Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Tigers get it going in 7A-West
The 7A-West Conference schedule arrived at the right time for Bentonville.
The defending Class 7A champions started 0-3 during the nonconference schedule that featured out-of-state opponents Kansas City (Mo.) Rockhurst, Broken Arrow (Okla.) and Bergen Catholic (N.J.).
Bentonville fell to 0-4 when it dropped its 7A-West opener to Fort Smith Southside 10-7, but the Tigers have rebounded with consecutive victories against Fort Smith Northside and Springdale Har-Ber.
Coach Barry Lunney said the Tigers (2-4, 2-1) have improved.
“We weren’t up to the challenge early on,” Lunney said. “When you play good competition, you get exposed.”
Junior quarterback Kasey Ford threw five touchdown passes in the Tigers’ 45-13 victory at Har-Ber last Friday. Ford had three touchdown passes in Bentonville’s first five games.
“It was very good,” Lunney said. “I was very pleased, to say the least.”
Lunney said Ford struggled in part because of a young offensive line, along with penalty problems. But an improved running game has helped the Tigers.
“We’re running the ball better and we have been for the last three weeks,” Lunney said. “We have a lot of new faces on the offensive line. For some reason, people think that we were automatically going to be great again at certain positions.
“We graduated some really good players at those positions. There was very little margin of error with our schedule.”
Lunney, who is in his 10th season at Bentonville and has led the Tigers to four state championships, said seeing his team come together after an 0-4 start has been an enjoyable aspect of the season.
“It’s fun to take guys who haven’t been there and help develop them and see their confidence level to do things they haven’t done before,” he said. “We’ve got some new faces. We’ve been patient. They’ve been focused. They want to get better. They know our history and tradition. It’s been tough. It’s fun to see that and to roll your sleeves up to see that improvement.”
Bentonville travels to Springdale today looking to improve to 3-1 in the 7A-West. The Bulldogs, led by quarterback Fuller Chandler, are 0-3 in the West and 0-6 overall.
Lunney said he isn’t taking Springdale lightly.
“I’ve been in this league long enough to know you better respect everybody. I’ve seen some amazing things in this league happen,” Lunney said. “They’re the leading passing team in this league. They have some nice receivers. They put some points up on the board. When you got somebody who can throw it around very quickly, it’s very scary because they have the potential to make things happen.
“We’ve got to be sure to play good defense, No. 1. The best defense is controlling the football and running the football.”