Host Prairie Grove runs all over Elkins

4A-1 PRAIRIE GROVE 45, ELKINS 19

PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove ran the football repeatedly Friday night and dared Elkins to stop it. The Elks couldn’t. Five different players scored touchdowns in the first half and Prairie Grove rolled to a 45-19 victory over Elkins at Tiger Stadium in a 4A-1 Conference game. Prairie Grove (8-2, 6-1) earned the No. 2 seed from the league and will begin the Class 4A state playoffs at home next week against Jonesboro Westside, the fourth seed from the 4A-3 Conference.

Elkins (7-2, 5-2) will represent the league as a No. 3 seed and also host a first-round playoff game against Dardanelle, the third seed from the 4A-4.

Landon Semrad was a dominant player for Prairie Grove with two interceptions and touchdown runs of 50 and 4 yards.

“It’s unreal the effort he puts out,” Prairie Grove Coach Danny Abshier said of Semrad, one of 11 seniors for the Tigers. “The interceptions he got, that is amazing. Everybody else on the field is beat up and he’s running, catching it, and playing defense as much as anybody else. He got the breath knocked out of him one time, and he was good to go.”

Prairie Grove struggled in the first half last week while winning 34-21 at Berryville. But the Tigers dominated Elkins after the Elks scored first on a 2-yard run by Da’Shawn Chairs, a touchdown set up when Jusiah Bettencourt took a handoff on an end-around and ran 82 yards.

Prairie Grove then responded by scoring 38 consecutive points to take a commanding 38-6 lead after two quarters. Seven players carried the ball in the first half for Prairie Grove, which had 325 yards rushing and 7 yards passing in the first half. Ethan Miller had the longest run on an 84-yard burst that gave Prairie Grove a 14- 6 lead. Camden Patterson, Colin Faulk, Semrad, and Joseph Sims also had touchdown runs for Prairie Grove.

“We had over 300 yards in the first half,” Abshier said. “Wow. That’s pretty good. We didn’t throw it real well in the first half and we just hung with the run game.”

Semrad made the defensive play of the night when he dove and intercepted a pass with one hand. Corbin Bowlin partially blocked a punt for the Tigers and Ryder Orr was a dominant player along the defensive line for Prairie Grove.

Elkins took advantage of a fumble early in the third quarter and scored on a 2-yard run by Chairs to crawl to within 38-13 of the Tigers. The game turned sloppy in the second half, especially with penalties thrown against both teams. But the Tigers didn’t need much more offense after taking a 38-6 lead.

Elkins scored on a blocked punt before Semrad finished the scoring with a 50-yard touchdown run to put Prairie Grove ahead 45-19.