Alright, and Little Rock and size.

It's the highest classification in high school football in the state of Arkansas.

It's the seven, A state championship game between the Bryant Hornets and the Bentonville Tigers.

Elbow one, I'm RJ Hawk, along with Bobby Swafford for tonight's clash of Titans.

In the state of Arkansas and Bobby, you see this matchup on paper and you're like, whoa.

You think of 7A.

And over the last four years it's been the Bryant Hornets.

It's been all domination of the Bryant Hornets.

They've won the last four state championship games.

But if you're in the media, if you're a fan of 7-8 football this year, you've been waiting for this matchup.

This is the matchup you've been waiting five years for, to be quite honest.

Because Bentonville dominated the first half of the teams, right?

So 2013 through 2015, they were the team that was in a Little Rock.

Or you're playing for a championship in the last couple of years, coach Jody Grant said earlier this week.

They didn't do their part.

They didn't do enough to get here.

They always stumbled in that quarterfinal round.

Could not set up that date with Bryant.

But now we got two Titans in Arkansas scoring off for the state's largest championship.

Well, let's look how they got here, because the playoff Rd for both these teams has been interesting.

Bryant pretty much dominated its way through its side of the bracket.

Bobby, a lot of people thought that this was going to be a Bryant Cabot matchup, and Bentonville took care of that side of the bracket.

It was all about defense.

In the semifinals, Bryant's defense and special teams forced a lot of turnovers.

That's why they coasted past Conway.

But Bentonville defense came up huge.

Of course, special teams, they kick a field goal in the last 10 seconds of that game.

But you look at Bentonville defense throughout this entire season, going all the way back to week two, they've been giving up maybe a dozen points for a game.

That's where Bentonville is so much better than their competition most times on that defensive side of the football, because they make you earn every inch, let alone give the yard.

Now, we've talked so much about these two teams and how good they are.

Let's talk about the coaches for just a moment, because you've got Jody Grant at Bentonville and you've got Buck James at Bryant at the respective schools.

But James has 77 wins.

Jodie got 79 wins.

I mean, you've got two really good coaches.

Yeah, and they also, but we should have more wins.

But they always get first round byes, so they're kind of cheating themselves a little bit.

But I mean, that's the epitome of having a good program.

It all starts with having a good coach who starts everything from the foundation.

And both of these coaches know that you win games and the Class 7A up front and these two.

Lines both offensively and defensively are gonna be impressive to watch it.

It's gonna be a lot of fun.

And you know we had some rain that came through earlier today but it's all cleared out.

They were saying I was looking at the forecast a month ago and we'll get to it later, but we could have the temperature get up to around 62 by halftime.

Yeah, this is not what you expect that first week in December.

But you know the the crowds a little late arriving.

It's been kind of misting all day in Little Rock and so but hey, it means they're watching at home on television, on Arkansas, PBS.

And like last year we saw a great one.

Between Bryant and Fayetteville, I think a good ones on tap tonight, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

I know there's a lot of folks that I looked out the back window of the press box right before we went on.

There's actually a line down 630 in and around Fair Park of people trying to get into this game and so it'll be a good one.

We will go over keys to the game as well as players to watch when we come back as you're watching the Centennial Bank State Football championships on Arkansas PBS Sports.

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7A State Championship game between the Bryant Hornets and the Bentonville Tigers and Bobby.

It's now time to go over some players to watching this one, and we'll first start with Bentonville, where they've got an outstanding wide receiver in CJ Brown.

You automatically think of running backs in the running game when you talk about Bentonville, but CJ Brown #2 you can see on the screen there makes the Play action game so dangerous for this squad.

66 catches already more than 1200 yards.

Of the season and 16 touchdowns in just the 12 games.

A huge impact player on the outside on the other side of the football for Bryant.

James Martin, the running back.

His run for 107 carries this year and has scored 17 touchdowns.

Yeah that's 17 touchdowns is impressive and the numbers don't jump off the stat sheet mainly because when we say this every year cause Bryant plays about 1/2.

You know they've they've invoked the mercy rule on so many teams.

But you're talking about 624 yards on just 107 carries.

So about 6 yards of carry.

But you find paydirt that many times in 12 games.

That's obviously a reason why you're watching #23 on your screen.

Well, let's go down the sideline and check in with the third member of our broadcast team, Dorian, Kraft and Dorian.

Before the game, I knew you had a chance to talk with Jody Grant about Benville having to raise their level of play for this football season.

Thanks.

RJ's head coach Jody Grant admitted that before each of the last two seasons, all of the head coaches in the seven A W have gotten together to talk about how they could collectively raise their game to compete with the teams in the seven A central.

The central has dominated the conference.

Over the last six years, starting with North Little Rock, winning in 2017 before Bryant has won four in a row, Grant said he thought his 2020 team had what it took to knock off Bryant, but they didn't take care of business in the quarterfinals against Abbott.

He feels this year's team is just as good as that 2020 squad, if not better, and Grant said today it is all about executing the game plan.

Thank you, Dorian.

And you know, it's pretty interesting that all the Northwest Arkansas teams got together and said, OK, what have we got to do to?

To get his title back up here, and they really thought they had a great chance last year.

You go back to the the Bryant victory over Fayetteville 42 to 38.

The Purple Dogs had three turnovers in the red zone.

Still had a chance on the last play of the game.

So the gap, maybe it's closing a little bit, but Brian's ready to kick that door back open and win championship #5 in a row tonight.

And let's talk about that just for a moment.

Nobody in high school football in Arkansas in the playoff era has ever won five straight.

Yeah, you have to go back to Little Rock high school, to that last time that anybody's ever done it.

At all.

But in the playoff area, it's amazing what they've done.

They're one of only three teams to ever do it at all.

He got to go back to the 80s when Barton last did it with four state championships in a row, and you add the fact that it's the largest classification.

It's impressive.

You add the fact that they've beaten Arkansas based schools 52 times in a row, 14 of those in the playoffs.

There's a reason they're they are the litmus test.

They are the, I guess, the pecking order, if you will, of Arkansas high school football.

Well, there are the Bentonville Tigers as they make their way onto the playing surface here at War Memorial Stadium.

And they are the challenger tonight for the defending champs, the Brian Hornets as they're making their way out of the tunnel.

As Bobby just talked about, 52 straight wins against Arkansas opponents and they are the defending state champions for Class 7A.

It's going to be a fun one tonight Bobby, as both teams are are making their way on and Bryant wearing their traditional blue uniforms and Bentonville with their Rd white uniforms.

I I saw it in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Probably that Bryant is almost made this their second home between the Salt Bowl and state championship games.

They played a lot of games here at Wal States, a short drive up the Interstate and of course you gotta deal with the construction.

Maybe we'll get that done eventually.

But I mean they they they wear out that path here to War Memorial Stadium.

Doesn't matter which sideline they've been on there.

They've been very successful.

Obviously the dominance and the saw pole, the dominance here in the seven Day State championship game.

But what's it going to be like today with Bentonville?

I think to me RJ, the biggest factor in this game this Bentonville.

Limit the number of possessions, AKA not turn the football over to Brett Bryant's defense is borderline elite and what we've seen this year you they they really good about taking the football away.

Bentonville got protected and value those possessions well, let's go before both teams get going, let's take a look at the weather.

For this one.

It's going to be a no.

I'm not going to say a cold start, but 54 degrees current temperature could get up to around 62 by halftime.

Not much wind and the chance of rain is pretty much moved down only about 1310 to 13% depending on the forecast.

Did you look at and so absolutely perfect conditions for the 7-8 state championship?

A lot warmer than you would expect in the first weekend of December.

But yeah, we'll take it.

Perfect night.

Fans are starting to trickle in.

The student sections are living large.

Bitten goes about to receive the opening kickoff as Bryant won the opening toss and left him to the fur, so on to kick.

For the Bryant Hornets, it's gonna be Malachi Graham as he's got his foot, his hand in the air, back deep.

For Bentonville.

They've got CJ Brown footballs in the air as Bryant won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second-half.

And it's taken by Thomas Seko and he'll bring it all the way out to the 31 yard line before he's finally brought down.

For the start of the Bentonville Tigers run here in the state title game.

So now we're gonna get a look at this big Bentonville offensive line and coach Buck James told us this week it looks like a college offensive line.

They're gonna average 28290 up front.

And of course you got to start with the big man, Joey SUA himself.

He's committed to play at Arkansas.

So keep an eye on him as he's he can move some bodies up front, that's for certain.

First and 10 from the 26 yard line.

That's where the officials officially marked him down.

Four Broncos was up to that point.

So Benville will get started.

This Carter Nine is the quarterback for the Tigers.

He's gonna look to throw early on in this one and finds a guy just on a easy little pass out in the flat to get some yardage to get this thing going.

Yeah CJ Brown, you gotta find a way to get him involved in the offense early catch #67 but that's also a confidence through RJ that first.

It's like that first free throw that gets you rolling and confidence wise on the basketball court.

Now easy throw to the flat now it's the 2nd and short second play of the game.

And Bobby one thing about state championships nerves run high if you're.

Especially when you're taking on a four time defending state champion, you're your nerves are an all time high to start the ball game as they're gonna run the football straight up the middle.

This time it's Fickling.

Ficklin is gonna go all the way up to the 43 yard line and that'll be a first down for the Tigers.

Yeah, that's what the bread and butter for this Bentonville team is.

We've got to find a way to get him the football right up the middle.

You can see he's a player to watch.

Nearly 1500 yards on the ground all the year.

2 wide receivers in the formation as nine.

The quarterback has a wing.

That set off the right side of the formation just underway here in the first quarter of the 7A state championship game.

And the Bryant Hornets in the backfield that time got penetration and we're able to bring down four of the first loss of the ball game.

It's gonna be a 3 yard loss to bring up second down and 13.

Bobby, this is an offense or a defense for the Hornets that is only giving up eleven points a game.

Immediate pressure on the inside there.

From Tyler Mosley, you can see why he had 18 1/2 tackles for a loss coming to this contest.

He just beats the right tackle off the off the line, off the snap and a big play in the back.

Second down and 13 with the ball to 40 yard line.

Carter and I gonna fake the handoff and he's got a man that's his receiver out in the flats that time for the Bentonville Tigers and was Eli Brooks.

Brooks coming into this ball game with 18 receptions for 340 yards and six touchdowns.

That's a great job by Brian to get out there and try to get a blocker out in front, but there's having none of it's great open field tackle in space that gets to carrier to the ground.

That's brilliant.

Bennett, who made the stop, got a diamond formation on the top side of the formation for Bentonville.

Now it's gonna be under pressure early, has a play downfield, and it's broken up that time for the Bryant Hornets.

Miguel Graham came in to knock that one away and it's 4th down for the Tigers.

Yeah, Bentonville decided to go empty backfield.

Nobody back there with nine to provide extra protection at free runner right up the middle.

Blew that play up from the start.

Midville picked up a first down to start this game.

Now they're forced to put it away.

Logan Thomason on to punt for the Tigers back deep for the Bryant Hornets.

They'll have Drake, Fowler, he'll stand at the 19 yard line.

Back it up.

Everybody on the home side more so the.

People outside the team box and then the team box, so no sideline in the morning, just try to get everybody settled in.

So they get everything set and time.

Mason is going to put a foot into it.

It's a high spiraling kick that Fowler's gonna call fair catch at the 16 yard line.

And so that's where the Bryant Hornets will have it.

First in 10 for their first drive of the ball game.

So Brian's defense weathered the early storm.

Now, can Bentonville do the same?

Of course, the Tigers, they want to try to play for the league.

Bryant is used to playing with the lead.

Now we're going to get our first look at the big stud running back, Martin.

How much are they going to go to him?

Or maybe they use?

It was a decoy.

Maybe play action and try big ball over the top.

Well, they're gonna go with four wide receivers in the formation to start this first drive as Walker, Jordan Walker is the quarterback and he'll just hand it off to Martin to start things off.

And just like that, that good defensive line for the Bentonville Tigers didn't allow him to get much, only a 2 yard gain and that'll bring up second down an 8.

That's a really nice job at the point of attack by Bentonville that they have to establish them themselves up front.

It's all going to start with Trevor Martinez all the defensive line for Bentonville.

He's committed to play in Oklahoma State.

He has to be able to control that front to allow his linebackers to get out and make plays.

See right there, the Hornet play playmakers for the ball game and they're gonna send four wide in this formation and Walker's going to look to throw.

He'll get one, try to get it to Gannaway, but threw it behind him and the ball is rolled into the end zone and that's going to be a touchdown for the Bentonville Tigers.

He threw behind getaway.

Getaway couldn't get to it.

It rolled to the end zone.

Bentonville got on top of.

That's the one thing you can't afford to happen in that moment, RJ.

That was a clear lateral, backwards pass.

There are going to review it as we do have instant replay here in the state finals.

But that was a clear and obvious passing that backwards in the scrub for the football in the end zone.

And it looks like bentonville's #49.

Logan Roberson pounces on the football and the Tigers get a huge break in an early lead.

Bobby, you can see right there off that replay what?

You know the way.

You can always tell what the way the player has to adjust the football.

He actually had a turn back towards the end zone and it was a backwards pass and so the first points are defensive points for the Bentonville Tigers.

As the extra point by Thomason is on coming, it's just a mistake you can't make if you're Bryant.

You've made that throw literally 1000 times throughout games and practices all season, any of the mosque at the most inopportune time of the season and that, that is good and that's going to take us to our first.

Frank where the Benville Tigers, they strike first and they lead the Brian Horn at 7 to nothing.

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Here's a here's a look at that backwards pass.

Once again, that was just thrown behind Gannaway and it just went rolled right in the end zone.

And that's the first touchdown of the ball game for the Bentonville Tigers and.

Now Brian's gonna get the football back and look at this formation by the Tigers on the kickoff.

This is.

It looks like they were gonna come out and try to do an onside kick and said, Oh well, we'll just fake them out there, you know, but it could work to where, you know, you've seen teams do it and they do kick the onside gift.

Bryant wasn't ready and didn't converge that frontline together.

Maybe you try it.

So the kickoff is away and it'll sail to the end zone and through the back end.

And so Brian will get it first and 10 from the 20 yard line.

And Bobby now, now you've got your first drive out of the way and you know you and I were talking in the break.

You know, for Jordan Walker, he was not the starting quarterback last year for the Bryant Hornets.

And so you think nerves, even though that they they've done what they've done this year, 11 and O, you got to think being in a state championship game as the starting quarterback, you might have a little bit of nerves for this one.

Yeah, you automatically assume that, yeah, this is the fifth straight year that there's no nurse, but some of these guys didn't play on the field like you're talking about.

So that throw off the mark and you gotta settle down and now how can you respond?

They're gonna hand it to Martin and he'll have a running lane and he'll get it out to the 26 yard line.

