Owasso uses fourth-quarter burst to beat Bentonville West

OWASSO, Okla. — Bentonville West lost its lead and its starting quarterback in a matter of 2 minutes, then eventually lost its season opener Friday night.

Owasso ran off 21 unanswered points to start the fourth quarter, and the defending Oklahoma 6A-1 state champions rallied to claim a 56-40 victory over the Wolverines at Owasso Stadium.

“Obviously, I’m not happy with the way we played,” West coach Bryan Pratt said. “We were just very undisciplined with penalties, and that comes back to me as a head coach. Owasso has a great team, and losing Will hurt us.

“I really liked our game plan. I just thought we played very undisciplined.”

Blake McDoulett’s 28- yard field goal, his second of the game, gave West (0-1) a 34-21 lead into the fourth quarter before Owasso quarterback Will Kuehne went to work. He launched a pass to Trey Goins for a 73-yard touchdown on the second play and made it a 3428 game with 11 minutes, 11 seconds remaining.

The Rams’ outburst continued after Jarrett suffered an injury while running an option play toward the sideline and never returned. Two plays after a Wolverines punt, Kuehne hit tight end Mario Kirby, who tiptoed down the sideline for a 60-yard touchdown to give Owasso the 35-34 lead with 10:04 left, then Duece Mayberry intercepted a Tucker Swoboda pass and ran 18 yards for the score and a 42-34 Rams lead at the 9:18 point.

“They had us on the ropes. They really did,” Owasso coach Bill Blankenship said. “Thankfully, we have a quarterback that made some big plays, and Trey Goins and Mario made some big plays.

“I think we finally took advantage of the heat. I think we were able to wear them down a little bit, but I tell you, coach Pratt has a great team over there.”

West managed to pull within 4240 on Tyrese Smallwood’s 8-yard touchdown run with 7:47 remaining, but the Wolverines’ try for two failed with the ball was fumbled. Kuehne, who has verbally committed to North Texas, sealed the win with his 22-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Adams with 5:47 remaining,

then he added a late 1-yard touchdown run after Cole Creekmore intercepted a Swoboda pass and returned it to the West 3.

Jarrett and Jackson were effective early as they hit a pair of touchdowns in an 18-second span in the first quarter. They connected on a 28-yard pass, then followed that with a 30-yard scoring strike one play after Maddox Thornton intercepted a Kuehne pass as the Owasso 30.

The Wolverines led 21-14 at halftime and took their biggest lead when Smallwood’s first touchdown run, a 33-yarder, made it a 31-14 game with 4: 42 left in the third quarter.

West returns to action next week when they play

their first game at Wolverine Stadium against Fort Smith Southside.