Southside scores in bunches in rout

FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 52, ROGERS HERITAGE 22

ROGERS — Fort Smith Southside scored on its first four possessions and added two defensive touchdowns en route to a 52-22 victory over Rogers Heritage on Friday night at Gates Stadium.

Senior Ricardo Savoy took a swing pass on the Mavericks’ first play from scrimmage and broke it 61 yards for a touchdown 16 seconds into the game.

Savoy and quarterback Taye Gatewood formed a potent 1-2 punch for Southside (2-1), which bounced back after last week’s loss to Greenwood. Savoy rolled up 221 yards of total offense, including 160 rushing, and scored 2 touchdowns. Gatewood threw for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns, and ran for 2 more.

Southside Coach Jeff Williams said his team did exactly what he hoped it would do, which includes Savoy and Gatewood.

“Both of those guys are big-time threats,” Williams said. “Taye’s done a great job for us the last two years. Ricardo had a huge night.

“We talked about getting off to a quick start all week. Offensively, we moved the ball really well. We still have some foolish penalties we have to get cleaned up going into conference play. I thought our team progressed from last week to this week, and that’s the key to the whole season.”

It’s a familiar story for Rogers Heritage Coach Tony Travis, whose team has fallen behind early in each of its first three games.

“Not the way you want to start the game,” said Travis, whose team fell to 0-3. “My thought is this: ‘Yeah, their fast. We can replicate that in practice.’ But we’ve played [Fort Smith] Northside and [Little Rock] Central who have great speed. It’s no excuse. We’ve seen it.

“We didn’t have the energy we needed on play one. It wasn’t a matter of speed. It was a matter of are we focused in and locked in on what we’re doing. We had more good moments than we had the first two games. We just have to put more of those together.”

Southside cornerback Jaylin Coleman picked off Rogers Heritage quarterback Zac Brown twice and returned them both for touchdowns of 78 and 69 yards as the Mavericks led 31-0 after one quarter.

Rogers Heritage (0-3) scored twice in the second quarter aided by Griffin Brown’s interception. The junior linebacker returned the pick to the Southside 1. Brett Lemmond scored on the next play to get the War Eagles within 45-15 with 22 seconds left in the half.

Brown accounted for 171 yards of total offense for the War Eagles, including 88 on the ground and a touchdown.