Nice run that time by James Martin, who as we talked about, came in with 606 yards of rushing yards and 17 touchdowns.

Between him and Gannaway, they've equated for 1100 yards of total offense.

You know, sometimes the quick throw, those little little swing passes or slants, the way to get to quarterback settled in.

Also handing it off to a powerful olimex.

Pretty good way to settle into Walker's gonna look to throw in.

Try to keep it himself and he'll he'll be bottled up in the backfield.

Had nowhere to go.

Nice job by Bentonville as they were able to seal the edge and leading the charge that time.

For the Bentonville Tigers, it was Sam Jeffus, the outside linebacker.

Yeah, great job of keeping contained on the outside and forcing the Bryant quarterback to stop his momentum going to the outside trying to plant and come back in, and the rest of the Bentonville defense there to swarm and drop him for a loss.

What was your shot of Jordan Walker for the Hornets?

He used the signal caller.

And they're gonna bring out four wide, no five wide receivers in the formation.

Walker will look to throw.

Gonna throw it down out of bounds and.

It'll bring up 4th down now for the Hornets.

What coverage there by Bentonville, they only rush three so they're dropping 8 and that's why he had all day to throw it.

But nice job defensively to keep Brian everything in front.

You know they've got to run something past the sticks, get a first down and Bentonville defense has certainly you're a rose to the challenge so far, the 1st 4 minutes of this contest.

So on the punt is Malachi Graham for the Hornets.

And it's a low snap.

Yeah, nice punt.

That'll be taken at the 40 yard line.

Working the balls.

Q Martin, RQ brown, excuse me.

And he'll take it out to the 50 yard line.

And so Bentonville will have great field position to start their second drive of the ball game and they'll start from the 50 yard line here in the 7A state Championship game.

If you want to join the football conversation with RJ and I just jump on social media, use the hashtag AARP BS sports.

Crowd still rolling in here at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock at expect a big crowd for this 7A state championship game.

So Bentonville, it's going to break their huddle.

Caught her now being the shotgun with thick, thick one right behind him.

He'll take the hand off and get back to the 50 yard line, maybe the 49.

They are going to mark him at the 49.

So it's a 1 yard game.

You don't think of a drive in the first quarter as as an important one, but Bentonville taking over in midfield, your defense is already giving you two stops including a score.

How big of confidence wise would it be for the guys across the way and the white uniforms to get a nice drive going offensively?

Can push that advantage 2 scores.

SO2 wide receivers are gonna line up on the left side of the formation.

They faked the handoff and looked to throw again, and that's just going to be off the fingertips of Carsten Pate.

And that'll bring up third down now for the Tigers, and I had just off the mark there.

But he has been accurate all season long.

2800 yards through the air and this touchdown to interception ratio is borderline amazing.

28 touchdown, just three interceptions for the Bentonville quarterback on the season.

Yeah, they efficiency rating for Carter Nye has been really out the roof and 2835 yards this year is what he's produced for the Tigers.

Four wide receivers in the formation.

Has now he's gonna roll out and he's under duress and he'll throw it out of bounds to bring up 4th down.

And Bobby this is this is one thing you're gonna see how this ball game two really good defenses.

You know that defensive score for Bentonville points are going to be hard to get in this one.

Yeah.

And they've done it in different ways so far on 3rd and long.

The two times that Bentonville faced it.

Bryant brought pressure right up the middle.

They're trying to force me off the spot, make him move his feet, make a throw on the run.

While Bentonville did not bring pressure they rushed only three, dropped 8 and that chess match is going on.

That's a big stop.

Bryant's defense as they hold Bentonville right there in midfield.

You know, we talked about it in the onset, that Bryant was only giving up eleven points a game.

Benville was only giving up 17 points a game.

And Fowler's gonna be back to receive this punt, and he'll let it go over his head, bounce, and it will go out of bounds to hit the pylon.

And so that's gonna be a touchback boy.

That's about 6 inches from being as good as it gets.

You're exactly right.

And I I think back to the Cam, little hit off the top of the goalpost.

You don't see the ball hit the pylon or the little goal post very, or the pylon very often.

You're exactly right.

If that's 6 inches closer to us right here at midfield, that is a perfect.

But a big break there for Brian's as they get to stretch it out and not under the shadow of their own goal post and.

The the Bryant coaching staff was on the field asking why the ball was in the middle of the field.

They were saying it needed to be on the near hash mark and so the officials moved the ball and there will be 3 wide in the formation on that top side, one to the near side.

Walker's gonna look to throw and he'll have his first completion of the ball game.

But there is a penalty flag down that was thrown by the umpire and Bobby, normally when you had that penalty flag, it's usually in the area of holding.

Yeah, the flag flies from the umpire right in the middle of the field.

It's never good for those offensive lineman.

If you want, if you're also wondering why the ball's not on the actual hash, those are of course the college hash marks high school hashes a little bit wider.

Our official today is Bryant Derek personal foul hands to the face defense, 15 yard penalty will result in a first down and This is why you don't assume penalties because you usually you you predict holding and then you get a defensive penalty.

Here's a look at the penalty.

You see it right there at the bottom of your screen.

91 got his hands up too high and you're starting to see that a lot more in football at all levels because they're teaching defensive players to play with their hands a lot more.

Consider this firing off and hitting people with their helmet on their shoulders.

By the way, on that reception for the Hornets that was case and tricky, who has 339 yards and six touchdowns for the Hornets this year?

And here's Walker with a low throw.

But I tell you Bobby if that would have been a good throw it may have been a pick.

Yeah it's a good thing that he short hopped that one cause Jay two took some Seco was was right there.

He might have walked in for his second defensive score for Bentonville.

So I have Walker might have seen that and kind of short hopped it.

So that brings up second down in 10 for the Hornets the balls at the 35 yard line.

Walker fakes the handoff, gonna look to throw, and he loses the handle on the football and he falls on it back inside the 25 yard line.

They're gonna mark him down at the 22 that just slipped out of his hand.

Yeah, that was a clear RPO run pass option that Reed wasn't there to hand it off.

He thought he saw something in the passing game, but a nice job defensively by Bentonville to jump back and now we'll have to see what the call was.

Honestly, if he threw the ball there, RJ would have been illegal lineman downfield.

His left guard was about 9 yards past the line of scrimmage.

So there's kind of wait and see.

What the.

Yeah, they're over there talking with the Bentonville.

Coaching staff holding offense that penalties declined.

They're down.

Yeah.

And you see it right there.

The penalty is on.

Come, Taylor.

Yeah, you you can't ask your ask your offense alignment block for that long.

Yeah.

With Clemson that that's supposed to be either a run play or a quick pass and you can't expect them to block for three or four seconds.

And more times than not you're gonna get that illegal lineman downfield or a holding call and that chance.

We saw both of them.

So it's third down and 21 with the ball at the 24 yard line.

Walker will.

Set up and.

He'll have Martin set to his right.

He's under pressure and he got hit and he finally gets taken down.

There was I believe on these sack for Bentonville, it was Nick Stone who led the way.

You kind of a different defensive formation there no one in a 3 point stance, nobody with the hand on the ground for Bentonville.

So Bryant protection maybe didn't know who was coming and once the pocket started to break down the Walker had nowhere to go and he is just swallowed up first man to get there.

As you mentioned the rivers Wiseman.

81 and stone followed that one up and now here's the punt by Graham and it will be taken by Q Brown at the 40 yard line and he'll bring it up to the 50 and that's where things will end for him at the 50 yard line.

You know, one thing that we we've talked about, we've got great punt returners in this game, got great punters.

In fact, for Bryant to their punter Malachi Graham has an average right now of 40 yards a punt, but as long as this year was 67 yards.

Now we'll see what Bentonville's offense can do.

Second straight drive, starting the ball at midfield.

Couldn't take advantage of it last time.

Only 19 yards of total offense for the Tigers.

See if they can get something going here.

2 backs in the backfield and Nile be under center.

Just a straight dive play up the middle.

He'll pick up 4 yards on it to bring up second down.

Yeah, we expected a slugfest, RJ, but you know, here we are 6 1/2 minutes into the contest.

Combined -, 14 yards between these two teams.

Bentonville was 19 yards, Bryant minus 30.

Yeah, and it'll bring up second down and six with the ball at the 47 yard line in Bryant territory.

Now I'm gonna look to throw.

Now it's delayed handoff and it'll be bottled up and he'll lose a yard on the play and bring up third down.

Yeah, that's way too slow developing play there.

They try to kind of trick the defense, if you will look like now, I wasn't really sure what he was going to do and delayed handoff to Johnny Pike and well, that was red perfectly from the backside and he had nowhere to go.

So that brings up third down in seven now for Bentonville.

Has now been the shotgun.

World wide receivers in the formation.

But he'll look to throw and it was almost intercepted.

Coming in was was Malachi Graham, who nearly got the interception that time and you know Carter and is only thrown thrown 3 this year and that's a pretty special play by Graham.

Yeah, he read that one perfectly.

That's also a good defensive awareness knowing that Bentonville has to get 7 yards for the first time.

So for the first down, excuse me.

So squat at that first down marker and as soon as that receiver breaks, you break with him.

And that could have easily been a pick 6 going back the other direction.

So Dexter Fowler is going to line up.

The 10 yard line and on the punt is Logan Tymeson.

As it's a high floating punt that will be taken down at the 20 yard or 15 yard line and that's where Bryant will have it first in 10.

You know field position has not been great for the Hornets but it's been great for Bentonville so far on this one, it really has and now you got to rely on your offensive line and that running game if you're brought the passing game is not working just yet.

Ohh for two, including that lateral that resulted in the defensive touchdown and so now you just rely on what?

Got you.

Here you see the big guys up front lead on them, try to get get the nerves to settle down just a little bit.

This is also a situation that Brian's not bidding a lot.

Yeah, they haven't been behind until in the last four or five years.

So how do they handle this adversity?

So new quarterback in for the Hornets.

As for Bryant, they'll put in Gideon Moats and now we've got a penalty to start this drive and it's a false start on the Hornets.

It's got to settle the nerves.

You can tell this Lansing full start Offense, 5 yard penalty.

First down, you know there was a quarterback battle between Moats and Walker.

Earlier this year and fall camp and Walker wanted out, but both quarterbacks have played quite a bit this year.

We'll see if the change at quarterback to kind of change their luck a little bit and you'll you don't think about it RJ but former offensive lineman.

I can tell you when you get a different quarterback in a different cadence and different voice calling the snap count, sometimes we're going to fall start like that.

Here's Martin with the football and don't have a nice run out to the 15 yard line.

And for the Hornets, that's a four yard game.

Bring up second down, we're down to the 410 left here in the first quarter.

Like Pratt, this did get a couple first downs to try to flip field position.

You can't keep asking your defense to get stopped right at the midfield strike.

Ryan's only had one first down so far in this game.

So moats is in three wide receivers to that right side.

Martins lined up to his left.

Motion look to throw.

Now run.

We've got a penalty flag down at the 15 yard line.

And we'll see what the call is electing the sign of that play call.

It looks like it's gonna be a screen set up so the defense kind of flows that way and all of a sudden the quarterback that's kind of peels off behind it, that looked like it had a chance to be a big game.

But again, that flag not in a good spot for the offense holding offense.

Penalties have to this to the goal replay second down.

Right now not only are our jitters going but.

The penalties are killing Bryant right now.

Yeah, as soon as that.

That play gives him a little momentum, they have to March it right back.

So it's they've gotta settle down in all phases, mentally and physically.

Trust what got you here because you can see that the big play setup had blockers out in front.

It's going to be fundamentally sound.

That penalty was called on Cairo, Terry, and so now it brings up second down and long for the Bryant Hornets is Gideon Moses in the shotgun.

Moses is gonna roll, right?

He's in his own end zone being chased and he throws it away.

And I don't know if that is that gonna be intentional grounding?

Yeah, he's out of the pocket.

He was getting hit as that one was let go and so that affected the throat.

Of course, that's why you can't call grounding on that.

So that brings up now third down and long for the Bryant Hornets and boy, this.

This Bentonville defense is they are rolling right now as you see Walker on the sidelines for the Bryant Hornets.

That's great for Sue by the backside defensive end there to not give up on the play forced the quarterback to hurry that one and gets the QB hit.

Now it's third long again for Brian.

3rd and 17 officially with the ball to 12 yard line.

Moates rolls, right?

Gonna look to throw deep.

And it's gonna be thrown out of bounds.

And he didn't get that.

So it's a punting situation for the Hornets.

Again, good pressure.

We've seen moats.

Now when pressure starts to get there, he's gonna roll out to his right side.

Bentonville recognize that almost like a quarterback spy had a linebacker kind of trillion there.

Had to force that through a little earlier than he wanted to.

You can see him kind of coming to the screen, and that one just floats out of bounds.

And another punt from deep in their own territory for Bryant.

And once again, Bentonville is gonna get great field position.

As the pawn is gonna be a line drive end over end and it was it's taken by Q Brown.

Browns up to 40 and has a running lane, and bentonville's gonna have great, great field position from the 37 yard line to start this drive.

Yeah, Browns done a really nice job his third punt return.

I believe all three have gone for at least 10 yards.

So he's doing a great job on special teams, giving his offense a chance to get something going again.

I think we're asking too much of him now.

Can Brian's defense again rise to the challenge this time starting to drive inside their own 40?

We'll check in with Dorian craft here in a little bit.

Talk about.

The defensive changes.

For Bentonville as they have been really, really good so far as back on the field as Carter Knife.

In motion goes **** and knives.

Under pressure, he's gonna take off and run with it.

And he'll run out of bounds at the 34 yard or excuse me.

No, that's yeah.

The 34 yard line to bring up second down.

You know.

Now it's not a guy that runs a whole lot.

He he he's really, I think he's got 39 yards on the year rushing.

And so he really likes to stay in the pocket and throw.

Yeah.

That's a nice decision there by Carter 9.

Not force anything down the field.

Take advantage of the great field position.

Pick up what you can.

Two or three yards live to fight another down.

Here's a handoff to pick one.

And he has nowhere to go.

As though mark him down at the 33, that was too high.

Level.

Plays right there is a great cut by Josh Ficklin.

It looked like there's gonna be a lot of room to the outside, but the closing speed of trailing rust.

The senior #22 for Bryant closed in a hurry and held that to a minimal game.

So it's third down and 6th with the ball at the 33 yard line.

These are all body blows, right RJ?

Both sides of it.

This is like the heavyweight fight and we're just worrying on those ribs.

Yeah.

At some point something's gotta give well, and we're only in the first quarter stats right now.

I feel like we've played half of a full half so far is not.

He's gonna roll out looks the throwback and he'll have a man who's throwing it to an offensive lineman who was downfield.

Yeah, that's what I think.

This one.

