Fayetteville awaits rematch with Conway in 7A playoffs

If you’re a football fan and you’re anywhere near Fayetteville, you may want to consider attending tonight’s high school game at Harmon Field.

Even if you have to walk around the construction that’s ongoing at the south end of the stadium.

In 38 years of covering high school and college sports in Arkansas, I can’t recall watching more exciting games on consecutive weekends than the two playoff games I covered at Harmon Field last season. It started with a second-round game when Fayetteville rallied from a 27-6 first-half deficit to beat Cabot 34-27.

The quarterfinal game was an absolute thriller when Graham Witte kicked a field goal just high enough to get over the crossbar and give Fayetteville a 23-21 lead over Conway with 4 seconds left. Linebacker Kaiden Turner, who plays now at Indiana, then swiped a lateral on the ensuing and rambled into the end zone to set the final margin at 29-21. No one was going to take K9 down on that play.

So, Conway (8-2) is back for more tonight in a secondround game and you know the Wampus Cats haven’t forgotten about being eliminated last year by Fayetteville (7-3). Conway is currently No. 3 and Fayetteville No. 5 in the overall top 10 by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Tonight’s survivor will face the Bryant vs. Rogers winner next week in the state semifinals.

Donovyn Omolo is a left-handed quarterback who threw for over 2,500 yards and 27 touchdowns as a sophomore for Conway, which blasted Springdale Har-Ber 68-31 in a first-round game. Drake Lindsey is a junior quarterback for Fayetteville who’s thrown for 3,620 yards and 37 touchdowns with only 3 interceptions. The Bulldogs have three receivers with over 750 yards in receptions including Kaylon Morris, who’s caught 95 passes for 1,593 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Conway is a top team from a 7A- Central Conference that has swept power from 7A-West Conference teams in recent years. But Fayetteville, which lost three games by five points this season, has improved its running game in recent week to make its impressive passing game even more effective. Not many people, myself included, expected Fayetteville to be really good again after losing so many athletes from last year’s 10-3 team that finished as state runners-up. But I’ve seen enough of the 2022 Bulldogs to know they’ve one of the top teams again in Arkansas’ largest classification.

Maybe tonight’s finish won’t be as dramatic as last year, but I won’t be surprised to see players in purple uniforms celebrating again near midfield after the game. Just like last season.

RICK’S PICK Fayetteville

( Here are some other games involving teams from our coverage area. The picks are capitalized).

CLASS 7A Rogers at BRYANT

North Little Rock at BENTONVILLE Bentonville West at CABOT

CLASS 6A Russellville at GREENWOOD

CLASS 5A

Little Rock Mills at SHILOH CHRISTIAN

CLASS 4A Ozark at ARKADELPHIA Ashdown at ELKINS MALVERN at Lamar

CLASS 3A Greenland at MELBOURNE BOONEVILLE at Smackover Centerpoint at CHARLESTON LAST WEEK 15-7 (68%) OVERALL 222-53 (80%)