FAYETTEVILLE -- Fayetteville provided highlights on offense, defense, and in the kicking game Thursday during a preseason scrimmage against Greenwood at Harmon Field.
Isaiah Sategna and Dylan Kittell each caught a touchdown pass and Kaiden Turner had a sack for a safety as Fayetteville defeated Greenwood 16-7 during two quarters of varsity play.
Sategna caught a 45-yard touchdown pass from Owen McCone for a 7-0 lead for Fayetteville. Bladen Fike then found Kittell, who broke away from a tackle attempt in tight coverage and scored on a 30-yard play.
Turner's sack came late in the second quarter after Thomas Neely pinned Greenwood back with a punt inside the 1.
Fayetteville forced two turnovers and Jayson Johnson was credited with three "sacks" by touching the quarterback without taking him to the ground.
"Our whole defensive staff did a phenomenal job in preparing our kids," Fayetteville coach Casey Dick said. "We played fast and kept it simple, which is great at the beginning of the year. It was fun watching them come out here with emotion and just playing the game."
Fayetteville opens the season Aug. 28 at Conway while Greenwood opens Sept. 4 at Fort Smith Southside.
That game will mark the official head coaching debut for Chris Young, who takes over at Greenwood after Rick Jones left to become a senior consultant on Eli Drinkwitz's football staff at Missouri.
Sategna displayed his big-play potential in the first quarter Thursday when he got behind a Greenwood defender in the middle of the field. McCone spotted him and lofted a 45-yard touchdown to put Fayetteville on the scoreboard.
Later in the half, Palmer overthrew a Fayetteville receiver that could've gone for a score. But he made up for it on the next play when he threw to Kittell, who pulled away for the touchdown and a 14-0 Fayetteville lead.
Greenwood got to within 14-7 when LD Richmond fired a strike in the end zone to Jase Strozier to complete a 14-yard score. But that was all Greenwood could muster in limited varsity action against Fayetteville, which held on downs after the Bulldogs moved inside the 30.
Dylan Osborne intercepted a pass and Ryan Maxwell recovered a fumble to stop two other Greenwood possessions.
McCone took the first snaps and Fike rotated in as the two continue to compete for the starting job after Fayetteville lost two senior quarterbacks to graduation.
Sategna is a track and field star who caught 31 passes for 539 yards as a backup last year as a sophomore. He also took a handoff in the backfield Thursday and picked up about 12 yards on a screen pass from Fike.
Kameron Ingram had a 23-yard run and Maxwell a 35-yard run to complement the Fayetteville passing game.
Bentonville 14, Springdale Har-Ber 7
Drew Wright fired a pair of first-half touchdown passes to lead the Tigers to a 14-7 win in a two-quarter scrimmage at Tiger Stadium.
The two teams were originally scheduled to scrimmage in Tulsa, but they had to reschedule at the last minute.
Wright, a junior, hit Cooper Smith in a 32-yard strike with 5 minutes, 50 seconds left in the first 12-minute session. The score was set up on Wright's 40-yard pass to Chas Nimrod. Later in the period, Wright laced a 21-yard scoring strike to Cade Foster, who tight-roped the back of the end zone to haul in the pass for a 14-0 lead. The drive was set up by a Ty Riley interception.
[Don't see the video above? Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdA4trUX1tg]
"I thought we did some good things," Bentonville coach Jody Grant said. "I thought our third-down conversions were huge. We had a lot of third-and-mids that we completed and I thought our quarterback operated really well. Overall, I thought we did some good things, but we have to be able to run the football more effectively and we have to be able to stop the run."
Har-Ber came out to start the second period and drove 80 yards for its only touchdown. The Wildcats displayed a strong run game as Isaac Cramer and Hudson Brewer had several nice runs. Har-Ber quarterback Drew McClendon fired a perfect pass to Peyton McKee for 59 yards to key the drive, and Hudson capped the possession with a 2-yard touchdown run.
The Har-Ber defense also came up with a big play to prevent a score as Liem Taylor intercepted a Wright pass in the end zone.
"I thought our run defense did a nice job," said Har-Ber coach Chris Wood. "Offensively, I thought we moved the ball well with our run game, so I liked the line of scrimmage from the run game on both sides."
The Wildcats will open the regular season next Friday on the road at Jenks, Okla., and Bentonville will host Liberty, Mo., in the season-opener, also on Friday.
Rick Fires can be reached at rfires@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWARick.