Farmington routs Gravette following weather delay

FARMINGTON — Twoway lineman Jacob Rogers helped Farmington open the floodgates during a 40-2 win against Gravette at Allen Holland Field on Friday.

Following a 30-minute weather delay, Rogers, a 6-foot, 255-pound senior, recovered a fumble midway through the second quarter. On the next play, Rogers pulled from his right guard

position and mashed the Lions’ defensive end to spring Reid Turner free for a 29-yard touchdown run that put the Cardinals up 20-0.

“Blocking like that makes it easy for the running back,” said Farmington coach Mike Adams. “Reid didn’t have a lot to do, other than run. There was one time where he had to break a tackle at the line of scrimmage, but the rest of the time he was just free to run. The linemen did all of the work.”“

Turner finished with 10 carries for 164 yards and three touchdowns — all coming on the same counter play with Rogers leading the way — as the Cards improved to 2-0.

“It’s been a minute since we started the season 2-0,” said Rogers, who only left the field for six plays before reserves were inserted for the fourth quarter. “Since I was a sophomore, we’ve always started 0-1, so it was nice to beat (Prairie Grove, a 33-30 win last week) and now Gravette. Beating PG, I think, really has set the tone for the rest of the season because we are going to have a good season.”

Rogers also sealed the edge on a 55-yard sprint by Turner that set up Tony Mayo’s 16-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter. That began the clock running continuously for the final 13:06 due to the Arkansas Activities Association’s sportsmanship rule.

“They gave us a little different defensive alignment than what we were expecting,” Adams said. “Coach (Spencer) Adams knew we needed to attack them with the counter. It was a simple play for us, and we executed well on those plays.”

Before the delay, Turner fought through a heavy downpour to squirt loose a 61-yard touchdown run with 5:26 remaining in the first quarter. In the second, senior quarterback Eric Hill hit a wide open Drew Sturgeon for a 70-yard touchdown pass. Sturgeon showed his speed again with an 85-yard kickoff return to open the second half before Gravette (0-2) came up with a safety in the third quarter to avoid the shutout.

“We talked about the importance of getting off to a great start in the preseason,” Adams said. “We felt like we needed to get some momentum and gain some confidence and we talked at halftime about finishing.

“That blocking, along with our defense playing really, really well, and some good running by Reid and Mayo helped finish the game for us.”