These two flags that came in late, that's going to be a legal lineman downfield.

If he was able to catch that.

That's been a big play.

But the big fella.

Sorry, you're not allowed to jump down there.

Let's give him his due.

It's tracing hunt.

Who?

Yeah.

He didn't know the ball was coming to him.

Yeah.

So for Brian, this is a tough situation.

You went 4th and 6th or 3rd and 11, ineligible receiver downfield on the offense, penalties declined 4th down.

I think you forced the 4th down and just get Bentonville off the field.

Yeah, I mean this is kind of maybe 4 down territory and maybe right outside the range of time is when we kicked the game winner against Cabot last week and the final 10 seconds, the balls at the 33.

So this would be about a.

50 yard field goals will probably just have tucked out of the ring.

So Midville is gonna roll the dice and go for it on 4th down.

And I think you gotta be, you gotta like your defense for the Hornets.

I mean they, they've played, they've done almost a perfect job so far up to this point.

Here's a fourth down for the Bentonville Tigers 9 is going to look to the throne.

Go across the middle and it's incomplete in and out of the hands of his intended target cube Brown.

And so it'll be a turnover on downs and Bobby, this might be the best field position Ryan's head so far in this game.

Yeah, you're exactly right.

That's a pass that Brown has to catch.

I mean that ball is perfect protection.

Nice job by ficklin.

The running back to give an extra time.

I know he's got to elevate, but he gets two hands on the football.

That's a big fork down play.

That goes Branson, Bryant, sway and now can their offense take advantage of it?

So the ball will be at the 33 yard line.

That was by far, though, RJ, the best protection that he's gotten all night.

Yeah, Brian's been in the backfield a lot defensively that time.

Now I had time to throw it.

Made a nice throw.

See, we're sitting here hoping out Gideon Moats back out there at quarterback for the Hornets.

As they handed off.

And Martin will be dragged down.

Ohh excuse me, that's Gannaway.

And Gannaway will be dragged down.

At the 33 yard line, he had no gain and then bring up second down.

That's a nice job by rivers.

Wiseman, 81 again for Bentonville to recognize the counterplay.

He's the linebacker on the backside and he just chases that straight down the line, takes him down for no gain.

So moats in the shotgun.

Gonna look to throw across the middle has a man and it's incomplete.

That job.

Trying to hook up with my torian Singleton who was in one-on-one coverage and really good coverage that time by the Tigers.

Yeah, nice job by Eli Estes.

Looks like he got there at right about the same time as the football did and broke it up because that was about to be a big play and a really nice coverage down the middle of the field one-on-one battle.

So now it's third down and 10 from the 33.

So first big shot, they've taken down the field with protection, yeah, and we had time.

Yeah, we've seen it on 3rd and long a couple of times with the pressure breaking down into the pocket, breaking down.

But that time most had time, delivered a nice ball, just a great defensive play.

So getting moats.

You don't have Gannaway lined up to his left.

Drops back to pass.

Gonna look to throw.

Steps up in the pocket, gonna run with it.

Out past the 40, still on his feet.

Picks up the first down out past the 45.

It'll be taken down at the 48 yard line and that's really the best play for the Hornets so far in the game.

Yeah, that's a great job by Gideon Mooch.

The recognize.

The defense had the back turns the pocket was starting to break down.

Make some guys mess with his legs.

Big time play there by the quarterback.

When we got to stop it.

Looks like a chain issue.

That's why we've got a stoppage.

Let's head down to Dorian craft and talk about some.

Defensive changes for the Bentonville Tigers.

They have really been impressive in this one, Dorian.

Well, Bentonville, after giving up 90 points in the first two weeks, made some defensive changes.

Head coach Jody Grant said that had to do with some personnel issues, but a lot of it had to do with the way that Grant coached practice.

He said in the beginning of the season, he was whistling a lot of plays at practice dead early to try to prevent injury.

He started letting players play through to the end tackle live, and that's when he really saw them start to come alive and play the type of defense that Bentonville is known for playing.

Thank you, Dorian.

As Gannaway is gonna take it right side and it's a good run out to the 45 yard line in Bentonville territory and that'll bring up second down.

Now for the Hornets.

That's the best design run we've seen up to this point.

So that Brian offensive line start to settle in, see if they can get away and involved.

Gannaway once again reverses field back up the middle and that'll be very close to a first down.

It all depends on the spot if it got it as they're marketing down at the 42 yard line.

Really nice cut back by Gannaway to recognize that the flow was going to the outside.

Puts his foot in the ground, gets what he can and right near the marker and it looks like we may have a time out for a measurement.

Yeah, they're going to.

Recording the chains on and get the spot.

Yeah.

And you know on that replay for Singleton, he, he was able, he was going right that that play was designed off of right tackle and he cut it back up to get extra yardage.

Yeah, that's that's it's good awareness to recognize as they stretch it out and they get the first down to recognize the flow of the defense is going out there and that cutback lane shows up, he picks up all necessary 3 yards and moves the chains.

So Bryant for the first time in Bentonville territory in this game as we've got 46 seconds to play in the quarter.

It's first and 10 for the Hornets from the 42 yard line.

That was a good look at those D lineman up front.

58 Aiden Lynch, 67 Trevor Martinez.

Bentonville needs them to have their best game of the season if they want a chance to knock off the four time defending Champs Rewind to the near side.

Has moats gonna hand it once again, this time to Martin, and he'll get it to the 40 yard line.

It'll be a 2 yard game.

Yeah, 16 Sam Jeffers, the first one to make contact around the ankles and let the defensive line and finish them off.

Clocks rolling down to 15 seconds in the quarter.

Bright.

You have to complete a pass in this contest.

Here's the.

Fake no, the Martin's gonna take it himself and he'll carry two Bentonville tigers and pick up 4 yards on the play.

And that's gonna do it for the first quarter of play where the Bentonville tigers they in the first quarter of playing with the first score.

It's 7 to nothing.

The Bentonville Tigers lead the Bryant Hornets.

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Yeah, the conversation right now is the fact that the benville tigers and the Bryant Hornets have been playing outstanding defense to the first quarter of playing the Tigers lead at 7 to nothing in the 78 state championship game.

A Little Rock.

And Gideon Moats, the quarterback gonna keep it himself straight up the middle, has a nice running lane out past the 25 to the 20 still on his feet.

He goes out of bounds at the 1617 yard line.

That's a great job by modes to recognize the backside defensive end and not keep containing on that option to read.

So he just pulls it from his running backs.

Belly keeps it.

That's the biggest play of the game so far for Bryant.

Now they're in the red zone.

The first time tonight for the Hornets in the red zone.

Getting Motes will have.

James Martin set up to his left.

I was going to keep it himself once again.

Makes a man Miss and his driving for that end zone boy, he is running really really well with the football as he takes it down to the five yard line.

Yeah, this is an element that Brad Bentonville hasn't figured out just yet.

So that's three straight runs promotes.

One was the quarterback scramble.

Now two design option reads.

Tiger is going to have to figure that out as branch knocking on the door 1st and goal.

I have the five yard line.

Tight formation at the line of scrimmage.

They handed to Martin Martin straight ahead and the Tigers are right there.

They get him at the four.

But boy, that defensive line Bobby for for Bentonville is really, really good.

That's gonna be tough, sled.

And you try to go right at the teeth, the middle of this Bentonville defensive line.

More times than not, you're gonna get shut down.

Gideon boats are jade further your .3 carries, 46 yards.

But he's been all of the offensive bridesman muster today.

This time, Martin's gonna line up to the right of moats.

We're gonna pitch it right side still on his feet.

A Singleton and he'll walk in the end zone for the touchdown.

My torian Singleton for the first score for the bride Hornets.

That's a great job by Singleton.

Looked like he was gonna get stopped short of the goal line that ran through an arm tackle and he's been a guy that's made a lot of big plays in this championship game.

And we're back to last year's impressive to see him break that tackle.

And now they're PAT away from tying this contest that bouncing off Bentonville tigers and into the end.

On the junior got into the end zone for the score, the extra point is up and it is good by Stephen Fuller and we've got a tie ball game with 1044 to play in the second quarter.

And I tell you what that really the the defensive pressure that time Bryant was not worried about it because they got their quarterback running.

Yeah, the quarterback run changes everything, no matter who you are or where you play, at what level.

The quarterback run changes everything we've seen today at the pro level, of course, with what Jalen Hurts has been able to do, Kyler, Murray, the list goes on and on, maybe even to the level of Patrick Mahomes.

Of course, we know about the college game.

Your defense cannot over pursue when you've got quarterback run.

And Bryant breaks out on that drive.

3 big carries by moats and they take advantage of the quick speed sweep and the Singleton caps off the drive.

So Josh Ficklin's gonna be back for Bentonville along with Q Brown.

And on the kick will be Malachi Graham.

Also back deep for Bentonville.

They'll send JT tomasco.

So now we've seen what Bryant's offense can do, they finally settled down.

Can Bentonville figure out an answer for this stiff Bryant defense?

This is gonna go to domestico on the 9 yard line.

And he'll have a running lane before finally being taken down.

That time for the Hornets coming in to make the stop.

It was JT Allen, a sophomore, and so Bentonville will have it first in 10.

As they're going to spot the ball at the 28 yard line, like to see Bentonville get the passing game going.

Just two of eight for 12 yards up to this point and that first completion for 8 yards.

So since the first play of the contest, RJ one of seven through the air for just four yards, Carter 9.

It's going to be in the shotgun.

He'll have Fickling in right beside him, two wide receivers to the near side of the formation.

Going to hand it to Fick, one didn't work it right side.

By far his best run of the night is he'll pick up 8 yards on the play, maybe 9 depending on where the spot is, but that's just right off right tackle that time.

Yeah, just following the big guys up front and like you said, are by far ficklin's best run of the night, right behind Big 67 Trevor Martinez.

On the right side, it is officially a 9 yard run to make it second down and one.

Four down lineman for the Brian Hornets.

Now it's gonna look to throw has a man works at the left side to CJ.

Brown picks up the first down as he steps out of bounds past the 40 to the 41.

Yeah, quick easy throw there.

Just recognize that coverage is playing off.

Brown just goes about 3 yards, turns around ball hits him right in the number.

He's the first down he'll say between the numbers, but he only has one number.

So it's first and 10 for the Tigers.

Is the line up three wide to the near side.

And Vicki's gonna take it once again.

No, that's actually Jason Gilmour who ran at that time out to the 50 yard line.

Never big time run for the Tigers.

That hole was massive as Bentonville, so I'm gonna go with a little tempo.

Gilmore still in there?

They're gonna go with a backwards pass.

This time it's two CJ Brown and Brown has nowhere to go.

As they lose yardage on the play back into their own territory, they're going to officially spot it down at the 48 yard line.

Yeah, big play on 1st down.

He tried to change the pace of the game just a little bit, but Bryant's defense is a great job of reacting.

The little swing past the brown.

Drop him in the backfield for a loss of a couple that brings up third down and three, now with the ball to 48.

They've got it.

Get it to the Bryant 49 yard line for the first down.

That's that on your screen.

Kind of says it all does it with RJ.

That's some good defense.

Is just a slug fest out there, and now we've got whistles and it looks like benville's going to call a timeout.

This is a big play.

Well, this is where drives have been stalling out for the Tigers.

Try to take advantage of again good field position right near the midfield strike in that area, third and three wouldn't be surprised if they turned around and handed it to Ficklin 1500 yard rusher.

You know, I was looking defensively for Bryant on 3rd down this year.

They've allowed opponents to only be successful 25% of the time this year for Bentonville.

They've completed 39% of their third downs this year.

So yeah, that's what it takes.

Though good teams can find a way to get it done on 3rd down offensively and defensively as we take a look at it here.

I mean, these numbers kind of speak for themselves and it's all about pressure and making plays in the backfield 2 sacks.

Bentonville, already 6 tackles for loss for Bryant, and these teams swarmed to the football.

And I mean, we knew that this was going to be a struggle.

Our Jay.

That's it.

That's why we're here, locked 7.

But you know what I don't know about you.

I I love the shootouts, but I also like good defensive ball games when it's good defense.

And it's not just bad offense, it's good defense.

It's it's a lot of fun to watch.

And there's gonna be a penalty flag on the Bryant Hornets.

They jumped into the neutral zone that time.

For the Hornets, it was Malachi Graham.

The part of the show in the new coachman defense, our penalty results in the first down coming out of the timeout and I guarantee the last thing.

And they said that coming out of the huddle.

Watch the football, don't give him a free first down with a penalty.

And that's exactly what Bentonville forced him to do.

They've got it first in 10 in Bryan territory at the 47 yard line.

Carter and I is in the shotgun.

He'll bring a man in motion and gonna look to throw early on and he'll find a man.

Left side.

It goes.

And that time was able to hook up with Q Brown.

I like what Ben's doing with the passing game.

They're not asking their offensive line to block for three or four seconds this quick.

Hitches, quick out routes, get the ball to brown because if he makes a man miss on the outside, that's one of the big plays can happen.

So that brings up second down for the Tigers, second and five after that 5 yard pickup.

There will be 3 receivers to the right side of the formation.

The eyes gonna look to throw again.

Can't find anybody now comes back across the middle and it's in and out of the hands of his intended target.

That was Luke **** who he was wide open, but he looked up field way too fast.

Yeah, I've got a flag right in the middle of the field, a little farther beyond the line of scrimmage, so want to see what this one is indicating another illegal man downfield.

Ryan's pointing that way.

Ineligible receiver, downfield offense.

The penalties declined third down.

That's the second one of those today for the Bentonville Tigers.

Again, they decline a penalty to set up a third medium.

Last time it was a third down penalty that's forced the 4th down.

So that shows you the confidence that Coach Buck James has in his defense, as he should have given up just 51 yards of total offense through 1/4 and a it's a force, maybe 1/3.

I'm not good at math.

It's third down and five from the 42.

Not gonna look to throw again.

Going across the middle and it's intercepted.

It's intercepted by Malachi Graham.

He's got a running lane, right side, stays on his feet after the 20 yard line.

One man to beat, still going touchdown.

Melichar Graham.

It's a pick six for Brian Hornets now.

Two defensive touchdowns in the ball game.

When he left that one go RG, I kind of let out a grunt because he threw that right in the middle of triple coverage and his receiver had no chance of getting to that football and a great defensive play.

Malachi Graham goes off for 77 yard interception return for a touchdown and just like that the momentum has swung to the Hornets.

And how about the fact that he had watched how he had a tight walk the sideline?

And he bounced back.

To avoid not one but two players as he was running in and the extra point is up and good by 4, it makes it a Brian Hornet 14-7 lead.

We'll take a break as you're watching the Centennial Bank State Football championships on Arkansas PBS Sports.

