Bentonville stuns Bryant with dominant semifinal win

Bentonville advances to play Fayetteville in the Class 7A final next weekend

BRYANT — Big plays allowed Bentonville to outscore Bryant 24-7 in the third quarter and end the Hornets’ bid to win six consecutive state championships with a 52-35 victory Friday night at Hornet Stadium. 

Carter Nye threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Luke Coon, a 49-yard pass to University of Arkansas commit CJ. Brown, Ryan Fernstrom kicked a 25-yard field goal after Simeon MItchell fumbled the kickoff. After Jordan Walker threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Carson Trickey, Nye threw a 21-yard pass to Luke Coon to make it 45-28.

As a result, Bentonville (9-3) will meet rival Fayetteville in the Class 7A state finals on Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. 

Three takeaways

1.

Nye and his wide receivers Brown and Coon came up with big plays all night. Nye completed 15-of-27 passes for 238 yards and 4 touchdowns and was not sacked all night. Brown caught 5 passes for 127 yards and 1 touchdown. Coon caught 6 passes for 104 yards and 3 touchdowns.

"Our quarterback is playing his best football, and he is confident and doing what we need to do and it’s fun to watch,” said Bentonville head coach Jody Grant. "Luke Coon is phenomenal. C.J. Brown is playing phenomenal football. They brought some heat, and our offensive line did a wonderful job handling it.”

Grant said the big plays were needed with both teams tied at 21 at halftime. “We talked to them at halftime, and we had to have a big-time quarter and we had to take advantage of the first few possessions,” said Grant. “Our kids played their guts out and that’s what we asked them to.”

While Nye, Brown and Coon helped take charge of the game in the third quarter, Bryant head coach Quad Sanders took the blame for the fact his team didn’t seem to make the necessary adjustments to stop the Tigers.

“You saw it,” said Sanders. “They took control of the third quarter. I didn’t have them ready. It’s all on me. I didn’t have them ready. We fought back for a while. The kids didn’t quit and then the wheels fell off. I need to do a better job of having them ready to play.”

2.

Bryant ran the ball effectively in the first half, picking up 206 yards rushing on 22 attempts. Myron Thrash had 121 of his 126 yards in the first half with touchdown runs of 15, 70 and 26 yards. However, in the second half, he had 5 yards on 2 carries. James Martin had 87 yards on 15 carries in the first half and finished 113 yards on 22 carries. As team, Bryant finished with 302 yards on 45 attempts.

Grant said Bentonville adjusted slow down Bryant’s running game in the second half, although scoring 17 unanswered points put Bryant in a situation where it had to play catch up and not focus on the running game.

“Defensively, we knew how hard it was to tackle their backs. You can see it on their first couple possessions, they ran the ball down our throats. Our kids played really hard. We thought we could come down here and do certain things and we did that tonight.”

Sanders said, “Once we fell behind, they got stops at the right time and when they started scoring, it takes you out of your run game. They had control of the game from start to finish.”

When asked about struggling in the passing game. Jordan Walker completed 14-of-26 passes for 206 yards and 3 touchdown, Sanders said given how well Bryant ran the ball in the first half, there wasn’t much of a reason to throw the ball.

“You can say that but when you are running well, there’s no reason to throw. Once they knew we had to pass, we were in trouble. Once we got behind, they knew we had to pass,” said Sanders.

3.

A year ago, Bentonville lost 36-7 to Bryant in the state finals with the Hornets scoring 36 unanswered after spotting Bentonville a 7-0 lead when the Tigers recovered a fumble in the end zone. This year, Grant said his team used that loss as motivation, making Friday’s victory extra special.

Sanders said Bentonville wasn’t any different than what he saw a year ago, but said the Tigers were determined not to end their season with a loss to Bryant again.

“They came in with more experience and they had it on their mind that they were not going to lose again,” said Sanders. “A great job of execution by those guys and their coaches knowing what the situation was and they did it.”

--Jeff Halpern

Photo by Rick Nation