Blackhawks roll over Booneville 41-22

PEA RIDGE — Game one of the Stephen Neal era at Pea Ridge garnered rave reviews as his Blackhawks took down Booneville 41-22 on Friday at Blackhawk Stadium.

Neal, who took over for Tony Travis after he left for Rogers Heritage, was pleased with the leadership his senior class showed in getting the season started off on the right foot.

“They picked up where they left off,” Neal said. “I was very proud of their effort and from the coaching staff as well. The seniors did a great job of leading this transition.”

Last year saw Pea Ridge win 11 games and advance all the way to the 4A semifinals, before Nashville eliminated them.

Drew Winn, the younger brother of former Pea Ridge and Hendrix College star Dayton Winn, exploded out of the gates on the Blackhawks’ opening drive.

After forcing a Booneville punt, Winn found paydirt from 21 yards out and gave them the early 7-0 lead.

It was 21-0 after a quarter as Jakota Sainsbury threw a touchdown pass to Hayden Holtgrewe and Zaine Holley scampered for a 28-yard touchdown.

The Blackhawks led 28- 0 at intermission when Sainsbury found Winn for a 47- yard strike midway through the second quarter and Holtgrewe preserved the first half shutout with an interception in the end zone.

Booneville ( 0-1) fell behind 34-0 after Winn’s third touchdown of the night early into the second half, but rallied to score three times in the second half as Pea Ridge rotated in a healthy amount of players.

“I knew we didn’t have a lot of experience,” Booneville coach Scott Hyatt said. “When you run into a team that’s got everybody back that’s already clicking on all cylinders and the speed of the game is different, it’s tough. But I thought our kids came out in the second half and started to settle in.”

Sainsbury also threw a touchdown pass to Ryan Higgins, who doubles as the team’s kicker as well.

“We were clicking on all cylinders, and we had some young kids step up that haven’t played very much here, and now they’re getting some significant playing time,” Neal said. “Give Booneville credit, they’re a proud program with a lot of tradition and they never stopped fighting all the way up to the very end of the game.”

Pea Ridge (1-0) will host Green Forest next week.

“They picked up where they left off.” — Stephen Neal, Pea Ridge coach