Coming up at the half, we show you a heartwarming story about maybe the greatest fan in all of Arkansas student All-Stars from all the high school classification, and we'll have a look at a former NFL player coming back to coach in the Delta.

It's all coming up on the halftime show.

See you then.

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Here's a look at the pick 6 by Malachi Graham once again.

That's only the 4th interception that Carter and I has thrown this year.

Bobby.

Yeah, I just tried to force that one down the field.

It's third down trying to make a play.

The passing game just hasn't been there for Bentonville to this point.

But you can't force it against a defense with a talent like Bentonville.

And you can tell that Malakat Graham knows what the new one he's got the football in his hands 77 and nothing but tail lights to the house.

So Fuller on to kick off.

It's gonna be a high short kick taking at the 13 yard line and this time it's brought up by Bentonville, JT Tomsco and Tomescu's gonna bring it out to the 39 yard line.

That's where Bentonville's gonna have it first intent first and ten other return units been there for Bentonville or giving up great field position for their offense and they take advantage.

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CBS today.

So it's first and 10 from the 39 yard line, 8:30 to play here in the first half, where the Brian Hornets just have taken the lead, 14 to 7 over Bentonville.

Average starting field position has been outstanding for the Tigers, they just haven't been able to take advantage of J.

Here's a handoff to Ficklin and he has nowhere to go.

Actually may lose a yard on the play.

And Bobby, you know, I know you played on the offensive line in college, but you've gotta be really impressed though with this defensive line, not just for Brian, but for Bentonville as well.

Yeah, because both of these teams heard all week that the strength of their opposition was the offensive line, how they run the football, how they protect their quarterback.

And that's a challenge.

Now when you're challenged like that, you got to kind of bow your neck and go out and play well in the Brian defensive front has certainly done that up to this point, Ronnie.

And you look at the offensive line, you got Joey Sue and Trevor Martinez for Bentonville both going FBS football.

Their commitments to UVA and Oklahoma State.

So it's second down in 10.

Man comes in motion from left to right.

And now he's gonna look to throw.

He's under pressure, throws it into the flats.

Just one hops his wide receiver, Josh Ficklin, who came out of the backfield and that'll bring up third down.

But the pressure right there, Bobby right up the middle.

Nobody touched the middle linebacker for Brian.

Yeah, it's just been constant pressure right up the middle.

As you mentioned, 52 running free for Bryant.

Sebastian Oltmanns almost had a clear shot on Nye, able to dump it off short of his running back.

I think if you're Bentonville, you got to start to test the the edges, the perimeter of this defense, because there's clearly.

His tough sledding up the up the middle so it's turned down for the Tigers.

They're gonna put four wine in the formation, 3 to the top side, bringing pressure again up the middle.

Nine is gonna roll right.

Here comes the pressure to try to set up a screen, but he just throws it short and that'll bring up 4th down.

And Bobby, that might be the the magic potion against Nya is just really bring the house.

And man, you can't do it every time because the middle of the field be open.

But on this drive in particular, the pressure really got to nine.

Yeah, they've clearly found something in the protection for Bentonville.

That was just a AA blitz.

Both linebackers on each side of the center.

They're just bringing the house.

Forced the quarterback 9A roll to his right and not near enough arm strength to get that rolling to his outside the far sideline.

And Bentonville forced to punt again.

Time is it on to kick.

For Bentonville back deep Dexter Fowler or Drake Fowler?

Excuse me.

As the pond is a good one and it'll sail to the 30 yard line, take a bounce, take a Bentonville roll all the way down to the 15 yard line and that's where Bryant is gonna have it first.

And then only one drive for the Hornets today that has been actually good starting field position and they were able to punch that in with the score.

So now last time out was the quarterback run game for Bryant was successful with Gideon Moats 3 carries, 46 yards along of 19.

Now Bentonville has to make the adjustment to find a way to.

To slow down that QB run.

But there's a flag on that far side of the field.

RJ and the guys in the vertical stripes, which are slimming, we're talking about it.

During the return holding on the return, team penalties 10 yards, first down.

So much.

So much for that good field position.

Yeah, I don't know.

Hey, real quick, let's go down to Dorian craft.

Dorian, I think the extra week of practice for the Bryant Hornets is paid off.

It's not just this particular week of practice.

It's the cumulation of the week of practice leading into championship games that head coach Buck James really credits with the fact that Bryant has catapulted into a state power.

He said it's better than spring football because he can bring the younger kids up.

They get an extra week of practice, the team gets ready for not just the championship game, but what they're going to see next season.

And this group of seniors, they've seen 20 to 25 extra practices over anybody else in the state and so head coach.

James really crediting this extra week for Bryant success over the last five seasons.

Thank you Dorian.

We're the Hornets now.

Bring the offense back out.

The balls will be spot at the seven yard line and will be first and 10.

And Gideon Moats is back in the ball game and he's going to look to throw early and that time just overthrew my torian Singleton on 1st down.

This kind of cap off what Dorian was talking about there, that's like the bowl practice and into the college level.

You get an extra month of practice.

Yes, that's big for your current team and how big is that for those ninth graders?

These 10th graders who have been on the practice squad all season long to get an extra month of work and that's why over the course of four or five seasons, you're talking about an extra 3 months of practice.

And that's why the goods continue to be good.

Get in moats.

And the shotgun looked to throw.

He's got a man that's over the left side and that time hooked up with.

I believe that was Donald Miller.

Who was able to take it all the way out to the 14 yard line?

That brings up third and short now for the Hornets.

It's a big play for the Bentonville defense.

We've given up a couple scores, one on offense, one on defense.

Get a stop here, give your offense good field position again and try to get back into this contest.

So third down and four with the ball into 14 yard line as clock rolls at 6:40 and counting.

Yeah, we haven't had to worry about the play clock so much tonight, RJ, but it's down under 8.

Getting moats.

Can I hand it to Martin?

Martin has a big running lane and he'll be taken down at the 24 yard line.

In comes a penalty flag at the very end of that play.

And we'll see what it is.

He's got the first down and much more.

And I believe we're gonna walk back to the spot, to the 23 yard line, see what the officials have to say.

I like to play call of going draw play on 3rd medium.

Personal foul face mask defense.

15 yards ended on the in the run.

First down.

Big, big penalty there.

RJ Bentonville defense has the chance to get off the field with the third down.

Defensive stop.

They can't get it.

Now tack on 15 more.

The Bryant Hornets have certainly flipped field position.

Here's a look at it.

And yeah, he got the bottom part of that mask and when he was being taken down, and so that's a.

Personal foul and brings the Hornets out to the 38 yard line modes.

Can look to throw again, going big ball down the middle of the field.

Get away and it's in and out of his hands.

He had to turn around on his backside and it's an incomplete pass to bring up second down and ten.

Yeah, that's maybe where they're running back.

Doesn't have a lot of experience chasing the ball down the field, looking up into the lights, but Bryant clearly seeing something in them.

The deep middle of the Bentonville defense that they're trying to exploit.

The third time they've taken a deep shot down in the middle.

And all three have followed it complete though Bobby, that's a that's a hard pass to try to catch when you're expecting it on one side and you have to turn back and and try to catch it almost like a Willie Mays type catch.

And not to mention the light angle is completely different playing here at War Memorial Stadium compared to a normal high school field.

So a lot of factors going into that ball hitting turf, second down and 10.

Now we've got penalty flags and it looks like somebody on that offensive line move for Brian.

So we made the 5th penalty of the contest if this is on Bryant.

Was too accepting of infraction up in 5 yard penalty second down.

So 5 for 29 yards against Bryant.

Two for 30 yards against Bentonville, both personal fouls.

So it's second down and 15 as Martin's got it.

He'll go left side, just knocks the defender off of him, still running out to the 43 yard line with the stiff arm that he gave a Bentonville defender just to push him off and keep going.

That's that's a big time move.

They look like Martin was dead to rights right near the line of scrimmage, but instead he shocks 1 defender, breaks another tackle and flips the chains and now it's 3rd and manageable for the Hornets.

Brings up third down in 510 yard pickup for James Martin.

And the clocks rolling at 5:36.

Get in Moates has two backs on that left side.

And he's gonna look to throw.

Moe has all day steps up, throws, has a man inside the 45 yard line into Bentonville territory.

It's another first down.

That's a great job by moats to recognize the the first reads not there.

They're trying to get Singleton on the fake speed sweep to get him in the flat.

He had a couple of blockers out there, but that was covered.

So he comes back in his progression and hits his streaky receiver right across the middle.

Donald Miller to move the chains.

He was open for a good chunk, probably 10 yards, and you saw where he's just throwing that hand out.

Their thought to me and so now Brian's in Bentonville territory.

It's first and 10 at the 42.

What a great job of poison.

The composure by the young quarterback who hasn't got a ton of reps this year.

Miller across, excuse me, Martin across the 40 yard line.

They're going to mark his forward progress at the 40.

So that brings up second down now after a 2 yard gain at second down and eight at the 40 yard line.

Bentonville defense has to stiffen here.

They can't give up another first down.

They gotta find a way to get off the field.

Give their offense a chance to tie this up before the break is falling down to scores to a a team that has a defensive units like Brian does, that's not a recipe for success.

Moats gonna take the shotgun snap, look to throw as is man Gannaway and Gannaway's gonna stay in bounds as he's inside the 35 yard line to the 34th.

Yeah, I gotta bring up another third and short.

And Bentonville gonna make a substitution of that defensive front.

Martinez goes out, so we'll see if they can take advantage of the Oklahoma State commit not on the field.

They're gonna bring in their big package.

As Martin.

Is gonna come in the ball game they've also got.

I believe Bobby is that.

That's ivory.

Excuse me?

Yeah, that's Ivory Gilmore, who's in there for the big packages of the fullback.

They give it to Martin.

Stutter steps, moves it back at the middle, gets the first down inside the 30 yard line to the 28.

Yeah, it's a great job up front.

Bryant.

This moves the line of scrimmage, gives their running back Martin a couple different holes to pick from.

He hops to his left, moves the chains.

They're going to move the ball back to the 29 yard line where it'll be first and 10 for.

The Hornets.

Has one under 4 minutes to play here in the first half.

It's kind of methodically moving the ball down the field in this drive most time position they've been able to chew up so far.

Gideon Moats, the quarterback's gonna look to throw.

He's gonna step up under pressure, reverses field, gets out past the 25 Bobby.

Then you know in basketball whenever they they kind of do a crossover and and and Juke somebody out.

That's exactly what Gideon Moats did as he was under pressure.

Yeah, that's almost looked like he was just going in slow motion and has put his foot in the ground and made the Bentonville defender just kind of fly by and didn't even get a hand on him.

Maybe he able to scramble out and pick up about 5.

So it's second down and four officially, where they marked the ball at the 24 yard line, 3 wide to that left side.

They're gonna hand it off.

This is the Gannaway inside the 20.

He'll get the first down to the 18 yard line.

It's a nice job by Gannaway this to stretch that out as much as he possibly can.

Trust his blockers and as you mentioned, moves to change one more time, 10th, 1st down in this contest and you got to remember Bryant was going the wrong direction for the first half of that first period.

Yeah.

It's been all Brian, here in the second quarter.

As moats gonna fake the handoff look to throw and he throws it behind his intended target.

That try time trying to hook up with his wide receiver and that was casing tricky.

Yeah, trying to hit tricky who's got 6 touchdown catches on the season and all off the Bentonville defense took the play fake or what?

But tricky was wide open and moats just missed him.

Second down in 10.

As Gannaway's gonna line up to the left of Gideon.

They're gonna throw it right side.

Almost.

It is intercepted and it's taken out to the 15 yard line.

Trying to hook up with tricky again.

Almost looks like the same exact play, Bobby.

Yeah, just trying to force it too much.

Sometimes you just gotta hand it off and live to fight another down.

But moats gotta falling back.

Felt the pressure and let that one fly.

Just, you know, not great footwork.

And then tries to force it in, as you mentioned, picked off by the defense.

I believe that's JT Amseco who picks it off.

A huge stop for the Bentonville defense, actually.

Eli Estes, wasn't it?

No, it was, it was tomasco who was able to pick that ball off and so now Bentonville is gonna have it first and 10 from their own 15 yard line with 239 to play here in the first half.

It's a great job just to recognize that you get burned on the the previous play you lived to fight another down defensively jumped the route.

Yeah, get a big pick.

Not gonna hand it off to ficklin, and Ficklin has nowhere to go.

Got a couple yards on the play and that'll bring up second down.

If you're Bentonville on this drive, RJ, you've got one goal and that's not to give the ball back to Bryant before the final 220 kick off this clock.

But now you've got no matter what you have to do, find a way to go put points on the board or not.

No way you can give them all back to Bryant on a short field.

Second down in the seven yards, officially.

And so it was a 3 yard game.

As nine is going to look to throw as a man out in the flats and that time hooked up with CJ Brown and that's enough for the first down I believe, because they got into the 25 yard line and that's where the sticks were and it is.

So they're going to move those chains with two minutes to play here in the first half.

That's a great job by Brown just recognizing where he needed to get to.

Nice breaks off his route right at the marker.

Let's catch #4 for him on the evening for about 17 yards.

No big plays just yet.

Moves the chains.

1st and 10:00 with the ball at the 25 yard line Fickling with the handoff and he will stay on his feet out to the 29 yard line.

4 yard gain for ficklin.

And the clock will roll under 2 minutes here in the first half.

Still a little too early to get in the no huddle or the hurry up mode if you will.

RJ just try to move the ball down the field, pick up another first down, then you try to pick up the pace.

Now not trying to go big ball.

Right side has a man down to the 49 yard line.

That time for Bentonville hooking up with Luke Koon and they're going to officially spot him down at the 50 yard line.

That's the really the first big play for the Tigers.

Now you pick up the pace.

Nice job to go back.

Shoulder makes the adjustment, makes the big play.

Fakes the handoff backwards pass and this time got it into the hands of brown and Brown just took off and ran with it and got about a yard on the play.

It was set up to possibly throw it downfield by Brown and he saw nothing was open and so he ran with it and they're going to mark him down at the Bryant 49 yard line.

That's a great job by Brian.

A lot of times you see that trick play, they go throw it no matter what, right?

He recognizes it's not there and he takes this the the one yard and forced the second down.

It does stop the clock at a minute 16.

As Earth O'Brien 49 yard line second down to 9.

Now I'm gonna look to throw again gets it left side to brown.

He steps out of bounds and he'll go out of bounds at the 43 yard line in short of the first down by three yards.

And so that brings up third down.

Now here's the chess match you've got.

So you give brown 5 yards every time.

Or do you try to inch up and let him with potentially he beat you over the top.

That's what Brian's kind of toying with right now.

We're going to give you that five or six yard hitch for the out route.

We're not going to get brown anything deep over the top of her head.

Carter and I has Fickling lined up to his right.

It's third down.

