ROGERS -- Rogers Coach Mike Loyd talked in the preseason about how much he liked his group of receivers. They showed why he spoke so highly of them in Tuesday's scrimmage.
Senior Gavin Pitts made a nice grab for a 52-yard touchdown with less than a minute left in the varsity half of the scrimmage to life Rogers to a 21-14 victory over Harrison at Whitey Smith Stadium.
"Several of these guys got thrown into it last year, they weren't ready for varsity and this year they're responding," said Loyd, whose team returns several who saw varsity action on last year's team which won just two games. "They are being the kind of players I think they can be. I thought Pitts absolutely played great. It's great to get Kade Seldomridge out here. I thought he made some big, big plays.
"Joel Garner did some good things. Noah Goodshield got thrown in there as a sophomore. He's improved his speed, his size and obviously his football intelligence, pretty good receiving crew. I feel like we've got five kids who can play there."
[Don't see the video above? Click here watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unyQpf2FMAQ]
Senior quarterback Chris Francisco completed 11 of 14 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns. He spread those 11 completions over four different receivers. Seldomridge, a 5-8 150-pound junior, led the way with five catches for 69 yards.
Harrison, which is trying to replace nine players on each side of the ball from a team that won its third straight 5A-West conference title, took a 14-7 lead with 6 minutes, 10 seconds left on a 3-yard keeper by quarterback Cole Keylon. That was set up by a fantastic catch by Trey Richardson for a 40-yard gain on third-and-long to put the Goblins inside the Rogers 20.
But Rogers responded with a nine-play, 70-yard drive capped by Josh Shepherd's 23-yard run and ensuing PAT for a 14-14 tie. The Mounties defense then came up with a three-and-out setting up the game-winning drive.
That drive took just two plays with Francisco finding Pitts down the middle of the field. Rogers cornerback Collin Chrisman then sealed the deal by picking off Keylon's pass.
Harrison coach Joel Wells saw some positives but also acknowledged his team must get better in areas. He pointed out the Goblins had no real spring practice or summer team camp either though because of the pandemic.
"That was team camp for us," Wells said. "Hey, they got a nice team and they did a nice job. Both teams made some mistakes of which you thought that was gonna happen.
"I thought we threw the ball well. I think we've got to get a little more physical upfront on both sides of the ball. We gotta replace nine on each side."
Keylon, who split time at quarterback last year, completed 8 of 13 passes for 171 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He also ran for Harrison's other score.
Rogers took the early lead on a 44-yard scoring strike from Francisco to Goodshield. But Keylon tied it with a 37-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Block with 2:16 left in the first quarter.
Springdale 21, Shiloh Christian 7
SPRINGDALE -- The Bulldogs showed off an improved run game and senior wide receiver Ladarius Wonsley made several highlight reel catches in Tuesday night's scrimmage at Jarrell Williams Bulldog Stadium.
Shiloh Christian scored first on sophomore Eli Wisdom's 70-yard touchdown strike to Drew Dudley on the Saints' first possession. Dudley got behind the Springdale defense and Wisdom made a perfect pass for the score.
Springdale answered back on its second possession after an interception. Quarterback Landon Phipps hit Wonsley on a fade route for the score that tied the game at 7-7.
"It took us a series on offense and defense to settle down," Springdale coach Zak Clark said. "We run the ball a lot better than we did last year. We got hit in the mouth early on a broken play, they made a good play, but from then on, I thought our defense was pretty dominant."
[Don't see the video above? Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvuf5c7WmIs]
Wonsley, who emerged last season for the Bulldogs, showed why he is one of the top returning players in the 7A-West in the second period. Phipps lofted a fourth-down pass to the right corner of the end zone and Wonsley went up and high-pointed the pass, bringing it in with one hand to give the Bulldogs a 14-7 lead.
Wonsley later added another spectacular catch to help the Bulldogs on their third scoring drive. Wonsley went high to tip a pass from Phipps, then caught the ball flat on his back. Gilberto Dominguez, who had several big runs behind Springdale's big offensive line, capped the drive with a short touchdown run.
Shiloh Christian coach Jeff Conaway said his team took away several positives.
"I thought we competed hard, but the most important thing for us was we came out of the scrimmage injury free," Conaway said. "We had some young guys get some good experience tonight, so we feel good going into next week."
Springdale will open the season at Van Buren next Friday, and Shiloh Christian will host Pea Ridge on Friday. Both games have 7 p.m. kickoffs.
-- Chip Souza
FS Southside 16, Alma 3
The Mavericks ushered in the Kim Dameron era with a fairly crisp scrimmage win over Alma.
"I just wanted to see the offense execute," Dameron said. "I wanted to see the defense run to the ball and tackle. We weren't hardly doing anything on either of the ball (during practice). We wanted them to feel the game day atmosphere a little bit."
Southside, which opens the season Aug. 27 against Fort Smith Northside, took a 6-0 lead on senior Jackson Riddle's 6-yard burst, capping a seven-play, 45-yard scoring drive.
The teams agreed to play one half of football.
Southside drove to the Alma 5 on its next possession before the Airedales' Devin Poole sacked Luke Wyatt. Isaac Banda kicked a 28-yard field goal to make it 9-0.
Sophomore quarterback David Sorg threw a 61-yard touchdown pass to Connor Austin to extend the lead to 16-0.
Alma's Dane Martin added a 33-yard field goal with 1:48 left in the half to account for the Airedales' points.
First-year Alma coach Rusty Bush was happy to be on the field, too. The Airedales do not have a zero week game next week and will open the regular season Sept. 4 at home against Van Buren.
"You kind of want to see where you are," Bush said. "That's a really physical football team (Southside). Up front, they probably out-weighed us 200 of 300 pounds. Defensively, that nose guard (Shawn Rogers) and mike linebacker (Landen Chaffey) are better than anybody we'll see."
-- Kevin Taylor
Paul Boyd can be reached at pboyd@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWAPaulb.