Wildcats showing weekly improvement

Chris Wood said his team has shown a lot of positive growth this season with a roster of underclassmen playing key roles.

“We’ve really played well three of the last four weeks,” Wood said. “Other than West where it kind of snowballed on us. We’ve preached all year with our young guys that we want to be playing our best ball at the end of the year, which I don’t think we’ve done yet.”

The Wildcats (5-4, 3-3 7A-West) still have a lot to play for Friday night when they host Fayetteville. Har-Ber could clinch the No. 3 seed in the conference with a win. A loss could mean the Wildcats fall to a No. 4 or No. 5, depending on the outcome of the Springdale High-Van Buren game.

Har-Ber is coming off a 38-6 win against Rogers last week as junior running back Jay Burns rushed for 356 yards. It is the second time this season he’s eclipsed the 300-yard rushing mark.

“He’s a really talented kid,” Wood said of Burns. “He started the year on defense, but we got depleted at running back and we told him we needed to move him to that side and he’s embraced it. He’s a natural back there and can make things happen even when there’s nothing there.”

Wood said Fayetteville will present a number of challenges for the Wildcats.

“They just jump off the page offensively,” Wood said. “So explosive. (Darius) Bowers is talented and his skill set is impressive. And he’s got a ton of weapons around him.”