Gonna fake the handoff.

Gonna look to throw under pressure.

Still rolling, still rolling.

And it's incomplete.

And that brings up 4th down now for the Bentonville Tigers with a minute 6 to play in the first half.

Bobby decision time.

I think this is a real decision.

You've got 4th and three.

To me, they're RJ.

If you know you're gonna go for it, you're thinking about going forward out of ran the football game, pickle in the mall have a chance to get 4, but Bentonville not wasting anytime they're going to go.

It's 4th and three as Carter Knife is in the shotgun.

Two wide receivers on the right side of the formation go with the hard count trying to draw Brian offsides.

And he's gonna back up like he's gonna do a pooch kick.

Till one of the 50 and now we've got offensive lineman for Bentonville that jumps.

That's the worst case scenario.

Yeah, that's what exactly what you don't want to happen.

You're trying to get through the jump, but they will be done once in this contest at that time.

Now moving even when you're out there on an island or jets, not a great feeling.

And big man moves and now Bentonville is gonna have to be forced apart.

Now Logan Thomason gonna come on and Bobby.

I mean, think about this though.

That's a big time stop for the Hornets because the momentum was kind of it was slowly going with the Tigers.

Yeah their defense got an interception.

You pick up a couple first downs the passing game starting to get a little mental across midfield and you're exactly right, RJ.

Big stop right before the half now minute 6 left.

All three timeouts left for Bryant.

Saved the whole is trying to get anything going.

As the punt is away, it's at Beauty and Fowler's gonna fair catch a bobbles.

It falls on it down the 9.

He fair caught it.

He he was calling for the fair catch at the 12.

He bobbled it.

Now the Hornets will have it at the 9 yard line with 58 seconds left here in the first half.

Yeah, with the 14 to 7 lead.

If you're buck James, maybe you're thinking about, OK, let's just second knee this one into the half.

Bentonville has two timeouts so they can force you to snap it a few times, but when you're inside your own five, you don't want to take any chances.

And the Hornets did defer in the first half, so they will get the ball out of the halftime locker room.

As they will have it first in 10 from the 9 yard line.

I might just give it a hand it off here, see what you get on 1st and maybe be content with the seven point lead at the break.

So James Martin in at running back for the Hornets.

He sets up the right side of Gideon Moats and they'll hand it to him.

And Martin straight ahead out to the 15 yard line, picks up a first down and gets 11 on that run.

So maybe you quickly get to the line, hand it off again and see what happens.

You don't want to throw something that's going to get you an interception and give Bentonville some some time to score as the clocks rolling at 46 seconds.

Yeah Brian, clearly not in any hurry here.

They do have to snap it at least once more.

Modes takes a low snap and he's gonna look to throw going big ball into double coverage, and it's caught down at the 45 coming up with it for the Hornets.

It's my torian Singleton that's just trusting your playmaker on the outside.

And Singleton, who's being double covered.

This elevates it, goes up and gets it.

I think they have a segment on ESPN called you just got Mossed and Singleton did a nice job of trying to get himself on that.

Look at that catch, he went up and over the defender for Bentonville, the defender.

That time was Johnny Pike and now time out to call.

That's how big that first run was.

RJ, you pick up the 1st and you get out of the shadow of your own goalpost outside your own 5.

Now you can take a shot and Singleton you got a guy double covered.

This elevates and go gets the football.

And now Brian's got a chance to pick up a few points and maybe double dip.

As you mentioned, they get possession of the ball to start the second-half.

And Bobby, you know I'm just going back.

We had just said you don't want to throw a pass that could be dangerous.

He throws into double.

Coverage and and look at this throw.

I mean it's a great throw, but you've got two guys for Bentonville there.

And I mean what a great catch by my torian Singleton.

Yeah, Johnny Pike just couldn't gather himself enough to to explode up and high point.

The football is kind of going backwards.

Didn't have a lot of momentum behind him.

And Singleton took advantage of it, a huge catch down the sideline.

So Bobby, now let me ask you though, now you're in Bentonville territory.

Do you, do you open the playbook a little bit more with 27 seconds?

Because even if you throw a pick at this point, I mean you risk a pick six, but it's a lot harder when you you've got to go essentially 6780 yards.

Now you've got the full playbook at your disposal.

You've got two time out.

You don't have to worry about going to the sideline.

Of course the clock will stop for a first down to move the chains.

Bryant's going for for broker, they're going for the end zone.

Five, why?

They throw it downfield and he throws it behind Gannaway.

He had him on the scene and throws it behind him at second down and 10th.

Yeah, you mentioned the pick.

Six is kind of out of the equation.

We almost saw one right there is the linebacker just breaks right in front of.

You can see right there, 18 has that one go right through his hands and Brock Skidmore had nothing but open spaces in front of him if he could have corralled that pass.

Trying to get the seamer out there in Skidmore Reddit perfectly.

So it's second down in 10 with the ball to 45 yard line, empty backfield, 5 wide in the formation.

Moats.

And it looked to throw steps up, rolls right side, has a man, gets it down to 31 yard line and he goes out of bounds.

A great job to get his feet down.

Sean Roycroft makes the catch on the near sideline.

There's going to be a good look at it here.

Nice job by moats with flush to his right.

Elevate gets the foot down clearly in bounds.

Even got two for good measure and gets out of bounds.

They marked him back at the 32 yard line.

It is a first down for the Hornets with 18 seconds left.

Boy, if the Hornets got a score, Bobby, and then they get it back after the half, that would be big momentum for the the halftime break for the Hornets.

Here's Gideon Moats steps up in the pocket, gonna run with it.

Half past the 25 slides, down about 3 yards.

Shy the first down to 25.

Down to 10 seconds left here in the first half.

Quick time out there by Buck James, 10 seconds left.

We got a chance for probably 2 plays at the end zone here, RJ.

So maybe run one play, get a field goal out of it.

Everybody, this has become more of a a thing recently is they call it the middle late, the last four minutes of the second quarter, the 1st 4 minutes of the third quarter.

If you could win that middle portion of the contest, more times than not you're going to be successful.

And Brian's got a chance to double dip right here and Bobby Stephen Fuller is their kicker.

He his long is from 35 yards.

He's seven of eight this year.

Kicking field goals.

His lone miss was in the semifinal game against Conway and it was like a 21 yard chip shot.

So if it if his long of the season's 35, you know, you thinking they probably got to pick up seven or eight more yards to kind of get with that range.

And the Hornets do have one timeout left, as there's 10 seconds left here in the first half.

Of course, you might expand that out a little bit.

Last play of 1/2 you trust him to maybe try to connect from 40 or so.

5 receivers in the formation.

Ball in the middle of the field.

Probably wanna keep it in that area for if you're gonna go for the field goal.

Here's Moates gonna try to set up a screen now he's gonna go downfield.

Has Singleton down the five touchdown.

My torian Singleton, he beat coverage on the outside and went in for the touchdown.

Singleton single handedly took that drive and said hop on my back boys about to put you in the end zone.

He just won the one-on-one battle and it was nothing but the back of his jersey.

For the Bentonville defense and a nice job by moats, this floats it up.

Trust his receiver to make a play and he's in the end zone again.

I tell you Bobby, it looked like he was going to try to set up a middle screen because the offensive line allowed for the linebackers and everybody to release.

Promotes and he just lofted it up there, so Fuller's on to kick the extra point.

The kick is up and it is good, and it's 21 to 7 with four seconds to play in this one.

And let's go down to Dorian crap on the sideline and Dorian that throw by Gideon mode.

So it was a thing of beauty and he's done a really good job coming in as the backup quarterback.

We're gonna talk to Buck James about the decision to go with modes on that third drive here in just a minute.

But modes really up to the task.

Coming in after Bryant looked a little bit shaky to start this game.

Done a lot with his legs.

And then once Bentonville bringing the rush modes just able to float that pass into the back of the end zone.

And Moats has really been the difference maker for the Hornet so far here in the first half.

He has given him a breath of life here because I mean Walker would just didn't feel comfortable in the backfield.

They all started with the quarterback run, a couple options reads and one scramble that opened things up.

It kind of slowed down the Bentonville pass, which we haven't seen.

The Tigers create the kind of pressure that they need to be successful on defense, and that's allowed him time to throw the football.

And when you got a player like Singleton, you just leave it out there for him, well, you're going to be successful more times than not.

3 catches, 70 yards, 2 touchdowns, about Tori and Singleton, 21 to 700 score, 4 seconds remaining here in the half as Fuller's going to do a short kick that'll be caught at the 32 yard line.

And for Bentonville it's.

Hate he was going to take it off.

He goes across the field, he'll be taken down at the 41.

We do have a penalty flag here on the near side and we'll see what that is.

It's clock.

The clock is run down here at the stadium.

Everybody's trying to leave the field, but let's see what the penalty flag is.

Yeah, if this is on Bentonville, it will be the end of the half.

If it's on Bryant, though, Bentonville would get an untimed down.

Don't forget coming up at the half.

I'll tell you during the return call.

Personal foul blind side block.

Correction Blind side block on the return team.

That penalty is declined halftime, so it is halftime.

It was against Bentonville and so everybody will go to the locker room door and crafts gonna catch up with Buck James.

Don't forget coming up at halftime.

It's a feature on the Salt Bowl as the folks at Arkansas PBS.

Did a great job with that and so we will get Dorian and Coach Buck James as his Hornets leaded 21 to 7.

Coach James taking a minute to get over to Dorian and.

He he's gotta be happy.

Bobby has what what his team has done up to this point here in the first half.

There's no doubt about it this he's making his way over to Dorian spot and just the way they responded giving up the defensive touchdown early.

Let's go down to the buck James with Dorian craft coach what went into the decision to go with Gideon Mode starting there on the 3rd Dr Well it just a little big for a Jordan I you know I just made some mistakes and you know that's what we do.

I mean you make mistakes.

You come out and then we'll get you we'll get him back in.

I thought Gideon played well, 21, and answered points.

What was the biggest difference for your offense there in the second quarter?

Well, we made some plays.

You know, I didn't think we played very good the first half, and we're up 21 to 7, but we didn't make no plays.

And when we when we make plays, we can be pretty good.

We just gotta keep playing.

Great defense, coach.

Thank you, RJ.

Thank you, Dorian, as that is Buck James as his Hornets lead at 21 to 7.

Make sure you stick around for the halftime show as you're watching the Centennial Bank State Football championships on Arkansas PBS Sports.

Hi, I'm Susie Everett.

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Appreciate it.

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Hey, everybody, David Basil, here it is.

Halftime again at War Memorial.

That means we have a little more time to share with you some of the things we've been working on here in Arkansas.

PBS's coming up, and Leon is going to catch you up on some of the really cool stuff going on here at Arkansas PBS.

Then Ashley King is going to introduce you to some student athletes who are bringing it both on the field and in the classroom.

And we'll visit with one of the coolest.

And nicest guys you could ever meet, Super fan Kane and Sandy.

But first, years ago, a young kid in the delta went from the football field in Claredon to the SEC and then to the NFL.

Now his journey brings him back to the field where it all started, this time as a coach.

Take a look.

When I came to claimed I was like there there was like a great person to walk these halls and it actually had a chance to go to college from the offer him and they said accused the alleged best running back come out of plan.

That's actually what encouraged me to be a running back.

It was said like he had the most rushing yards he scored the most touchdowns so it was like so now that he's coaching me I'm gonna try to beat his record.

Like a legend like Cedric Houston from Clarendon High School, a small town, I actually jumped for joy it why in the world it says used to coming back to Clarendon, AR.

It's a small town.

He was away from here.

My name is Cedric Houston.

I'm from Clarendon, AR.

Growing up here was probably the funniest man just going out and we didn't have much to do.

But we walked around town, played pick up basketball or baseball wherever we can do that, and picked up football.

Around the 7th grade.

I started playing and a lot of people telling me I was pretty good and I didn't know if I was good or not.

But we played Barden.

I think I was an eighth grader and Frank McClelland pulled me to the side after the game.

I think he's like here she going to play professional football one day.

And hell, I didn't know professional football NFL was like, what you mean festival?

He's like, you gonna play in the NFL one day?

So I kind of brushed it off.

I was like, I don't know, this old man don't know what he's talking about.

And then he reminded me again my my senior season when they played us.

He said, you remember I told you in 8th grade that she's going, he's going to be playing pro ball one day?

He said, you getting a whole lot closer, aren't you?

I was like, yes Sir.

And we both smiled and walked off.

Handoff against Cedric Houston running left Houston sophomore, junior and senior year I started, so I started for three years at the University of Tennessee.

I finished fifth on the Tennessee rushing list, so I was fifth all time in Tennessee rushing history was a, which was a huge accomplishment.

So during my senior year, I was always tired.

Like I did a few plays.

I was like coach, man, I'm tired.

He's like, what you tired for you, you're tip top shape.

I was like, man, I'm tired.

And I mean, I didn't know what it was four or from.

And after that, I got invited to the NFL combine and they did blood work on me there.

And they found out I had a hyperthyroid.

So before that I had a prior draft grade to price second round.

I probably be a second rounder early 3rd rounder.

Then after that my agent was like man said, I don't know who's going to take a chance on you, who's going to draft you if you're getting drafted.

So we didn't know after to come by, we didn't know if I was getting drafted or not and we didn't know how serious the thyroid condition was or what I had to do for it.

It just took a chance on me and I went six round to the New York Jets.

Starts out.

To me, I think he just wanted to come back to his hometown where he get his experience to other players so they could try to make it too.

He knows what it what it takes to get that, so I feel like it's a good event.

Coming up playing football and having great coaches through high school and then having great coaches through college made you be a better man.

I knew I want to eventually get into coaching and influencing kids.

Chuck the whole yard.

Just being in this area and and some guys not having father figures in their lives, you got these coaches around that's doing the right things and and may not seem big but that that's huge for guys in this delta area and just from these areas he he's basically a good running back but like like a father figure to me.

He teach you right from wrong if you ain't doing your work, and he'll pull you to the side and tell you what to do and like help you out.

When you get the note said.

Because he's actually a good person, he knows how to do his job.

And I'm saying keep, keep smiles on everybody.

He's a good old person for playing.

Don't tell him I said that.

A great story, exciting things in the future there in Clarendon.

Let's turn now to the student athlete with emphasis on the student part.

Actually, what do you have for us?

Thanks, David.

Yes, once again this year we reached out to schools across the state of Arkansas to find out about those athletes who not only excel on the field, but in the classroom too.

Here's the Arkansas PBS student All-Stars class of 2022.

We're going to start with our eight man honoree, Jackson Martin.

Jackson is a senior quarterback for the WOODLINE.

High school bears.

He has a 3.5 grade point average.

He plans to attend college and become a coach or study to be a real estate agent out of two a lets me.

Luke King Luke is a senior quarterback and linebacker for the Hazen High School Hornets.

He maintains a 4.0 grade point average and wants to play college football and ultimately become a dentist.

Moving on to three a here's Sawyer Hoskins with the Melbourne High School Bearcats.

This senior offensive and defensive linebacker is a four year starter who holds a 4.2 GPA.

He also scored an amazing 33 on the ACT exam.

He plans to become a pharmacist.

Our four All Star this year is Jalen Dupree.

Jalen is a junior running back and linebacker for the Malvern High School Leopards.

He has a 3.5 grade point average.

Following high school, Jalen plans to play college football and major in physical therapy.

Coming around to five a we have tavion Haney of the Parkview High School Patriots.

Tavion is a senior cornerback and has a 3.5 grade point average he has received.

Outstanding Academic Excellence Award and has won all conference and all state honors.

He plans to continue playing football while seeking a degree in engineering or learning a trade.

The six a representative this season is Hayden Webb, the senior offensive lineman for the Greenwood High School Bulldogs, maintains a 4.0 GPA and scored a perfect 36 on the ACT exam.

He plans to attend the University of Arkansas Fayetteville after graduation.

And finally we wrap up with our seven All Star Abe Owen.

Dave is the senior quarterback for the Cabot High School Panthers.

He has a 4.0 GPA.

After high school, he plans to go to college and medical school to become an orthopedic surgeon.

Congratulations to all the honorees and way to go.

We might see some of those faces again in April right here in this very studio for Chrisbo.

Make a middle note to watch quiz bowl this year.

Some of the sharpest high school students in the state meet up right here in square off, not only for bragging rights, but for some pretty big checks too.

And it is alive.

Right here on Arkansas PBS.

Now, Ed, Speaking of what is on Arkansas PBS, there are some more things that you wanna fill us in on, right?

Yeah.

I have a few things, Ashley.

We've got a lot going on here at Arkansas PBS.

You've seen a lot of football today and we've got basketball state finals right around the corner in March.

And then there's baseball and softball in May.

And this year we added volleyball back in October.

Now, why?

Why is Arkansas PBS doing sports?

Well, to us and to the student.

Athletes and their families.

It's a lot more than just sports.

Take a look.

It's the final game of Championship weekend here in Hot Springs.

It's a sold out crowd.

Here we go.

Tip off a set back with a right hand tie ball game.

When you gonna wake up?

You're gonna wake up when the season over that's swung on.

Lifted high to right field.

He's going back to the warning track.

It's out of here.

I can kind of look at people and tell if they doubt me.

You know, you can kind of see their entire expression kind of change right when you make it.

The sun is setting in Saline County and we've got 4A baseball a titles on the line rest her gives it off right side.

10/5 walk the dog touchdowns is so important to this state and the fabric of the state.

And I appreciate Arkansas, PBS doing all the state title games.

And I can only think of the kids in small towns and this is the biggest moment maybe in their sports careers.

And they have that keepsake of having that game on TV to have with them the rest of their lives, the set.

Tapped over.

Panthers of the 2022 state champions.

You know we are your Arkansas PBS.

These sports broadcasts give us a lens through which we can tell stories of inspiration, stories of determination.

Your stories.

Arkansas stories.

Take a look.

Life I've been waiting for.

An Arkansas adventure like never before.

Your name.

To be sustainable farm, you have to make investments for the future.

And I hope they find a lot of good stuff.

I hope they feel love.

Live in the moment till I die.

Hello and welcome to talking country.

I was known on the West Coast is the Arkansas Wildman.

And my feet.

Amazing creators and entrepreneurs digging today inspiration and see how they let it shine into the world.

Some microphones here you do a little little song for us.

Ohh the code of many colors.

Which one you pick?

You pick in my coat of many colors.

That's right.

Now I'm mad as a vision, but in its own right a beautiful form of art.

We got to taste a new guy or this ain't going to be around much longer.

Is now.

There is something on Arkansas PBS for every person in our natural state.

It's our mission to ensure that, and we want to let you know how you can join our family.

Scan that QR code on your screen if you're enjoying these high school championship games, whether it's football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball or quiz bowl, and then sign up and become part of our team, that QR code will take you where you need to go and sign up and we'll get updates to you and let you know what's coming up so you don't miss a thing.

Alright, I think we've got time for one more story, Baz.

Yes, we do add a matter of fact.

This story is very close to my heart.

Kane and Sandy has risen from humble beginnings in the small Arkansas town of Cave City to be named to the ESPN Fan Hall of Fame.

Take a look.

Your attention to the 50 yard line.

Tonight.

Hands.

3.

2.

1. Who is Kane insane racing back?

Your heart Kanan, he's he's just a champion.

It's 100 miles an hour wherever he is.

You know his enthusiasm is contagious.

Kaylan's personality is way bigger than Kanan.

That just kind of made him one time and you know him the rest of your life.

Arkansas is all about the Razorbacks.

There's nothing else.

If you're in Arkansas and you're sports fan, you're for the Razorbacks.

They say that back when he was three months old took him to the Razorback game.

Three weeks later, he had to have open heart surgery.

I'm not any illness or birth defect that he didn't have to conquer it one way or another.

He was born with a VSD in his heart.

He was born with an intestinal blockage and he was born deaf.

There was nothing.

They gave us no hope that we were going to get to keep him.

They all fought for him, just like he was going to be a superstar one night.

It's my room.

I got a big hammer.

Oxi ham it right here it it it might be here all the time.

This is a copy of the picture that is in ESPN's Courtyard in Bristol, CT, ESPN Hall of Fame.

That, hey, we weren't surprised at all.

Soon as they come up with a fan Hall of Fame, what bigger fan is there than Kane and Sandy of the Arkansas Razorback?

Good, bad, ugly.

It didn't matter.

He's always there, always cheering.

Famer and expands honor the two most famous people in Cave City.

Or Ricky Medlock who played for the Razorbacks, and then even more famous as Cain and singing.

They had called us and said we want Kaden to do, we're going to do a two point conversion and kanan's going to run the ball in everything.

We're sitting on the sideline.

All of a sudden news crews start running and they go, what's going on?

They said coach Bielema has decided he wants a 50 yard touchdown with Kanan.

What they go running down the field and the only thing I hear is one of the Sid give Kanan the ball to shove it in his hand.

They said don't you dare drop this ball in front of 30,000 people.

Yes, that's good, right.

Let's do it.

I love this.

It's important.

Kanan and ambulance.

When when the gulf, the dreaded gallstone thing, he called me, he said, mom, I don't feel good.

And he was in the bathroom and I said, well, let's get to the couch.

And I got him to the couch.

He quit breathing.

It's turned to completely blue.

He fell over on the couch and his eyes just fixed and I just panicked.

I think it really resonated to her that you know how fragile his health was.

They've just been everything to each other and they had fought for each other for the in so many ways.

And we went through rehab and and things, so we're probably got back what we're going to get back, but it's good enough.

Peg so Kanan always followed all the commits and it was like one one week we said hey so and so is playing Friday night and football game.

Let's go and watch him play.

These guys come be a Razorback and I promise you that has made an impact.

And I mean, that's special.

I don't know anybody else that does that in the country.

He's back in full force.

He sure is.

Mr Cannon said his love.

You know Kanan loves people and we love Kanan, his most honest.

Outgoing, loving person.

I guess I've ever seen he impacts so many people's lives.

It's a great example of what one person can do.

Hey, Jay, he can bring so much joy to the people across the state of Arkansas is, I mean, it's immeasurable what that means.

Day.

Canaan is the product of other people's life.

OK, that's fair.

People of Arkansas have retaliated with their love, and they're the ones that have made came as famous.

Canon didn't do it.

I didn't do it.

They made Canon famous because they just poured their love into him.

It's because they're so good and they're just opened their hearts to him.

It is amazing to me how much traveling that Ginger and Kanan Sandy do in state and out of state.

That's right.

They go watch recruits in high school games, of course, all of the Razorback games.

It's incredible.

Yeah.

What a great story, by the way.

It's like more than a sports story.

That is a that's a human story.

Those are great people.

Yeah.

Kane has got the biggest heart and the world needs a lot more cane and sandies, for sure.

Well, that's it for us on the halftime show.

Thanks for watching.

Now let's send you back to War Memorial Stadium for the second-half action right here on the home of the high school football state finals.

Arkansas PBS.

The electric cooperatives of Arkansas over 2500 team members across 17 local electric distribution co-ops powering homes, farms and industries somewhere across Arkansas.

We are the electric cooperatives of Arkansas power and people.

Back here at War Memorial Stadium as we get ready to start the second-half, where Jody Grant, the head football coach for the Bentonville Tigers, is standing by with Dorian Kraft.

Well, we thought we thought Jerry was he hadn't quite made it out to get him here in just a moment as Dorian's gonna gonna chase him down and pull get him here in just a moment but Bobby has.

Everybody's getting warmed up.

Give me some quick keys for Bentonville to start the second-half.

We said we got to protect football can't give Brian extra possessions.

He interception led to the interception return for a touchdown and that's an extra possession that Bryant was able to take advantage of.

Huge possession to start this third quarter as Britain's gonna receive the opening kickoff.

Now let's go down to Jody Grant with Dorian Kraft.

Come up with it.

Our defense has played really hard the first half.

You know we're we gotta we gotta get him off the field.

They're on the field too much.

We gotta get some stuff going offensively so our so our defense can come out a little more fresh.

What's the key to getting Fickling going in the second-half?

Well we gotta build a puppy more offensive line is going to have to to do a better job up front.

You know a lot of that has to do with grunts defensive front seven and they're they're special but we gotta do this.

We gotta get our back going for us to be able to operate offensively.

Coach thank you.

Thank you Dorian.

Appreciate that as that was head coach Jody Grant.

For the Bentonville Tigers, as his team trails 21 to 7 here in the 7A state Championship game.

Bobby, I just talked about those Bentonville tigers and what they had to do here in the second-half.

For Bryant, they've got the lead right now.

What do they need to do to kind of maintain that or to expound upon that?

I think they've got to be balanced and what we've seen, what moats has been able to do with the run pass option elements of it, and then going deep down the field to Singleton, as long as they stay balanced, it keeps Bentonville from bringing too much pressure, which they had success on at the very first two or three drives in this contest.

Once they were able to level that out, that's when they've been successful.

Here's your first half stats right now, passing is in favor of Bryant with 110 rushing's in favor of Brian.

Really.

Total yards, which that total yards, Bobby.

That was in favor of Bentonville.

Much of the first half and really the second quarters when Brian took over.

Yeah, and you gotta think about that.

That's 110 passing yards and 199 overall.

That includes minus 40 rushing for Walker, of course, the lateral that resulted in the Bentonville defensive touchdown.

So the numbers are a lot better for Bryant offensively than they look.

But Bentonville.

Since is playing pretty well, that defensive score obviously looms large.

Now here's the defensive battle that we've talked about so much throughout this ball game.

And you know one thing about Bentonville defense, they're the only one that's gonna sack so far on this one.

Yeah, those numbers right there on both sides of your screen are success.

That that is a recipe of how to win a seven day state championship.

They're both doing their jobs, but the defensive score is allowed this game to be a little more level than you might expect to.

Look at those numbers.

Well, if you enjoyed the first half, sit back, relax, grab some popcorn because.

This second-half is gonna be entertaining for sure as the Bryant Hornets are going to receive the second-half kick as they deferred to start the ball game.

And we are just about sitting ready to go for the conclusion of this 7A state championship game from War Memorial Stadium.

I'm RJ Hawk along with Bobby Swofford.

Dorian Kraft is on the sidelines tonight for this broadcast as we are.

Just glad to be able to bring this to you in in what is really been a fun weekend so far.

We had the eight man championship last night, earlier today at noon, the 2A Championship game.

We had some really good ball games so far throughout the day and we're not done.

We got two more tomorrow, two more next weekend.

This is the best to me, the best eight day stretch that the high school football has to offer.

All the best teams playing here in the capital city and here at War Memorial Stadium.

Course we got was the 5A and 6A coming up tomorrow.

Harrison's gonna put this one into the end zone and so Brian will have it first in 10 from the 2120 yard line as we will start the second-half of play.

Well, Bobby, you know we've talked about keys for both these teams and you know, we heard Buck James at the half say that he we would see Jordan Walker, who starred the ball game at quarterback, come back in at some point.

But getting in.

Moses is the guy he's riding with to start the second-half.

Yeah, he's played too well to to take him out.

I understand that Coach Buck James wants to go back and keep the confidence there for the sophomore Walker, but Moats is playing way too well to take him out of the football game.

And this is a huge drive.

RJ, for both sides of Bentonville defense can get a stop.

They feel like they can get back into this.

Process going the other way as Brian breaks one down the sideline.

Here's Gannaway is Gannaway was able to slip through on that right side, got a big run lane and that's really where he is dangerous because when he gets in the open field he's got the speed to run away.

Yeah, you're exactly right.

Nice job is stretching that out.

It gets to the corner and like you said, once he turns that corner, he's got speed.

But it's finished.

My thought from a second ago, Brian can score here.

3 possession game, maybe it's out of reach.

Now Moe's going to hand it to Gannaway once again trying to pick his.

Bought out past the 50 yard line.

He bobbled it and Benville, which recovers it.

We're coming up with it for the Bitfield Tigers.

It was JT Tomasco who came up with the fumble recovery and so now the Hornet defense gonna come out onto the football field some.

Esco has done everything he can to keep his team and the contest.

He had the interception in the first half and the red zone and Johnny on the spot the pop on hop on the loose ball because that one was punched.

That looked like by Nick Stone #19, the linebacker, the senior.

And that was a huge, huge break for Bentonville.

Bryant looked like they had something going on the ground and you saw right there Gannaway.

The way he was carrying it, it was out away from his body when he got punched out.

And so now Bentonville got great field position and they'll have it at the 46 yard line.

Now I'm gonna look to throw.

He's under pressure, throws it down, feeling each one, hops the receiver that time and trying to hook up with Q brown and that brings up second down in 10.

Bentonville was wanting to take a shot to their home run hitter on the outside, CJ Brown, who's at the top of your screen, but they had safety help over the top.

Nice job by night or.

Recognize that?

Go to the second or third option and throw it away.

Just underway here in the third quarter of the 7A state Championship game is the ball's gonna be at the Bentonville 46 yard line.

Two wide receivers on the top side of the formation now being the shotgun he's got, ficklin just to his right.

Gonna look to throw again short pass inside the Brian Territory as that time was able to find his receiver, CJ Brown and get a nice gain as it's right there at the sticks.

Maybe about a yard shy it is.

And so that'll bring up second down and 1/3 down and one excuse.

This is where they've got to be able to get stickling involved.

You got to trust your front up, up, up at the line of scrimmage to establish control and thick ones.

Got to be able to pick up the Shard.

