Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Farmington’s Junior Cardinals Thump Pea Ridge
The junior Cardinals dominated Pea Ridge from start to finish in junior high football action on their way to a 32-0 nonconference victory at home Thursday, Sept. 14.
“The finish was a little worse than the start,” said Pea Ridge coach Nathan Claytor. “The second half got away from us. We had 6A last week, we had 5A this week. We’ll go start conference next week.”
At times Pea Ridge (0-3, 0-0 4A-1) was able to move the ball through the air, but they never could find the end zone. The junior Blackhawks lined up in formations Farmington (3-0) didn’t expect.
“We hadn’t seen that double stack and trip stuff. They hadn’t done that on film,” said Farmington coach Tracy Sutton. “In the second half we made our adjustments and did a much better job.”
On the second play from scrimmage the ball popped loose and wound up in the hands of Farmington’s Trey Hill, who returned the fumble 34 yards for a defensive touchdown. Junior Cardinal quarterback Tate Sutton passed to Tate Pickens for a 2-point conversion and Farmington led 8-0, 49 seconds into the game.
Tracy Sutton said the ball changed hands so fast he wasn’t sure how the junior Cardinals gained control. Tracy Sutton noted Terrion Swift disrupted the play by penetrating the backfield and making a hit on the ball carrier. He was pleased with the end result.
“Trey Hill came out of there with it and ran into the end zone,” Sutton said, explaining, “We talk about scoop and scoring every day.”
Tracy Sutton said the staff emphasizes picking the football up and trying to score instead of simply falling on a fumble. He felt for Hill, who after making the highlight reel, sustained a broken collarbone while making a tackle less than two minutes later.
“He’s a great kid. He’s a good player, that’s going to be tough,” Tracy Sutton said.
Following an exchange of punts, Collin Hummel intercepted a Pea Ridge pass, but the junior Blackhawks got the ball back by recovering a Farmington fumble on the next play.
“It took us a little while to get going,” Tracy Sutton said, noting the junior Cardinals had a good week of practice coming into the game.
Farmington led 8-0 after one period of play. Pea Ridge mounted a drive starting with a short field after taking over at the 50. The junior Blackhawks converted a pair of fourth downs. Logan Stewart completed a 21-yard pass to Zak Withrow on fourthand-11, then hooked up with Cole Brown to move the chains on fourth-and-four at Farmington’s 14. The drive ended when Farmington’s Joshua Cartwright picked off a pass at the sideline. Tracy Sutton praised his play.
“Joshua Cartwright made a good pick. If he hadn’t fell down, it might have been a ‘pick six.’”
The junior Blackhawks were lucky because nobody stood between Cartwright and a distant goal line some 90 yards away, but they suffered a defensive letdown in the last 1:22 of the half.
Farmington turned the possession into a 54 second, 91-yard scoring drive in eight plays aided by a pass interference penalty against Pea Ridge. DeCory Thomas’ 27-yard run jumpstarted the march, which was capped by a 45-yard touchdown pass from Tate Sutton to Hayden Cox with 26 seconds left before intermission. Tate Sutton ran in the 2-point conversion and Farmington extended their lead to 16-0.
Pea Ridge began the second half with an onside kick but Farmington was alert. Andrew Wagoner recovered and Farmington took over with another short field at their own 46. Thomas picked up 33 yards on two carries and Tate Sutton’s keeper converted a third-and-seven. Thomas finished the drive with a 9-yard touchdown run. Tate Sutton again passed to Tate Pickens for a 2-point conversion and the junior Cardinals held a three-score advantage of 24-0 at the 4:15 mark of the third.
Pea Ridge tried to answer, running off nine plays, but Farmington’s James Payne recognized a fourth-down screen pass and held Brown to a 2-yard gain. The turnover on downs set up a 10-play, 57-yard drive that actually traveled 70 yards because of a block-inthe-back penalty. Thomas scored on a sweep, juking away from the only defender who had a shot at him. The 14-yard run was followed by Tate Sutton’s 2-point run leaving Pea Ridge in a 32-0 deficit with 5:31 showing.
The junior Blackhawks got a good kick return from Cole Travis and sent out their offense three yards shy of mid-field. Trevor Blair kept their hopes alive by catching a pass for 28 yards on fourth-and-14. Logan Walker’s 6-yard run brought the junior Blackhawks to Farmington’s 15 with a first down, but the drive ended with Jackson Boudrey’s sack of Jake Ingram.