5A West continues winning ways, take five of seven
The 5A West football conference ran their overall pre-conference mark to 10-3 by taking five of seven contest last Friday.
Perhaps the biggest splash was made by Alma’s 38-7 knockdown of 6A Siloam Springs. Farmington gave 7A Springdale another loss to a 5A school as the Cards whipped the Bulldogs 38-20.
In the three other wins, Dardanelle crushed Pottsville 35-0, Prairie Grove blew out Huntsville 45-8, and Harrison triumphed over 6A Mountain Home 20-7.
Including the 1-0 Pea Ridge Blackhawks who were idle last week, there are six 5A West teams that remain undefeated thus far in 2022. Clarksville are now o for 2 in 2022, having most recently lost to Morrilton 30-14. The other winless team is Shiloh who lost their season opener to Little Rock Christian last week 49-14.
This week seven of the eight 5A West teams will be in action with Farmington taking the week off.
Only two conference teams will be at home with Clarksville hosting Elkins and Alma defending their home turf against Pryor, Okla.
The rest of the league activity will see Pea Ridge invading Huntsville, Harrison traveling to Batesville, Shiloh crossing state lines to take on Tulsa Victory Christian, Prairie Grove coming up to Gravette, with Dardanelle going south to Rison.
The current non-conference league standings are:
5a West Conference non-conference games
Alma 2-0
Harrison 2-0
Farmington 2-0
Dardanelle 2-0
Pea Ridge 1-0
Prairie Grove 1-0
Shiloh 0-1
Clarksville 0-2
Volleyball Blackhawks upset gravette; start 4a-1 district play with 2-0 mark
The Blackhawks took care of business by whipping the Huntsville Eagles 3-0 to open conference play last week. That was followed a few days later with a road trip to battle the favored Gravette Lions.
The Hawks upset the Lions and came out on top 3-2 in that contest to keep their conference record unblemished, at 2-0. The V-ball Hawks play Thursday, hosting the Gentry Pioneers in another league battle.
no. 19 hogs open the season with 31-24 over no. 23 Cincinnati
Arkansas has their hands full in the season opener, hosting the Cincinnati Bearcats, a team coming off a final four appearance in the 2021 NCAA Football playoffs.
The Razorbacks scored in every quarter, and three times held two touchdown leads but had to hold on to win by 7 at the end.
The teams were pretty well matched with Arkansas barely out-yarding the Bearcats 447-436. Cincinnati got one more first down than Arkansas, and ran three more plays than the Hogs. Cincinnati won the time of possession 31-28 and had just two more penalty yards than Arkansas, 65-63.
The Bearcats’ quarterback racked up more yardage than the Hogs K.J. Jefferson, 325-223 but the visitor had 16 more tosses than the home boy. The Cincinnati QB averaged a little over 12 yards per completion with Jefferson averaging roughly 14 yards per catch.
Arkansas is home again next week to open conference play with South Carolina. The Gamecocks are 1-0 after a 35-14 smack down of Georgia State. Prognosticators are calling the Hogs a 9.5 point favorite to beat South Carolina.
The Gamecocks had great difficulty running against Georgia State though they were successful through the air, racking up 227 yards. The stats for the game actually revealed that Georgia State and South Carolina played on even terms throughout the contest with virtually the same amount of yardage, the same total plays and turnovers.
Arkansas will hit the road for a short trip to Springfield, Mo., to play on Missouri State’s field for the first time ever. That game is set a week from Saturday, Sept. 17.
MaxPreps/CBs poll 5a football
1. LR Parkview 1-0
2. Camden 1-1
3. LR Robinson 1-1
4. Magnolia 2-0
5. Shiloh 0-1
6. Farmington 2-0
7. Maumelle 2-0
8. Harrison 2-0
9. Nettleton 2-0
10. Wynne 1-0
11. Valley View 1-1
12. White Hall 1-1
13. Beebe 2-0
14. Alma 2-0
15. Morrilton 2-0
16. Little Rock Mills 2-0
17. Hot Springs 1-1
18. Prairie Grove 1-0
19. Pine Bluff 1-0
20. HS Lakeside 0-1
21. Vilonia 0-2
22. Batesville Southside 1-1
23. Batesville 1-1
24. Dardanelle 2-0
25. PB Watson Chapel 1-1
26. Hope 0-1
27. Pea Ridge 1-0
28. Clarksville 0-2
29. Brookland 1-1
30. Texarkana 1-1
31. Forrest City 0-2
32. Paragould 1-1
33. DeQueen 0-2
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Editor’s note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The TIMES. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted through The TIMES at prtnews@nwaonline.com.