Then again RJ probably pointing out the obvious, you got to believe this is 2 down territory.

3rd down in one for the Tigers.

As Brian's gonna cheat some linebackers up to the line of scrimmage.

And they're gonna give it to pick one and pick one.

He gets stopped in the backfield.

He loses a yard on the play.

He kind of stutter step Bobby and he didn't know which way he was gonna go.

Yeah, and he had to do that because Brant moved the line of scrimmage back a full yard.

That's a nice job by the Hornets defensive front.

They arranged where the the line of scrimmage was and you can see the fill in the hole right there in the middle was first in the linebacker and then cleaned up at the end by Big #90 in the middle.

Jalen Russ.

So today Bentonville is O for one.

And 4th down.

As they've got a fourth down and two, they're gonna keep the offense on the field.

If no one over directly over the Center for Bentonville in that last play, I'm almost like the scene of quarterbacks league.

Ficklin is going to be the only guy in the backfield now, a timeout charged to Bentonville.

The media say because I'm sitting up here at the 10,000 foot view here in the press box, but when you recognize that especially on 3rd and short maybe audible that recognize we go quarterback sneak right up the middle could have picked up an easy first down and said they snap it in the shotgun.

Fickling gets it 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Brian makes the point.

It's like they were going out of the Wildcat to try to let him just pick his spot and you know Brian was going to they were going to crowd that line of scrimmage on that 4th down attempts.

So now you got to think about it because you know the last time that they went for it on 4th down they called the timeout.

If you remember and then that's when the interception happened and so you you wanna dial up the right play right here on 4th down and two yeah normally you would think this is automatic 4th and two short yardage.

We're gonna run it.

The boy the Bryant defense has been playing holding Bentonville to just 3 1/2 yards per carry and they've had to to work for every inch they've got.

I'm not sure that they don't go a little play action try to sneak someone out to the flat maybe CJ brown coming off a motion and trying to see what you can create.

But it looks like they're going to try to stick with that Wildcat look balls at the 46 yard line and.

Bryant Territory has its fourth down and two, and now we've got whistles and a false start on Bentonville.

Try to get a little too fancy there moving up front.

All start offense, 5 yard penalty 4th down.

And so now the punting unit is going to come on for Bentonville.

That's the second time we've seen Bentonville think about going for it on 1/4 down.

And the false start forces the punt team to try it on to the field.

You know, missed opportunities.

I think you, you can sum up the first half and really now this drive here in the second-half are just missed opportunities for Bentonville.

It really is.

I mean that's the scenario third and one, you feel like with the success they've had running the football all season long, you're going to be able to get that with two downs there.

You don't get it on 3rd down, you have to call time out.

And now you're forced to punt and Bryant, which is already up two scores, gets possession.

Drake Fowler receives the fun, has a running lane left side.

There is a penalty flag down back at the 27 yard line and Fowler's gonna return it all the way out past the 45 yard line to the 47.

But hold everything as there's a penalty flag that it's officially been put down at the 23 and we'll see what the call is.

And they're already marching them back.

So it looks like this is going to be on the return unit for Bryant.

That's a nice during the return holding on the return team penalty is 10 yards first down.

That's a nice job setting up the return to the far sideline.

More times than not you'll see your return set up to your home side to to your sideline.

That time they set up to the opposing side and the big lane.

But all for knots and as they marching back because of the special teams miscue.

So for Brian, they're gonna be inside the 20 yard line.

They're gonna spot the ball down at the 14 and that's where Bryant will have it in, probably.

I don't recall.

I'd have to look back at the drive charts, but I don't recall a a good field position for Bryant at any point in this ball game.

No Bentonville starting field position.

Bentonville clearly had the better starting field position, but it didn't matter.

Brian's got a 96 yard drive on their resume tonight.

Now here's the snap they're going to hand it to James Martin and Martin jumps over defenders still rolling, and he's going to pick up a first down as he gets out to the 24 yard line.

We started to see it on that final drive right before the half RJ Bryant has taken over the line of scrimmage that they really are moving men up front and you can give credit to those big guys up front.

They're starting to take over this football game.

1st in 10 pull the Hornets as the balls at the 24 yard line.

Martin's gonna line up to the right of Gideon Moats.

And now we've got whistles and penalty flags.

Yeah, Bentonville was pointing out some movement referees napping fraction on the offense.

5 yard penalty, first down.

So that'll be a snap infraction against the Hornets.

And that'll back it up.

To the 19 yard line.

16 first downs for the Hornets, just five for Bentonville, which shows the dominance the Hornet defense has been able to put through for 2 1/2 quarters, 1st and 15 for the Hornets.

As moats gonna keep it himself.

Gonna stay on his feet and he'll get it back out to the 24 yard line.

O we got back to five yards that they lost, but it's now second down and he's a load to bring down.

You thought that looked like that might be a no game, maybe a gain of 1 as Bentonville stayed home on that option read.

But he's able to use that big frame lead forward, as you mentioned, get back to the original line of scrimmage.

So it's second down and 10:00 with the ball at the 24 yard line on the near hash.

Moe's gonna look to throw under pressure, steps up and he's gonna throw it out of bounds.

It was past the line of scrimmage, but is there a penalty flag down over the 29 yard line?

No, I I think that's just.

Some type of mark on the turf.

Maybe there is, yeah.

Officials are getting together now, I guess, to talk about the the past and whether it crossed the line of scrimmage.

Yeah, they're also discussing if the near receiver was in the vicinity.

So I guess I'm gonna say he was close enough.

There was a severe amount, 7 or 8 yards past where that ball was thrown.

He was still in the pocket was moats they're gonna send.

The receiver was close enough.

And now we make it a replay because now the umpire came down to talk to the official, the head official, and that's.

No, we're not gonna replay.

So I just had to talk things over.

So it's third down and 10.

As they're gonna go 5 wide in the formation, most is gonna be in the shotgun.

So this bill brings pressure.

They do note going to swing it out left side to my torian Singleton.

He's gonna bounce off it defender and he'll get the first down as he goes out of bounds at the 35 yard line.

That is a big play by the wide receiver.

My torian Singleton.

Singleton is just doing big boy stuff on the outside he used to Shuck and defenders he already.

He already did it on the on the short touchdown catch he caught on the speed sweep earlier.

That has to be a play made by the defense for for Bentonville.

They've got two defenders out there.

He's short of the first down marker.

Just runs through 2 tacklers.

Picks up a huge first down for Bryant Ball at the 26 yard line.

As Martin is the running back, they're gonna give it to him and he has nowhere to go.

Bottled up, there's a host of tigers that came in and he's gonna lose about 2 yards on the play.

That's a great job defensively by Bentonville to gang tackle.

Martin broke the first one, but he had nowhere to go and they dump him for a loss.

If you look, if you look at the replay, get in moats, if he would have kept it, he had a wide open side of the field to be able to run.

And he's made some big plays with his legs, so maybe see if they come back to that option to read, which they had so much success on their first scoring drive tonight.

So it's second down and 12:00 with the ball at the 34 yard line.

Most gonna hand it to Martin once again.

Got a running lane straight up the middle and he'll be taken down at the 43 yard line and that'll bring up third down and short.

Now for the Hornets.

Yeah, that's just a luxury you have when you've got a running game and an offensive like that.

Offensive line like that, RJ because you know, normally 2nd and 12 is automatic pass and they go draw play in a huge game there and make up third and short under 8 minutes to play here in the third quarter.

Bryant on top of this one.

21 to 7.

Gonna get 3 yards for a first down.

Moats gonna hand it off once again and right there was that Bentonville defense did not allow anything and he got back to the line of scrimmage but that was it.

Yeah they tried to overload that left side with two lead blockers but Bentonville recognized it.

Maybe a little too predictable there for Bryant and they get the much needed defensive stop.

Bryant punt team trots on the field so Malachi Graham going to come on to punt for the Hornets back deep for Bentonville they'll send cube around.

Graham's punt is a wobbly punt that bounces at the 31, takes a Bryant role and goes out of bounds at the 26 yard line.

And so that's where the.

Tigers will have it first and 10 with 656 remaining left here in the third quarter.

That may be the adjustment that that Bryant made at halftime.

Tired of kicking Q Brian and watching him change field position.

We saw him with three good punt returns in that first half.

That time you angling away from him, get an extra roll and they'll Bryant start or excuse me, Bentonville starting this drive inside their own 30.

So Bentonville with the football at the 26 yard line, 3 wide receivers on the top side of the formation and now he's going to look to throw.

He throws up Nick almost, boy I'd say almost called that one because he was there was not a tiger within 5 yards of it, and it hit off the hands of Miguel Graham for the Hornets.

It's a great job at Graham to recognize this kind of fall back into the flats.

They've given up that five or six yard.

Around that time they were going for 11:50 and he dropped right back into it and dropped an easy interception.

So it's now second down and 10 for the Tigers fakes.

The handoff goes into the flats and a big time hit.

That time coming up to make the stop for the Hornets it was Drake.

Fowler just waited too long to make that decision to throw it on the swing route to Brown.

You got to let that go as soon as you get the ball.

It kind of hesitated a loud Fowler time to break up and just chopped him down right at the thigh.

And CJ Brown's going to take himself out of this game on the big third down and that was a 5 yard loss.

So it brings up third down.

15 as the clock is rolling at 621 balls gonna be spotted down at the 22 yard line.

Haven't seen much of Fickling here in the second-half.

Bentonville trying to rely on the passing game at Bryant's defense has been up to the challenge thus far.

Four wide in the formation is going to take the shotgun snap, going to look the throne, working it right side, and it's in and out of the hands of his wide receiver that time trying to hook up with his wide outlook **** and the funding units going to come on for the Tigers.

It's a pretty nice throw for an eye all the way across the field, but just too far for the outreached arms of **** and a quick three and out for Bentonville.

They put their defense back on the field.

Well, this kind of reminds you of that first quarter that we had in this game where it was just defense all in the first quarter.

If you remember back to the start of this game, Benville had a 7 to nothing lead throughout the entire first quarter.

So Fowler's gonna stand at the 40 yard line for the Hornets as Thomason is gonna punt this one away and it'll be a wobbly short kick that Fowler drops.

And it's fallen on by the Hornets down at the 43 yard line, and there's a scramble for it on the on the turf.

But the Bryant Hornets will retain possession as they'll have it at the 43 yard line.

With 554 to play left here in the third quarter.

We owe you a timeout.

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Well, you know, I learned earlier today that people still use DVD player.

I thought that was kind of by the wayside, but yeah, apparently that's a that's still big business for folks to have a DVD player.

Absolutely.

House, would you watch it over there, man, good point.

Here's the 1st and 10:00 with the ball at the 43 yard line for the Hornets as Gideon Moats is going to hand it off this time.

Danaway Gannaway give him some redemption after that fumble as he gets out past the 4239 yard line.

Running lanes are just getting bigger and bigger, RJ.

And that time, all the little counteraction.

Gannaway found a crease right up the middle and quickly Bryants inside the 40.

You gotta think that Buck James just gonna give it right back to him after he fumbled it.

Just to get that confidence back as its first and 10.

Here's a toss sweep to Gannaway.

Gonna get out in space and he'll be tackled down at the 36 yard line.

It's a 3 yard gain for the Hornets to bring up.

Second down.

Great open field stop by Christian Pharaoh, but you're seeing A3 man defensive front for Bentonville.

That's the staple.

That's what they've run forever under coach Jody Grant.

You may have to start creeping some extra guys into that box to try to slow down this brat rushing attack.

Which, of course, could open up things in the passing game.

Three wide receivers to the right side of the formation.

As Gannaway is gonna get it again and the Bentonville defense is right there, it's gonna be a 3 yard loss.

After that Bentonville defensive line, they just got a big time push to get in the backfield.

Yeah, nice job by 91 Ben Pearson.

This comes off the block, makes the play in the backfield and cleaned up by 18 Skidmore.

Big sequence right here for Bentonville as it's third and long for the Hornets.

So it's third down and 10:00 with the ball at the 40 yard line, 41 yard line.

Gideon Moats gonna look to throw.

Those are across the middle has a man and that's into the hands of my torian Singleton, who has come up big once again.

That one just a tick in front of Johnny Pike, the defensive back for Bentonville who was a hair late on.

That allowed Singleton to make the play, but he was just a fraction of a second behind.

As you can see.

He gets there just behind the football, allows the completion of the third down conversion.

So it's first and ten with the ball at the 26 yard line.

Moats gonna hand it off this time to Martin.

He's gonna cut it back to the middle of the field and he'll be down inside the 25 down to the 24 yard line.

2 yard gain for Martin.

And that'll bring up second down in eight.

Yeah, that's just the clock turning right there, RJ, if you're you're Bryant, you know you've got a 2 touchdown lead, you gonna work this clock as they continue to March down the field as they've done most of really since that first quarter.

You know, I was looking at the numbers for Gideon Moats, 9 of 18 passing for 135 yards.

2 touchdowns and an interception.

SO3 wide are going to go to the left side of the formation as a tall sweep goes to Martin.

And once again, that Bentonville defense right there, no gain and that'll bring up third down.

Another nice stop there by 91 Pearson.

So it's third down and nine did lose a yard on the play as the ball is at the 25 yard line.

Down to 3 minutes to play here in the third quarter.

I'd like to see Bentonville bring a little pressure here.

Try to get moats off this spot, move the pocket, force him to create something on the move.

Empty backfield 5 wide in the formation as Moses in the shotgun.

Mode stays in the pocket, goes downfield, has a man at the five, died for the end zone touchdown.

Hornets that time was able to hook up.

With wide receiver Carter Ratliff for the touchdown, third touchdown catch of the season for Ratliff, and again Brat goes right back to the middle of the secondary for Bentonville.

They've tried to attack that spot all night long and they're able to connect with Ratliff.

Perfect strike and the Hornets back in the end zone on the kick 4.

Brian is Stephen Fuller.

As the extra point is up and it is good, and the Hornets extend their lead to 28 to 7, hey, let's head down to Dorian craft on the sideline.

And Dorian, we've talked so much about the push of the offensive line and really the defensive line for Bryant and Buck.

James's been really harping on the weight program that they've had during the offseason.

One of the hallmarks of this Bryant team has been the strength and physicality over the last five years, and it is because of the weight lifting program, James told who's that?

The Hornets.

Out of the year and that program.

That program gets more difficult once it gets in season.

Not only has that allowed the Hornets to avoid injury, but it also allows them to get stronger during the season, which is one of the reasons why those lines are able to get pushes like that in the second-half, leading to those sustained drives.

Thank you Dorian, and you know, and nothing to take away from Bentonville Bobby, but you know, you can see that the the stamina of Bryant has really excelled.

This game has gone on is this is gonna be a short kick that'll be taken down at the 10 yard line and brought up four.

