pea — Pickthall 46 pass from Sainsbury (Kick failed), 7:38.

Pea — Winn 7 run (Green kick), 5:18.

Fourth Quarter

Ham — Forrest 16 pass from Kelly (Lemus kick), 10:28.

Winn's fourth-quarter score sealed the Blackhawks' 37-7 win against Hamburg in a Class 4A second-round game, but it also moved him over the 2,000-yard mark for the season.

"It did?" Winn asked when told of the milestone after the game. "I didn't know that. That was one of my goals, so I'm excited to hear that."

Winn needed 106 yards coming into the game to eclipse the 2,000-yard plateau and the seven-yard touchdown gave him 107 yards for the game against a Hamburg defense that keyed on him the entire game after Winn tore the Lions up for 170 yards and four touchdowns when the teams met earlier this season.

With Hamburg (6-6) focused on keeping Winn in check, that opened up the Pea Ridge offense for other players and several benefited as quarterback Jakota Sainsbury fired three touchdown passes and Robby Pickthall rushed for 73 yards and caught a 46-yard touchdown pass to spark the win.

"Robby was running hard and he got himself some yards," Winn said. "He was getting some hard yards, too."

The Blackhawks (11-1) overcame early offensive mistakes that kept them off the scoreboard in the first quarter as the defense dominated Hamburg. In the first half, the Lions managed just 64 yards of total offense and one first down.

"The defense played great, but field position was also a huge factor with the win tonight," Pea Ridge coach Stephen Neal said. "We were able to hold them to some three-and-outs and the wind helped us get great field position and we were able to take advantage of that."

Pea Ridge got on the scoreboard on its third play of the second quarter when Hayden Holtgrewe laid-out to bring in a Sainsbury pass in the end zone with 10 minutes, 46 seconds left in the quarter. Sainsbury and Holtgrewe hooked up again on the Blackhawks' next possession as Holtgrewe pulled in a pass and wheeled around for a 19-yard score and a 14-0 lead.

Winn added a 26-yard touchdown run, and Luis Reyes drilled a 35-yard field goal later in the quarter to send the Blackhawks into halftime with a 24-0 lead.

Sainsbury connected on his third touchdown pass of the game in the third quarter, a 46-yard strike to Pickthall over the middle, and Winn's milestone touchdown invoked the 35-point mercy rule in the third quarter.

Hamburg got on the board late when Jonathan Kelly hit Allen Forrest on a 16-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

Pea Ridge will hit the road next week to Booneville, a 24-21 winner over Nashville on Friday. Earlier this season the Blackhawks knocked off Booneville 29-19 after trailing 19-0 at one point.

Sports on 11/18/2017

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