Bentonville pummels Fort Smith Southside
BENTONVILLE 46, FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 7
BENTONVILLE — With its two top receivers out of action Friday night, Bentonville knew it needed other players to rise to the occasion.
There were more than enough contributors as the Tigers extended their 7A-West Conference win streak to 34 games with a 46-7 romp over winless Fort Smith Southside at Tiger Stadium.
Josh Ficklin ran for three touchdowns despite limited action, and three other players added a touchdown apiece as Bentonville (4-1, 2-0 7A-West) built a 39-0 lead and cruised from there.
“We had some new faces that had an opportunity to come out and perform, and they did,” Bentonville Coach Jody Grant said. “I’m proud of them. You think of Que Brown, a sophomore who has been getting better for us in JV nights, and he gets an opportunity and catches a few balls and does some good things.
“It was good to get some new faces out there and get some experience. You never know how these games will turn out. With some new faces out there, it was kind of like ‘let’s see where this goes.’ But we also know these are talented, young players, and they are the future of our program.”
C.J. Brown, Bentonville’s third receiver, emerged as starters Chas Nimrod and Cooper Smith were held out of the game because of injury precautions. He finished with six receptions for 88 yards and a touchdown, while Que Brown caught three passes for 61 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Carter Nye.
Ficklin added three rushing touchdowns but didn’t surpass the 100-yard rushing mark for the first time in five games this season. Instead, Sean Anderson had 122 yards on 20 carries, while Chris Collier-Surly ripped off a 53-yard touchdown run in the final minute and finished with 101 yards on nine carries.
“We wanted to score and score fast for our kids’ sake,” Grant said. “We told them ‘let’s not go backward and let’s not punt,’ and we did that on our first series. So we had a little gathering to get that right, and we operated really clean.”
Ficklin broke off a 35-yard touchdown run for Bentonville’s first score, then his 5-yard touchdown run gave Bentonville an early 14-0 cushion five plays after Zander McCage recovered a Southside fumble. Logan Tymeson added a 25-yard field goal, then a blocked punt set up Drew Wright’s 29-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Brown for a 24-0 Tiger cushion after one quarter.
Bentonville made it 39-0 as Ficklin scored from a yard out, then Nye — who finished with 148 yards on 8-of-10 passing — connected with Que Brown with another score. The Tigers’ defense, meanwhile, held a pass-oriented Southside offense to just three completions and 4 yards passing in the first half, with the Mavericks’ only score coming on Amir Dingle’s 5-yard run midway through the fourth quarter.
“Kudos to our DBs and our guys that went out and covered,” Grant said. “That quarterback [David Sorg] is really talented, and he has a big, strong arm. He’s good at going through his progressions and he has some good receivers. For us to do that was very impressive.”