MCGEE: Pea Ridge Blackhawks crack Hooten’s Top 10

turnovers. Pea Ridge will get the yards and I think the defense will limit Shiloh to their lowest totals of the conference season.

4a-1 conference standings

1. Pea Ridge 6-0 1. Shiloh 6-0 3. Prairie Grove 4-2 4. Gentry 3-3 4. Gravette 3-3 6. Huntsville 1-5 6. Lincoln 1-5 8. Berryville 0-6

Hawks crack Hooten’s Top 10

In a poll released last week after the publishing deadline for The TIMES, Pea Ridge had risen to the No. 7 position in the Hooten’s 4A State Football Poll.

Hooten’s had the Hawks ranked 30th through the first month of the season until back-to-back wins over Gravette and Prairie Grove.

This is the highest Hooten’s ranking the Blackhawks have ever had, surpassing the Hawks No. 10 ranking that they achieved after defeating Monticello in the playoffs opening round in 2012.

With two teams ahead of them losing last Friday (Pocohontas and Hamburg), the Hawks seem destined to rise further when the newest polls are released.

Hooten’s Arkansas 4A Top 10

released Oct. 28 1. Warren 2. Dardanelle 3. Nashville 4. Pocahontas 5. Nashville 6. Hamburg 7. Pea Ridge 8. Star City 9. Gosnell 10. Arkadelphia

Pea Ridge ranked in CBS/Maxpreps Poll

Oddly enough, the Hawks dropped a bit in the CBS/MaxPreps polls for the second week in a row even though winning both their games to stay undefeated. Pea Ridge went from No. 12 to No. 14 after beating Huntsville 21-6, the states 39th ranked team.

On paper, the win over the Eagles doesn’t look particularly impressive score wise. The fact that the Eagles, a primarily rushing team, came away from the game with only 2 yards rushing doesn’t show up in computers. Huntsville never really had a chance to win, but no matter.

Mena and Pottsville made big jumps in the rankings after thumping Fountain Lake 47-21 and Robinson 48-14, respectively, both highly ranked teams.

Big polling points are in the offing in the Shiloh game Friday.

CBS/Maxpreps 4A State Poll

1. Dardanelle 9-0 2. Nashville 8-1 3. Arkadelphia 7-2 4. Warren 7-2 5. Mena 7-2 6. Pottsville 6-3 7. Malvern 6-3 8. Dollarway 7-2 9. Clinton 7-2 10. Shiloh 7-2 14. Pea Ridge 9-0 23. Prairie Grove 6-2 26. Gravette 5-4 35. Gentry 3-6 39. Huntsville 3-6 44. Berryville 2-7

Volleyball world rocked

The 4A volleyball world was rocked this year as a team not from northeast Arkansas won the state championship. Mena won the state title, downing Shiloh who won the state 5A title last year.

Since volleyball started having lower class divisions, either Valley View or Jonesboro Westside emerged as state champs in this particular class. Often three of the four semifinal teams were from the northeast. This year, Berryville knocked off the heir apparent Westside team in the quarterfinals, but fell to Mena in the semis. Shiloh beat the other northeast team, Brookland, in the semis. Valley View moved into 5A this season.

One interesting thing to note: The 4A-1 was the only district with two teams in the semifinals.

••• Editor’s note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@nwaonline.com.