PEA RIDGE -- Stephen Neal had three goals he wanted his players to meet before heading into Friday night's matchup with the Farmington Cardinals (2-1): Don't turn the ball over on offense, don't give up big plays on defense and have the Cardinals start each drive inside their own 40.
Barring a long pass play from Farmington late in the game and a fumble that Pea Ridge (1-2) ended up recovering, the Blackhawks met their coach's request in the team's 42-0 win over the Cardinals on Friday night.
Pea Ridge 42, Farmington 0
Farmington 0 0 0 0 — 0
Pea Ridge 7 14 21 0 — 42
First Quarter
Pea – Rains 7 pass from Busey (Reyes kick), 1:55
Second Quarter
Pea – Rhine 47 pass from Busey (Reyes kick), 8:07
Pea – Busey 1 run (Reyes kick), 6:25
Third Quarter
Pea – Ralph 56 pass from Busey (Reyes kick), 7:12
Pea – Rains 44 pass from Busey (Reyes kick), 5:20
Pea – Rains 31 pass from Busey (Reyes kick), :39
Pea Ridge quarterback Tate Busey recorded six total touchdowns -- three of them to receiver Hunter Rains -- and the defense forced four turnovers to lead the Blackhawks to the team's first win of the season.
The Busey-Rains connection proved troublesome for the Farmington defense, which struggled to contain the Pea Ridge offense during the game. The Blackhawks ended up with more than 400 yards of offense on the night with Rains having touchdown plays of 30- and 40-plus yards.
"We've known this about Hunter," Neal said. "I was telling some of the officials tonight that I don't think any of our kids had tackled Hunter before. We've touched him a couple of times, but we've never been able to tackle him. I just blow the whistle real quick in practice so we don't look silly trying to tackle him."
Two of Rains' scores allowed him to show off his playmaking abilities. With a defender in front of him, Rains reeled in the pass against the sideline, and managed to keep his feet in bounds before racing to the end zone for a 44-yard touchdown. On his last touchdown catch, Rains scored after he corralled in a tipped pass from Busey.
"What Hunter did tonight as opposed to what he did in previous games was that he stayed consistent," Neal said. "He had a missed pass early on, but after that, everything just clicked for him."
Neal credits his team's defense for setting up the Cardinals' scoring barrage, he said. Gannon Conrad came away with two fumble recoveries, and Tristin Brewer recorded a strip sack to pace the defense, which held Farmington to less than 200 total yards on offense.
"It was terrible. We had a bad week of preparation," Farmington coach Mike Adams said. "I think we kind of felt good about ourselves, winning the first two games. We didn't prepare, and it played out tonight."
Farmington's offense came close to scoring at the of the game, but a costly interception inside the five-yard line from David Snarr ended the Cardinals' hope to get on the scoreboard.
"We had chances in the passing game and a couple of times we hit receivers, and they just dropped it," Adams said. "Two or three times we had guys wide open for big plays, and we didn't hit them."
Sports on 09/15/2018