FAYETTEVILLE DOMINATES SECOND HALF TO END BENTONVILLE'S STREAK

Casey Dick looked up at the large video board at the north end of Harmon Stadium and saw his team down by two touchdowns less than three minutes into Friday's 7A-West Conference showdown. When the final horn sounded, it was the Fayetteville football coach who had water dripping from his purple cap as the Bulldogs celebrated a 42-34 win, snapping Bentonville's 35-game conference winning streak in dominating fashion. "We talked to the team before the game about just believing," said Dick. "If you look back at the history of this game, it's always started fast one way or the other and the winning team has always had to come back. Our guys just played hard. They played their tails off. We had a couple of interceptions, a defensive touchdown. Guys just bought in and played. "This was just an awesome experience for high school football." Friday's game was a tale of two distinctly different halves. The first half was the offensive fireworks that most expected of the league's top two teams with Division I playmakers on both sidelines. Bentonville (5-2, 3-1 7A-West) jumped out to a 14-0 lead, taking the opening possession 80 yards in 5 plays, with Drew Wright hitting Tennessee commit Chas Nimrod on a 41-yard scoring strike. Two plays later the Tigers were celebrating another touchdown after Jackson Hutchens intercepted a Fayetteville pass to set up Wright's 40-yard scoring strike to Cooper Smith with 9 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first quarter. But the Bulldogs never quit, even after falling behind 14-0 and 21-7. Fayetteville's first score came via a forced fumble when Bentonville running back Josh Ficklin was stripped of the ball and Jaxon Taylor returned the fumble almost for a touchdown, getting tackled at the one. It was a sign of things to come for Bentonville and Taylor was involved most of the time. Fike and Oregon commit Isaiah Sategna brought Fayetteville (5-2, 4-0) all the way back at 21-21. Fike, who was 18 of 23 for 218 yards, hit Jalen Blackburn on a 16-yard scoring strike on a huge fourth-down play, then Sategna, on his first touch, ripped off a 67-yard scoring run on a reverse that made it 21-21. Bentonville drove 75 yards to take a 28-21 halftime lead. Ficklin accounted for 74 of the 75 yards including a 64-yard burst inside the Fayetteville 10-yard line. Wright scored on a quarterback sneak. In the first half, Ficklin rushed for 134 yards on 11 carries. He had 6 yards on 6 carries in the second half. The Tigers forced a Sategna fumble on the opening kickoff of the third quarter and got a Logan Tymeson field goal to go up 31-21. But from that point on, the Bulldogs completely shut down Bentonville's offense. After Fike hit Lach McKinney on a 27-yard scoring strike that pulled the Bulldogs within 31-28, Taylor came up with the play of the game, stepping in front of a Wright pass and returning the interception 46 yards for the go-ahead touchdown with 6:00 left in the third quarter. "That pick-six was huge. It was huge," said Fayetteville secondary coach Devonte Britt of Taylor's return. "At that point in the game we were reeling a little bit and we needed that. It really changed the game. Jaxon Taylor, I love that kid. He works hard and I'm glad to see him go and make that play." The Bulldogs added an insurance touchdown midway through the fourth quarter when Fike found Dylan Kittell on an 8-yard score to make it 42-31. Tymeson kicked a 38-yard field goal with 1:21 left to keep it a one-possession game, but the Tigers were unable to come up with the ball on an onside kick and Fayetteville ran out the clock. "In the second half Fayetteville did a really good job of stopping the run," said Bentonville Coach Jody Grant. "They brought pressure and we couldn't handle it. We just didn't make plays and they did. They played a really nice second half and wanted it a little bit more than we did in the second half."

FAYETTEVILLE DOMINATES SECOND HALF TO END BENTONVILLE'S STREAK

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