‘Highway 62 Battle’ moves to Tuesday

FARMINGTON — The annual “Battle of Highway 62” will take center stage on its own night this season as Farmington will host longtime rival Prairie Grove on Aug. 29. The game was originally scheduled for Sept. 1 but was moved up so more fans from the area could see the game.

“That’s why we did it,” said Farmington coach Mike Adams. “We felt like a lot of people around here would like to see a Farmington-Prairie Grove game and we hope to have a lot of people come out.”

Farmington handed Prairie Grove its only regular season defeat two years ago with a 28-12 win while the Tigers bounced back with a 35-14 victory last season. Even though it has been a nonconference tilt since Farmington moved up to Class 5A in 2014, the game still serves as a measuring stick of sorts for both teams and towns.

“Every year is different,” Adams said. “We’ve heard from several people that they think Prairie Grove is going to have one of the better teams they’ve had in some time, and we feel like we have a better chance to be better than we have been numbers-wise, strengthwise and athlete-wise, so we hope it’ll be a good game.

“It usually is.”

Kickoff for the opener is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Farmington’s Allen Holland Stadium.