Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Season begins anew with league play
Conference play in Arkansas’ largest high school football classification starts Friday, including a matchup that did not appear on paper to be particularly interesting before the season began.
Did you have Rogers at Fort Smith Southside as the biggest game this week in the 7A-West?
You did not and neither did the league coaches, who listed Southside fifth and Rogers third in their preseason poll. Yet, here we are with both teams standing 3-0 after barreling past their nonconference competition.
We knew Rogers would be good again following consecutive ninewins seasons, but Southside? The Mavericks doubled their win total last year, which seems impressive until you realize they won four games in 2022 after winning two in 2021, two in 2020 and only one game in 2019.
Jim Rowland Southside Stadium will be rocking again like the old days on Friday and both teams are rested after being off last week. Through three games, Southside has outscored its opponents 132-70 and Rogers has outscored its opponents 136-22.
Rogers beat Southside 35-7 last year, but this is a new beginning as Wynne found out two weeks ago when the Mavericks smashed the Yellowjackets 35-7 after being embarrassed 72-44 at home by them the year before.
What’s the word about paybacks?
Yeah, that one. And Southside has plenty more paybacks in mind as the year progresses.
There are other games on the docket in the 7A-West, including Fayetteville at Bentonville West, Springdale at Rogers Heritage and Bentonville at Springdale Har-Ber. Jonesboro begins its second year in the 7A-Central with a home game against Cabot, and Bryant which will likely arrive in a bad mood at Fort Smith Northside after having its 54-game in-state winning streak snapped in a 28-27 loss to Little Rock Parkview, the defending state champion in Class 5A.
Football fans will also keep their eye on Conway, which is 3-0 under its new coach, Buck James, after beating Monroe (La.) Ouachita Christian 49-14 on Friday.
If Rogers and Southside are the surprise teams in a positive way, then Bentonville is a surprise team the other way. The Tigers (1-2) have lost consecutive home games first to Conway, 42-39, then to Kansas City (Mo.) Rockhurst, which used a 41-yard field goal by Logan Kuechler as time expired to defeat the Tigers, 24-21.
Bentonville did not look anywhere as good as it did in the close loss to Conway, which begins conference play as the top team in Class 7A. Rockhurst intercepted four passes, including a theft by Thomas Coppinger near midfield that led to Kuechler’s game-winning field goal. Rockhurst also controlled the clock for much of the second half with a power running game led by Aidan Ryan, who rushed for 134 yards on 24 attempts.
Ryan fumbled into the end zone as he was about to score late in the game. But Rockhurst got a second chance with another interception by Coppinger and the Hawklets took advantage of it with a game-winning field goal.
“We’re a better football team than we’re showing on Friday night,” Bentonville Coach Jody Grant said. “I’m very disappointed in how we performed. We owe our fan base, our student section and all supporters better than what we’re giving them.”
Grant’s words are a message to his players and, indirectly, to teams in Class 7A who should know better than to overlook the Tigers this week, next week, or during any week throughout the playoffs in November and December.
Teams are back to 0-0 for conference play, which adds up to another exciting stretch of high school football in Arkansas’ largest classification.