Without doubt, the Springdale Har-Ber Wildcats are the best 3-7 high school football team in the state. A slow start and one of the toughest schedules around left them with that record but they won when they had to, beating Rogers Heritage in week 10 to earn a five seed from the tradition-rich 7A-West Conference, earning a date with the Bryant Hornets Friday night in the first round of the playoffs.
The West had dominated the State finals in Class 7A over the last decade. Har-Ber, in fact, captured the 2009 title.
The Hornets, meanwhile, were playing for an unbeaten season and a Central Conference championship in Week 10. In a game in which they were deeply disappointed in their play, the Hornets’ suffered a 24-10 loss to the 10-0 Wampus Cats.
So Bryant enters the playoffs with an 8-1-1 record including eight wins in a row along the way. As the two seed from the Central, they’ll host the game with Har-Ber, which also played Conway early in the year, losing 31-15.
Now, with all due respect to the Wildcats and recent history, it’s bound to be a little galling that one high-profile prognostication group has made the Hornets a 1-point underdog and another made them only a tenuous favorite.
Will that add fuel to the fire for Bryant? Do the Hornets feel they have something to prove after their loss to Conway? Will they be looking to take out some frustration on the Wildcats?
Or did the team peak during their eight-game run? Did the loss to Conway take the starch out of them? Will the fact that the program is 2-14-1 against teams currently in the West since 1985 create doubt? Or determination?
We will see.
The Hornets and Wildcats appear to be similar teams: Tough defenses, particularly against the run, and offenses that feature the ground game.
Har-Ber has surrendered 1,679 yards rushing this season but 700 yards of that came against two Missouri teams they opened the season against. Bryant has given up 1,385 yards rushing but over 500 yards of that came against Conway and Little Rock Central.
On offense, the Wildcats, led by Luke Hannon’s 1,332 yards on 206 carries, has accumulated 2,570 yards rushing to the Hornets’ 2,297. Bryant’s top rushers Kylon Boyle (641 yards on 98 attempts) and Savonte Turner (550 yards on 90 totes) nearly match Hannon’s total. Boyle is expected to be healthy this week after rushing just twice against Conway due to an ankle injury.
“Har-Ber has a big, strong offensive line, a hard-running back,” said Hornets defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “They’ve shown a lot of 20 personnel (two running backs and three wideouts) but last week against Heritage they did run some 21 with a tight end (and two running backs, two wideouts).
“They’re similar in nature to some of the things we saw from Conway, a big, power football team,” he continued. “They do throw the ball. (Trey Smith) is an outstanding receiver. Their bread and butter, though, has been running the football.”
Smith has 25 catches for 238 yards this season. Quarterback Caleb Daniels is 52 of 120 for 733 yards, seven interceptions and six touchdowns.
“Hopefully, we’ll have benefitted from working hard against Conway last week, make a couple of corrections and be able to line up and be a little more effective getting three-and-outs and getting off the field,” Griffith concluded.
The Hornets’ quarterback and top receiver have similar numbers. Brandan Warner is 95 of 148 for 1,077 yards and five touchdowns but without an interception. Evan Lee is the top receiver with 27 grabs for 393 yards and four scores.
“They’re an even front defense,” said Bryant offensive coordinator Lance Parker regarding Har-Ber. “They’ve got four down guys. They’re probably going to be the best defensive front that we’ve played so far. They’re very physical and it looks like everybody that’s played them has had trouble running on them.
“We’re going to try to be balanced in our approach and have a little bit of everything,” he related. “That way, if they stop one phase, we’ve got a way we can move the ball.”
Regarding the Conway game, Parker said, “I think we did some good things. It’s been kind of the same story every year. We kind of self-destruct in the red zone, not necessarily things that (the opponent does) but things we do to ourselves. That happened Friday night. We had a lot of negative plays.
“The key, we thought, going into the game was to stay ahead of the chains and have the whole playbook on third down,” he added. “We just got into too many third and long yardages. We just haven’t been in that situation enough throughout the year to be very good at it. It’s one of those things. It’s why penalties are so important. You’ve got to stay ahead of the chains, especially when you don’t throw the ball down the field a ton.”
The game can be heard and viewed at www.bryantathletics.com or highschoolcube.com
BRYANT HORNETS
2014 stats through 10 games
Score by quarters
Opponent 26 45 42 27 — 140
BRYANT 69 110 53 79 — 311
Team stats
Oppt Bryant
First downs 157 182
Rushes-yds 340-1385 390-2,297
Passing 141-235-12 113-158-1
Passing yds 1,576 1,261
Fumbles-lost 25-14 13-10
Penalties-yds 41-439 69-539
INDIVIDUAL STATS:
Rushing: Boyle 98-641, Turner 90-550, Warner 95-464, Terry 34-200, Burks 34-171, Hunter 10-96, Tierney 6-64, Coleman 14-49, Schrader 3-30, Tucker 2-35, Dr.Alpe 4-7, Bonvillain 1-(-5).
Passing (C-A-I-Y): Warner 95-148-0-1,077 (5 TD), Burks 13-14-1-118 (2 TD), Bonvillain 3-4-0-34, Schrader 1-1-0-23, Jacobs 1-1-0-13, Lee 0-1-0-0.
Receiving: Lee 27-393, Turner 17-93, Orender 15-219, Boyle 14-130, Kelly 12-127, Royal 8-78, Terry 7-73, Tierney 6-58, Schrader 3-24, Hunter 2-12, Martindale 1-31, Hunt 1-13, L.Smith 1-10.
Scoring: Denker 61 (8 of 9 fg. {41, 45, 44, 48, 35, 28, 31, 38}, 38 of 39 PATs), Boyle 60 (10 td-r), Turner 42 (6 td-r, 1 td-rec.), Warner 36 (6 td-r), Burks 30 (5 td-r), Lee 24 (4 td-p), Kelly 8 (1 td-p, 1 conv.-p), Terry 6 (1 td-r), Bruick 6 (1 int.-ret), Chapdelaine 6 (1 int-ret.), Murdock 6 (1 td-bl.punt ret), Murray 6 (1 ko-ret), Royal 6 (1 td-rec), Tucker 6 (1 td-r), Ray 2 (2 of 2 PAT).
