Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bentonville leans on defense in win
BENTONVILLE HIGH 17, CONWAY 10
BENTONVILLE — When the offense isn’t totally clicking, a team can always lean on its defense.
That’s what Bentonville did on Friday at Tiger Stadium and the result was a hard-fought 17-10 victory over Conway in what felt like a playoff atmosphere.
“Conway’s a really good football team,” Bentonville coach Jody Grant said. “I told our guys after the game that they’re going to win a lot of games this year. We were blessed to come out with this one.”
It wasn’t firmly in Bentonville’s grasp late when senior running back Preston Crawford picked up three yards on a fourth-and-1 to seal it with 1 minute left.
Crawford, who ended his night with 79 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown, was the bell cow for the Tigers (2-0).
“He’s one of our dudes,” Grant said. “If it’s fourth and one and we’ve got to get a first down, everyone on our team and our staff is going to say to give it to No. 1. That’s what we did and he said ‘Coach, I’m going to get it’ and he did. We are fortunate he’s a part of our program.”
The Wampus Cats (1-1) got on the scoreboard late in the third quarter on a 1-yard plunge from Tommy Grady and then picked Bentonville quarterback Andrew Edwards off with just under 5 minutes remaining and drove into the Tigers’ red zone before settling for a 30-yard Will Hogue field goal.
“It took a little adjustment for us to get going (offensively),” Conway coach Keith Fimple said. “I’ve been here
two years and sometimes it takes a little bit for us to get going and then something clicks and momentum starts going our way. Bentonville is as fundamentally sound and as technique-driven as we will see and that’s what we wanted out of our nonconference schedule.”
Conway was limited to 77 yards of offense in the first half as the Tigers staked themselves to a 10-0 lead. Bentonville’s Levi Bennett picked off a Nick McCuin offering to thwart a potential scoring drive in the middle of the second quarter.
The only miscue for the Tigers in the first half was a Ben Pankau fumble on their opening drive after they had driven deep into Wampus Cat territory.
Conway was led by sophomore running back Manny Smith, who had 112 yards on 10 carries, including a 50-yard run that set up its only touchdown.
Pankau finished with 207 yards passing, mainly in the first half. But he may be more important to the Tigers on defense and actually jammed his finger on that side of the ball, paving the way for Edwards to come in.
Edwards threw a touchdown pass to Trenton Kolb late in the third quarter that gave the Tigers a 10-point cushion at that point.
FOUR DOWNS
• The Bentonville student section held an Aloha theme for the contest.
• Bentonville had lost the previous two games in the series.
• Fimple was once an assistant at Fort Smith Southside, Fayetteville and Springdale Har-Ber.
• Next week Conway hosts Jonesboro, while Bentonville travels to Tulsa to take on Booker T. Washington.