Nashville thumps Pea Ridge
NASHVILLE, Ark.—Nashville punched its ticket to its ninth state football championship game with a 42-20 win over an overmatched but scrappy Pea Ridge squad Friday night.
Nashville dominated on both sides of the ball, holding the Blackhawks to just 127 yards rushing—half of that in the fourth quarter—while racing out to 35-0 lead in first half of their Class 4A semifinal.
The Scrappers (14-0) will try for their fifth state championship when they take on Prairie Grove at 6:30 p.m. next Saturday in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. Nashville’s last state title came in 2007.
The Scrappers came out swinging and delivered a haymaker before the crowd was settled in its seats.
Darius Hopkins took the handoff on the first play from scrimmage and exploded through the middle of the Blackhawks’ defense for 71 yards and a score to put Nashville on top for good with just 15 seconds gone from the clock.
Hopkins finished as the game’s leading rusher with 181 yards and two TDs on 11 carries. Quarterback Leonard Snell rushed for 83 yards and a score, and hit on 12 of 18 passes for 144 yards and another TD.
Nashville soon followed its first score with an 8-play, 74-yard drive that took 3:10. Trent Harris bulled in from the 5 to make it 14-0 at the 5:17 mark.
The lead grew to 21-0 a few minutes later after Snell faked a handoff to Hopkins, juked a linebacker and sprinted 47 yards to the Blackhawk 3. Two plays later, Harris cut through a huge hole between left tackle and end and trotted into the end zone.
The Scrappers kept the pedal to the metal in the second period. Hopkins burst through a hole over right guard for a 22-yard TD run and Snell hit wideout Hunter White in stride on a post pattern for a 21-yard scoring strike.
The Blackhawks finally put together one of their trademark scoring drives late in the second quarter when quarterback Jakota Sainsbury came in and connected on passes of 23 and 24 yards to set up a 4-yard scoring run by Drew Winn. The 2-point pass play failed, and the two teams went into the locker rooms with Nashville up 35-6.
The referees invoked the mercy rule, running the clock after incomplete passes, after Snell scored from 10 yards out midway through the third period to make it a 42-6 game.
Pea Ridge kept battling, however, putting together a nine-play, 71-yard drive, capped by Zaine Holley’s second-effort fight through the middle from 2 yards out. The junior running back
was pounded as he crossed the 1-yard line, but twisted his way into the end zone.
In the closing moments, the Blackhawks drove 65 yards, the last 29 on a dart from Sainsbury to Britton Caudill. Sainsbury found Gage Cawthon in the back of the end zone for 2 points to close out the scoring.