The Fayetteville Purple Dogs and Rogers Mounties each came into this game with their minds on a playoff berth. Fayetteville is the defending state champions and is fresh off an impressive victory over the Bentonville West Wolverines 50-14. The Mounties came in after gaining a close win over the Rogers Heritage War Eagles. A win for either team gives them the opportunity to possibly compete for a 7-West Conference title.
The Rogers Mounties all season long have been able to jump out to quick starts and build up leads. Rogers was not able to accomplish that feat on Friday night against the Purple Dogs. The Fayetteville defense was able to get a key stop on the first drive of the game from the Purple Dogs’ two yard line. Fayetteville’s first drive would end with a Terrance Rock 80-yard touchdown run but Fayetteville would miss the extra point. Rogers would answer with 4:15 in the first quarter would answer when Mounties quarterback Max Horton would hit Jake Benninghoff on an 8-yard touchdown pass to give the Mounties the lead 7-6. Fayetteville would strike back quickly when Wake Forest commit Taylor Powell connected with Harrison Shipley on a 31 yard touchdown pass to make the score 13-7. The first quarter would come to a close after the Fayetteville’s Andrew Ellis picked off a Horton pass and returned it 54-yareds for a touchdown to make the score 19-7 Purple Dogs.
The second quarter would not see the scoreboard light up as much as the first quarter did on Friday night. Fayetteville running back Dan Hinton would run the ball in from 2-yards out to extend the lead to 26-7 Fayetteville. Rogers would tack on a field goal from Chris Lopez with 5:09 to go in the half to make the score Fayetteville 26-Rogers 10. The Mounties had opportunities to keep the half closer than that but just could not punch the ball in the end zone.
Rogers would open the scoring in the second half when Horton would once again find Benninghoff for a 70-yard touchdown pass. Rogers scoring early in the second half would make the score 26-17 Fayetteville. The Mounties would not get any closer than the nine point deficit. Taylor Powell would strike quickly hitting Brennon Lewis with a 35 yard touchdown pass with 4:55 to go in the third quarter and then two minutes later connecting with Barrett Banister on a 34-yard touchdown pass to make it 40-17.
The Mounties played Fayetteville tough but the final score would be 54-17. Rogers has improved tremendously over the course of a year and for Mounties’ fans they have plenty to be excited about. Both Fayetteville and Rogers should factor heavily into the playoff race if they continue to play well.