There’s always mystery about who will win a State championship. Yes, the Bryant Hornets are favored after winning two titles in a row. They’re undefeated and really untried except by a loaded team from Cedar Hill, Texas.
Sure, the Bentonville Tigers are unbeaten and champions of the 7A-West.
Both teams have pretty much pummeled every in-state team they’ve played.
But nothing is certain. That’s why you play the games. Any given Friday night, as they say.
Tonight, the Hornets host Springdale Har-Ber, the fourth seed from the West, which advanced past Fort Smith Northside, 49-28, last week. Meanwhile, Bentonville takes on Cabot, which moved on with a 48-14 win over Rogers.
It’s the third time the Hornets and Wildcats have met. All three meetings have been in the playoffs with Bryant winning the previous two meetings in 2014 and 2016.
Of course, this season there’s another factor that could upset the proverbial apple cart and that’s Covid-19. Every team has a player or a few that’s been quarantined because they’ve come into contact with someone with the virus. There’s even been a few players that have been out due to catching it.
That can change the dynamics in a hurry and it’s why the coaches are doing all they can to keep their teams well. It’s a challenge that none of them have had to deal with before and they’re all trying to implement best practices against an unpredictable virus.
It means every game could be your last, whether it’s by defeat or by virus.
“That’s what I told our team Wednesday,” said Hornets head coach Buck James. “You know today is the last day of a real practice for one of the two teams and I said, ‘Are you ready for that? Because any time you go out there, that could be your last day to be a high school football player. For a lot of you the last time you’ll ever play football.’
“It has to be important,” he asserted. “It has to be something that you feel passionate about; something that you want to try to improve on, and try to make better and create memories that will last for a lifetime.
“We’ve got a few quarantined,” the coach acknowledged. “But it’s the same thing we have every week, we just plug another guy in, and they do what they’ve got to do. We’ve got depth. We can create depth. We practice our guys the same. I mean if you’re the first group, second group or third group, you get as many reps as a guy on the first group does.
“We’re not surprised after practice how a guy performs in a game, because they get a chance to do it in practice and, if they don’t perform well in practice, they generally don’t perform well in games,” he explained. “It’s sort of the unique way we practice and prepare kids. There’s no hidden agenda. We know exactly what we’re going to get when we put someone out there.”
Har-Ber won last week despite starting a senior who hadn’t thrown a pass in a game since he was a sophomore. He wound up completing 13 of 22 passes for 253 yards and five touchdowns. The starter, junior Drue McClendon, was out due percussion protocols. For the season, McClendon has passed for 1,364 yards and 18 touchdowns. He’s also run for 318 yards and five scores.
Running back Hudson Brewer has rushed for 1,438 yards and 16 touchdowns this season.
As a team, the Wildcats have piled up 4,063 yards of total offense while giving up 3,600 yards. They’ve scored 27.7 points per game while giving up 28.7.
James didn’t hesitate to say Har-Ber is better than its 5-6 record this season.
“They’re a good football team,” he asserted. “They were picked second in the conference by the coaches (in the league). They got a very good offensive and defensive line. I think the thing they lack the most is just team speed. But they’re very well-schooled. They play hard. They just had some bad luck.
“There’s two (Har-Ber) teams that play,” he related. “There’s a team that plays really well and competes with anybody and then there’s a team that doesn’t play very well and makes a lot of mistakes and then gives other teams a lot of chances. They seem to be getting it straightened out a little bit. I thought they played very well against Northside. We’re definitely expecting their best. They’ve got a good football team. They’ve got some guys who can really play football.”
The Hornets have outscored their 10 opponents 502-149.
In a first-round win over Rogers Heritage, the starters only played in the first half and they kept it mostly on the ground where the Hornets piled up 238 yards rushing. Tanner Anderson was just 4 yards shy of 100 for the half. He goes into tonight’s game needing 116 yards to reach 1,000 for the season.
Senior quarterback Austin Ledbetter threw only 10 times, completing seven for 86 yards. Hayden Schrader caught four of those passes for 54 yards to push him past 1,000 yards receiving so far this season. For the season, Ledbetter is 132 of 208 for 2,374 yards and 32 touchdowns, while playing little more than a half of each game.
Bryant’s offense has produced 4,885 yards this season, while the defense has given up 2,858.
The team’s top tacklers are linebacker Hart Penfield and defensive end Rodricho Martin.
“I thought we had a really good week,” James said of his team’s preparation. “You know, it’s been sort of a different kind of week for some reason, but our kids have responded. I thought we had a really good practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I thought our kids were sharp. I thought they competed.
“I thought defensively we looked really good on Wednesday,” he added. “I mean we’ve learned to practice well. We’ve learned to do what we’re supposed to do, and we understand our roles and I think that’s helped us as well.”
And, in regard to that depth the coach mentioned, he had praise for the reserves that played the second half. The Hornets dressed out 100 players and got about 85 into the game.
“I thought our defense played really well (in the second half),” James said. “I mean there’s some guys that stepped up and competed and played very, very well for us.
“Offensively, we just did a few things here in there to shoot us in the foot, but I thought they performed well,” he added. “It was good for us. They played in a high school football game really for entire half and won the half, 3-0, if you want to look at it that way. You know, I like to compete in everything I do. That’s the way I looked at it. Our guys went out there and won the second half.
“I thought Heritage played hard. They didn’t quit. They competed very well and I was proud of our kids the way they hung in there will them.”
