Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Tigers on a tear
Bentonville defense paves way to semifinals
Keegan Stinespring’s strip and recovery set up a third-quarter touchdown and Bentonville High rolled to a 41-10 win in the Class 7A state playoff quarterfinals in Tiger Stadium on Friday night.
BENTONVILLE — Keegan Stinespring darted through a gap and knocked the football away from the Little Rock Catholic quarterback.
The ball laid on the ground for a couple of seconds before Stinespring pounced on it.
“I didn’t even know the ball came out,” said Stinespring. “I just did my job, ran my stunt and hit his arm. The ball was just sitting on the ground and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it. I’ve never had the ball in my hands on defense. I just saw the ball and said ‘no one else is going to get their hands on this.’”
Stinespring’s strip and recovery set up a third-quarter touchdown and Bentonville High rolled to a 41-10 win in the Class 7A state playoff quarterfinals in Tiger Stadium on Friday night.
Bentonville (11-0) was itching to atone for last season’s early playoff exit when the Tigers lost to Fort Smith Northside after a bye week. Bentonville coach Jody Grant said the Tigers would be better prepared to handle that open week and he proved to be correct.
The Tigers scored on their opening possession, using a nice punt return from Cooper Smith to set up a 42-yard drive. Bentonville quarterback Ben Pankau hit Preston Crawford for 13 yards, then found Kenny Iuso on a 6-yard touchdown pass with 7 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first quarter.
“Anytime you score on the first possession, you feel a little relief,” said Grant. “We talked about that, how we need to take advantage of every offensive possession. They are a good football team, a good offensive team, so we knew we had to score.”
Bentonville did the same thing to open the second half, driving 65 yards in 11 plays. Pankau hit sophomore Chaz Nimrod for 17 yards, then the Tigers chewed up the Catholic defense on the ground with Crawford tearing off a 23-yard gain on fourth and 2. Crawford capped the drive with a 7-yard scoring run and a 28-0 lead.
Stinespring’s strip and fumble recovery led to a 35-0 lead before Catholic (7-5), the surprise team in Class 7A this season after being picked last in the 7A-Central in the preseason, got an 86-yard kickoff return from John Henry Duce. The Rockets only managed a 32-yard field goal from Paul Owens to cut the margin to 28-3.
Catholic did not even get to celebrate that for long as Nimrod took the ensuing
kickoff back 89 yards for a Bentonville touchdown and a 41-3 lead. For the game Nimrod had 3 catches for 67 yards and one score to go with the kickoff return.
“I think we’re playing really good football at the right time,” Grant said. “I’m excited to see what this group is about. I think offensively we’re operating really well and that’s even with at times leaving points out there. I think if we get that cleaned up we’re really hard to stop.
“Defensively, we’re a good defensive football team. We give up first downs, but we just don’t give up many touchdowns. I know that sounds a little bit goofy, but we talk to our kids about not giving up points and flying around and doing things right.”
FOUR DOWNS
• Pankau was 11-of-20 pass- ing for 154 yards and 3 touchdowns without an interception.
• The Bentonville defense held Catholic to 63 yards rushing, and minus-1 yard on the ground in the second half. • Bentonville had not won a playoff game since falling to North Little Rock in the 2017 state championship game. • The Tigers will host North Little Rock next week in the semifinals. North Little Rock knocked off Springdale HarBer 49-21 Friday night.