Wolves at the door, ’Hawks host Lincoln

The Pea Ridge Blackhawk varsity football team will play at home this week after spending the last two weeks on the road. Visiting this week will be Lincoln’s Wolves with the teams battling for a 4A-1 conference victory. The ’Hawks are rolling back into town riding a four-game winning streak with Lincoln hoping to improve on their 1-3 record.

While the Wolves are at the door, they may not have as much wind in their lungs as they would like. History has been good to the ’Hawks as the locals have won eight of the nine times the teams have faced off since 2000. They played one another as 3A-1 opponents until the ’Hawks moved to the 4A-1 in 2008. Lincoln stayed 3A until moving up to the 4A in 2012, thus resuming their series with Pea Ridge.

The eight Pea Ridge wins were fairly one-sided victories and the lone Lincoln victory was a 37-7 blowout in 2013, the year the Wolves made it to the third round of the state playoffs. That’s also when their outstanding coach Brad Harris left for Bryant (7A) where he is now the head coach and Lincoln hasn’t fared well since his departure. The past two years has seen the ’Hawks dominate this Washington County foe 7727 overall.

The last time I saw their roster posted, Lincoln was down to just 21 athletes on their squad, definitely a major handicap when playing in the 4A-1 when all other rosters have at least 40. With ’Hawks having more than 70 athletes in the pool, a hard fought battle will favor a team with depth like Pea Ridge.

The Wolves are led by senior all-conference quarterback Harrison Swayne who rushed and passed for more than 2,000 yards last year. Sophomore Caleb Lloyd competed as a freshman last year and ran for nearly 1,000 yards. Likely the top receiver for the Wolves is junior Brian Umberson.

Another bright spot for Lincoln is they do have a seasoned, talented offensive line, but they don’t have the depth behind them to spell them from time to time. Defensively, they gave up 34 points a game in 2015, and the Wolves have been outscored this year by an average score of 35-12. In the Wolves’ 33-0 loss to Gravette last week, Lincoln gained only 84 yards in total offense. I would have to rate the ’Hawks a better defensive team than Gravette, so there you go.

Pea Ridge should win and win easily, but — the Wolves do have the talent to put points on the board if opponents don’t take them seriously. Every single game for the rest of the season has playoff implications so no team should be taken lightly.

First conference week reveals divide

For the past few years, Prairie Grove, Pea Ridge, Gravette and Shiloh have been the clear cut best four teams of the 4A-1 and the first week of district play bears that out once again. Those four played the bottom four teams and the higher ranked teams bettered the lower by an aggregate 177-45 score.