Pena, penalties help Springdale Har-Ber down Rogers Heritage

SPRINGDALE — Max Pena rushed for 200 yards and Blaise Wittschen threw three touchdown passes to lift Springdale Har-Ber to a 31-16 win against Rogers Heritage on Friday.

Pena, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound junior, didn’t score any touchdowns, but his tough running kept the chains moving for the Wildcats (3-2, 1-1 7A-West) throughout. Pena pancaked defenders on most of his 28 carries. He missed one play with leg cramps in the third quarter and then went down again with a leg injury on the

final play of the game, which dampened the postgame mood a bit.

“Max had a fantastic night and I hate that he got banged up on that last play, so hopefully he’ll be OK,” said HarBer coach Chris Wood. “Max has done that all year for us. He competes at a high level and is a very physical back. I’m just really proud of him.”

Penalties, as much as Pena, hurt Heritage (0-5, 0-2). The most crucial came early in the fourth quarter with Har-Ber looking to add to a 24-16 lead. On 4th-and-7 from the War Eagles’ 35-yard line, a pass interference penalty kept the drive alive. The next play, Wittschen threw his third touchdown pass when he found Nick Buchanan open for a 20-yard scoring strike to create the final margin.

“That was huge because it was an eight-point game at that point,” Wood said. “They would have had pretty good field position there if they had gotten the stop, but I thought Luke Sawyer did a fantastic job on the route, a double move, to get open and the safety just got over there a little early to try to break up the play.”

Following a muffed punt that was recovered by Ty Graser, Heritage struck first when Zach Brown hit Graser for 29-yard touchdown pass to take a 6-0 lead just 2:15 into regulation.

The Wildcats answered with a 16-play, 67-yard drive that was capped off by a 1-yard quarterback keeper by Wittschen, who juked a defender on his way to the end zone. The point after gave Har-Ber a 7-6 lead with 4:23 remaining in the second quarter. Har-Ber converted a third down and two fourth downs, including Wittschen’s touchdown, to keep the drive alive. Wittschen also threw a pair of touchdown passes to Hunter Wood.

“We came in wanting to run 80 (offensive) plays, but I don’t know how many we ended up with,” Wood said. “Blaise has been out two weeks (concussion), so he was a little bit rusty but we knew we wanted to spread the ball around vertically and horizontally.”

The play of the first half came when Heritage was trying to convert on 4th-and-13 deep in Har-Ber’s territory late in the first quarter. Brown bounced off a couple of defenders and bulled his way toward the line to gain, but came up a foot shy of a first down after a measurement.

An interception by Cole Bowen on Heritage’s next possession resulted in the Wildcats extending their lead when John Delamotte split the uprights for a 30-yard field goal. But the War Eagles quickly answered three plays later when junior speedster Jaheim Webb split the defense for a 56-yard touchdown sprint to help Heritage regain a 13-10 lead with 7:51 remaining in the first half.

Har-Ber responded with a 10-play, 76-yard drive that spanned just 2:40 to regain a 17-13 lead. Wittschen connected with Wood for a 17-yard touchdown pass with 10 seconds remaining in the half. The ‘Cats converted on 3rd-and-13 and 4th-and-7 during that drive.

“Blaise did a nice job for his first game back,” Wood said. “Even though we had some drops, he came up big for us on third and fourth downs. Those were critical downs for us.”