Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Pointers win opener, snap 14-game skid
ALMA — Tuesday night was 690 days in the making for the Van Buren football program. The Pointers snapped a 14-game losing streak to open the season with a 4833 victory against longtime rival Alma at Airedale Stadium. The win also snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Airedales. “This is the reason we came to Van Buren,” firstyear coach Casey Dick said. “We believed in these kids. They did an awesome job buying in to what we wanted to do. They are coachable as well. This is a big win for our kids and our community.” Van Buren finished last season 0-10 and dropped the final four games of 2016. The Pointers’ last win was Oct. 7, 2016. The Pointers jumped out to an early lead Tuesday and held on after that to start the season under their new coach, who was an assistant
at Bentonville West last season. The Pointers were led by quarterback Christian Morrow, who completed 21 of 32 passes for 219 yards with a touchdown. Gary Phillips also completed all three of his passes for 75 yards and two scores. Van Buren’s Brayden Rivas rushed for 162 yards on 20 carries with two scores. He also caught eight passes for 71 yards. Logan Humphries hauled in four passes for 71 yards, including a 40-yard touchdown. Van Buren was able to take a 32-13 lead into halftime with its efficient offense. The offense had six first-half possessions and was able to score four touchdowns and get a field goal. The Pointers were able to take an early 7-0 lead on the opening drive of the game with a five-play possession capped by a 40-yard pass from Phillips to Humphries. Alma was able to bounce back with a touchdown drive of its own with a two-yard score from Austin Fraley. However, the Airedales missed the extra point, cutting the lead to 7-6. Van Buren extended its lead to 22-6 with a five-play drive that included a two-point conversion on a swinging gate play. Phillips found Morrow for a nine-yard touchdown. Alma bounced back again after that with a one-play drive that was capped with a 78-yard pass from Landon Blair to Grayson Bailey to cut the advantage to 22-13. Van Buren then closed out the scoring in the second quarter with 10 unanswered points to extend out its lead. After scoring 32first-halff points, Van Buren was then limited to 16 in the second half as Alma was able to get back into the game. “We were very efficient in the first half,” Dick said. “But we got to clean up what we did in the second half. We had more opportunities to do more things there. But we’ll take the win and make the corrections.” The Airedales cut the lead to 41-33 with a nine-yard touchdown run from Bailey. But Alma could get no closer after that, as it didn’t score on the final three drives of the game. Van Buren was able to make the stops needed defensively and even added to its lead with a 13-yard score from Rivas to push out the advantage to 48-33. “We have been preaching since day one adversity,” Dick said. “We told them there will be adversity down the road in your life. You have to work through it. I’m proud of our kids. They kept fighting. It was a great effort.”