Harding eliminates Prescott
SEARCY, Ark.—In a contest filled with offensive firepower, an unlikely defensive hero emerged to send Harding Academy to the Class 3A state football final.
Weston Burks picked off two passes 23 seconds apart to spearhead Harding Academy’s 49-36 comeback victory over Prescott on Friday night at First Security Field.
Wildcats quarterback Alex Francis threw for 374 yards and four touchdowns and Travis Turley hauled in six passes for 128 yards and three scores. But it was Burks’ smart reads and sure hands that pushed the
Wildcats (13-1) through to next week’s final against Rivercrest, which eliminated Smackover, 15-13.
With his team trailing 36-30 with 6:21 to play, Burks tied the game when he picked off a Trevor Pipkin pass and returned it 5 yards for a touchdown.
“I was supposed to come off the edge and I came off and I just saw his arm move,” Burks said. “I just jumped up in the air and it landed in my hands. I went nuts.”
The play nearly left Harding Academy coach Roddy Mote speechless following the game.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Mote said. “I’m surrounded by some great kids and that was a great play. We made some great plays all night long.”
The extra point failed and the score remained tied, but on Prescott’s next possession, Burks picked off another pass in the flat. This one he returned 13 yards down to the Prescott 7. Francis found Turley in the end zone on the next play with 4:54 remaining to give Harding Academy its first lead of the game, 43-36.
“I wanted to take that to the house, too,” Burks said. “The second time I was like, ‘ What is going on? This is the craziest game.’ ”
The next Prescott possession ended on downs. Then with 1:32 left to play, Francis and Turley connected one last time on a 48-yard touchdown to ice the game.
Burks’ emergence mirrored Harding Academy’s improvement on defense. Prescott put up 343 yards of offense in the first half, including 231 on the ground. But the Curley Wolves (11-3) managed only a fraction of that following the break and scored just six second-half points.
The Wildcats intercepted Prescott quarterback Pipkin four times, including three in the final quarter. They also held the Curley Wolves on downs three times.
“We really brought up the intensity,” Burks said. “We tend to do better in the second half and we really yelled at each other to play better and play for the team, not just for ourselves. We were going so hard the second half.”
Prescott’s largest lead came with 4:11 remaining in the second quarter when Brandon Walker caught a 4-yard touchdown on 4th-and-goal to make it 30-14.
But Harding responded with a nineplay, 61-yard drive. Francis took it in himself from 4 yards out and then found Ryan Turley for the 2-point conversion to make the halftime score 30-22.
The teams combined for 36 points in the first quarter as Prescott built a 22-14 lead. Just 1:56 into the game Prescott running back Carlos Vanhook, who finished with 185 yards on 19 carries, scored on a 34-yard sprint. Vanhook added a 44-yard run later in the quarter and Pipkin squeezed in from 2 yards away.
Francis countered with two long touchdown passes to keep his team in the game: one to Turley (66 yards) and another to Peydon Harlow (50 yards). The third-year starter finished 31-for-36 for 374 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
“He’s been steady really since he was a sophomore,” Mote said. “We expect it. Alex expects it; he expects to do really well… Obviously we’re proud of him and we’re proud of the guys around him.”
Next weekend the Wildcats will be looking for their sixth state title and first since 2012.
“I’m really excited for our team,” Burks said. “We’ve been wanting this all year. We’ve been trying to stay humble, but now we can brag about it now that we’re in the state championship.”