Bentonville bringing it up was JT Tomasco and that's where Bentonville will have it first in 10 and they're going to spot the ball down at the 29 yard line.

Yeah like what Dorian said and the thought process of making the the strength program more difficult once the season arrives because a lot of teams will scale back.

They want you to maintain your strength instead of getting stronger during the football season.

Buck James taking the opposite approach and.

Really.

You can't argue with the success that they've had.

So it's first down in 10 with the ball at the 29 yard line, 235 to play here in the third quarter.

Now he's gonna be in the shotgun, fakes the handoff, gonna go with a little bubble screen, and Bryant is right there coming up to make the stop.

For the Hornets, it was Malachi Graham.

They've just been able to to keep everything in front.

We haven't seen Bentonville really even sniff a big play.

They haven't tried to take many shots down the field because we've seen Brian has kind of has that umbrella coverage and just keeping everything in front and making, you know, Bentonville with the lack of a better term just being can don't get down the field and the Tigers haven't been able to do so.

Second down and 12 as nine is going to look to throw and he's under pressure once again.

He just has to throw it out of bounds.

Some immediate pressure right up the middle and then of course.

Sebastian Altman's 52, right in the middle of your screen and number, excuse me, the junior linebacker.

And that's where the pressure has been all day.

They haven't really got so much off the edges talking about Bryant, but right up the middle of that a gap, they've had a lot of success.

So it's third down and 12:00 with the ball at the 27 yard line.

We're under 2 minutes to play here in the third quarter.

You're going to have stacked wide receivers on both sides of the formation with ficklin behind Knight in the shotgun.

Nah, under pressure steps up in the pocket, going to run with it.

Gonna get out past the 35, gonna be very near 1st down as they're gonna mark him down at the 39 yard line and that's right there at the sticks.

Bobby.

Yeah it's gonna be really close but a great job by Carter Knight to feel that pressure.

He steps up in the pocket and makes one guy miss and picks up just enough to get a much needed first down.

This is a big drive for Bentonville.

They have to capitalize punch it in the end zone here if they want a chance to mount a big rally for a guy that doesn't run very often.

That was a big time pickup for Carter Knight.

It's first down and 10.

They're going to give it the Fickling, Fickling up the middle and he'll get it down to the 44 yard line and it brings up second down this haven't been able to get him involved to see 11th touch of the contest so far for Josh Ficklin.

He's got 42 yards on those 11 touches, second down and five with the ball at the Bentonville 44 yard line.

Kids are back to ficklin and he has nowhere to go.

Gets it out past the 45 to the 46.

And those, those plays are generally 456 yards.

You Rica 12 or 15 yarder in branch is not bending at all.

And now another third and medium to short for Bentonville, which Bryant's been dominant on these third down opportunities?

One of 10 is Bentonville on 3rd down tonight.

Yeah, that's a pretty impressive number.

And you know going back for Brian's defense, they have only allowed opponents on 3rd down 25% of the time.

Do they convert as now I'm going to hand it to ficklin.

Ficklin works to the outside and he can't get there.

He can't get there.

Got back, maybe got a yard, but for sure got back to the line of scrimmage.

That's gonna bring up 4th down there.

Great job by Brandon Johnson, #5IN blue.

Just read that perfectly.

Stretched it out, stuffed ficklin right there, relied on his his teammates to clean it up.

You could see him right there.

Nice job outside leverage in Bentonville.

Faced with another decision to make near midfield, well, they'll have a little bit more time to make that decision as it's.

Time to put those four fingers in the air because we are headed to the fourth quarter, where the Bryant Hornets, they lead the 7A State Championship 28 to 7 over Bentonville.

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Back here in Memorial Stadium 28 to 7, as we start the fourth quarter, how do we get to this point?

Well, it all started with this fumble right here as Walker threw it behind Gannaway and it was a defensive touchdown for the Bentonville Tigers.

To start things off, Bentonville LED for the entire first quarter.

It was seven to nothing.

Then the Bryant Hornets woke up as my torian Singleton.

Was able to get the first score for the Hornets and they tied the ball game at 7 apiece.

And then it's been all Bryant ever since that point as here was a big time interception of 77 yards.

Malachi Graham was able to take it to the house and give Brian the lead after that touchdown.

And then of course my torian Singleton, he was able to hook up with getting in moats from 26 yards out and that was the touchdown.

And of course we just had.

One more touchdown a moment ago and it's now 28 to 7 and that's how we got here here in the 7A state championship game, my Tori to Singleton has really turned this game upside down.

His playmaking ability on the outside, it really goes back to that one.

The trust that Buck James has and throw him in the double team allowed them to score right before the half.

It's 4th down and three.

Nine is going to look to throw.

Going left side overthrows his intended target, trying to hook up with Q Brown and that's a turnover on downs for Bentonville and Bobby that.

That's what the third time, now that they have been unsuccessful on 4th down the second time.

That play was the epitome of what tonight has been for the Bentonville offense.

This nothing is coming easy, nothing looks comfortable that time.

Now was pressured, he had happy feet and didn't know what to do with the football.

He's falling backwards, didn't have his momentum going forwards towards that throw air, mails it and turn over on down.

You know, this was the game that a lot of people were saying who has the best defense in the state of Arkansas?

Because both have been really good.

I know there are some reporters here in the press box.

That we're delving Bryant with the best defense.

Some were saying Bentonville and Bryant's defense has really shown out so far as James Martin's got it.

And he'll get past the 45.

Still on his feet as he'll get down to the 41 yard line.

Nice run of five yards by James Martin.

Just the physicality is is obvious on both sides of the football and Brian it's starting to win that and that was evident as you start to see the pile move a little forward at the end of that run, which looked like it was going to be a one or two yard game.

Now you look up at 2nd and five.

And the Bryant fans are sounds like they're upset a little bit because they thought there should be an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Is James Martin got pushed back down or James?

Yeah, James Martin got pushed back down.

And so that brings up second down and five, five wide in the formation.

Getting moats all alone looking to go big ball left side.

James Martin has to go in and out of his hands.

We've got a penalty flag down down at the 12 yard line.

I think this may be offensive pass interference.

RJ, you started to see that the hands extend just a little bit.

It's on Martin.

Pass interference defense, they're continued penalty for the first chance, and that's a big time penalty against the defense.

I thought Martin kind of pushed off of this maybe.

Here's another look at it.

Yeah, he did push off.

But the corner never turned around either.

To look and see where the ball was.

Yeah, Martin initiated the contact.

That's a tough break for Bentonville in my eyes.

So it's first down and 10:00 with the ball at the 26 yard line.

1106 left in this game.

Moats.

Can I hand it over to Martin?

He'll work around the right side, stays on his feet down to the 21 yard line.

Boy, he runs really, really hard.

Done it?

Yeah.

The first defender is not bringing down Martin or Gannaway for that matter, or Singleton, the receiver, many times in this contest.

And that second yard is that yards after contact has been huge in Bryant moving the chains, keeping drives alive and also finishing off drives.

It's 28 to 7 Hornets on top.

Looking for more as they're at the Bentonville.

21 yard line.

Here's a toss over to my torian Singleton Bentonville defense is just all over him.

They they had four guys right there on the jet sweep, and my touring single Singleton couldn't go anywhere.

They've done a nice job talking about Bentonville defense, recognizing when Singleton goes in motion.

More times than not, they're gonna do the quick pitch to him.

The the previous two times they couldn't bring him down with first contact.

That time the defense swarms over and drops him for a loss.

So it's third down and nine for this offense of the Hornets as wonder tend to play in the game.

Brian has been very effective when they've gone with the five wide formation tonight and that's what they're in right now.

Getting moates walks over to my torian Singleton to talk about the play, and now he'll be back.

Here's the play.

Goes to Singleton on the right side, takes to the 20th.

Not enough for a first down.

Gonna be about four yards shy of the first down and that will bring up 4th down.

A nice job to close it and make the tackle and not allow yards after the catch.

There by Eli Estis the defensive back, but now it's 4th and medium for Bryant.

This is the scenario that Bentonville is struggling with so mightily.

Tonight.

We'll see if the other hand Brian can cash in on this red zone opportunity is after they're after 20.

They're gonna leave the offense out there as it's 4th down and four from the 20 yard line.

Four wide receivers in the formation, now 5.

Moats gonna look to throw under pressure and he'll be thrown down back all the way at the 33 yard line.

Big Pearson has played a phenomenal game 91.

The defensive end there for for the outside linebacker for Bentonville to sheds the blocker able to make the play in a huge sack on 4th down to get the turnover on down.

And that that's probably one of the biggest plays that they've made because Brian had five wide in the formation and moats was just trying to get something, but he had a guy immediately in his face.

Yeah, that's a great job.

He rolled right into that pressure and Pearson recognized it comes off his block and makes the play button goes really been really close.

Multiple sacks tonight.

That time they finally get home.

First down and 10.

Here's the pass play that goes left side into the hands of Luke Kuhn, and that'll be about a yard shy of the first down.

And that'll bring up second down.

Let's go down the door in real quick as she's got an update on Brandon Johnson.

Brandon Johnson was buried on the depth chart at running back.

Head coach Buck James said that Johnson was just too good to be waiting on the bench or playing in a rotation, so the coaching staff decided to move Johnson to linebacker.

It took some time for Johnson to adjust, but he's turned into a player that can cover or tackle inside the box like we saw just before the quarter break.

And James said, since the North Little Rock game, Johnson has been the guy on this defense and that's saying something for Hornet squad that's averaging, giving up just 10 points per game.

Thank you, Dorian.

And here's.

I can look as though there is a penalty flag down.

He's gonna short hop his intended target, that is.

The receiver, CJ Brown.

See what Philly flag is.

That came out early, so you like to probably think that's a formational issue for Bentonville.

Illegal formation on the offense?

Not enough men on the line of scrimmage that penalties declined second down.

So it brings up second down in 10.

With the ball at the 47 yard line.

Four wide in the formation.

Now he's gonna drop back and he's under pressure.

Two guys missed him.

He got out of it.

Now he's gonna look to throw.

Has a man as he steps out of bounds at the 46 yard line that's gonna be short of the first down and it brings up a third down situation for the Tigers.

It's a nice job by Luke **** to recognize the the scramble drill there and come back to the quarterback.

They were trying to get Fickling on the wheel route out of the backfield.

Bryant recognized it.

So the quarterback had the night.

Had to do other options and go to plan.

Maybe.

Or maybe even playing C on that.

I don't stop the clock at 8:28.

Here's third down as they go right side and that'll be enough for the first down as that time they got it into the hands of their wide receiver.

That's J Spafford that's been there all night.

RJ is that three to four yard button, hook the out, the quick out, either one.

Brian Smith content with giving that up.

There's not going to let any of the big plays happen.

And now we're here with under 9 minutes to play.

Bentonville didn't have enough time to think and dunk it down the field.

4 wide receivers in the formation.

Has 9, gonna run with it once again.

Has a running lane out past the 40 and he'll step out of bounds at the 38th.

We've talked about the pressure that that has been so good for Bryant tonight.

How good is the secondary play been for the Hornets now?

There's no open targets.

You'll be on five yards past the line of scrimmage.

They've been really, really good at limiting any kind of passing lane, any opportunity for Bentonville to get something going.

So it's second down in six with the ball at the 38 yard line.

Walking out of the pistol set, this time four wide receivers in the formation.

Now I'm going to step up in the pocket.

He's under pressure and it's almost intercepted as Drake Fowler got a hand on the ball and went out of bounds, announced third down.

Down to 22 on the play clock, benville taking their time to get the play in as they're gonna send three wide to that left side.

Knives in the shotgun.

And he's gonna look to throw.

He's under major pressure.

They set up the middle screen and ficklin gets it inside the 40 yard line to the 39.

But we've got another penalty flag that comes in at the 40 yard line.

That's a great play by Tyler Mosley, takes on 2 blockers and makes the play out there in space for Brian.

Our official is Bryant Derrick and see what the call is.

Illegal block in the back on the off ends at penalties declined 4th down.

So it really turns out to be a 1 yard loss for Bentonville and now you've got fourth down and six for the Tigers.

OK. Tigers come out with four wide in the formation as thick one is to the right of nine.

Now he's gonna look to throw.

He steps up in the pocket, he's under pressure, goes right side and he is not able to connect with his wide receiver.

That is cube brown and that's going to be a turnover on down.

Just blanket coverage everywhere across the field and lock down there by Miguel Grant #12.

There's nowhere for 9:00 to put that football.

You're not going to see better defense on 3rd down on 4th down and Bryant's defense has just been suffocating all night long.

Giving up just 141 yards in this contest.

729 left in the game.

How many total yards?

Usually say 141 for Bentonville?

Wow.

Benville the team that is.

Been averaging 404 yards of total offense throughout the season.

James Martin with the football gonna run it straight up the middle out past the 45 and he'll be taken down at the 48 yard line about a yard shy of the first down.

This is the kind of further that talk RJ the longest play giving up for Bryant.

One play of 20 yards, one play of 12 yards and everything else has been in single digits.

I don't.

So you can't.

You can't get the short stuff.

You can't get the big stuff.

Yeah, it's tough to.

We're doing that, Bobby.

You know, I've done games here at War, Memorial State Championship games for almost 14 years now.

I don't remember a defense this good.

As it's second down in one, we'll finish the thought here in a moment, but.

We're going to fake then now they're going to give it to him.

That's Martin, and he'll be able to cut the outside, get past the 50 and get much more as he'll take it down to the 40 yard line before he goes out of bounds to stop the clock.

The only game I can think of last year that would be even somewhat comparable was what Eldorado did to Greenwood.

Just they just blitzed and blitz and blitz and held that that potent Greenwood office.

I believe it was 27 to 10 was the final on that one, but other than that I I can't remember anymore.

I'm gonna performance and and you look at the score, it's 28 to 7.

You gotta remember that seven was on defense.

Yeah.

So the Bryant defense is pitching a shutout right now.

And you know I I don't know if you can give an MP to 11 or 22 guys on that side of the football.

But right now they'd get by vote.

Here's a run by Gannaway and she'll get about 3 yards.

Now Bobby, you know one thing that Buck James since he came to Bryant, the one thing that he's done is develop a culture and and you know if anybody knows anything about the 7A you see that hashtag 212 and you saw Buck.

James wearing the the sweatshirt that said 212 nation.

And what it means is you know the the boiling point of water is at 211 and so that extra effort to get over the hump is that 212.

That's really kind of been a culture that he has designed over Bryant.

I'll tell I'll finish the thought after this play as if bring a man in motion and they're going to hand it to Gannaway who's going to go straight up the middle and get about a yard on the plane.

But you realize Bobby, that if the final score does do in the favor of the Brian.

Opponents.

But James's overall win total right as a as a head football coach, will be 212.

Sports are fun, right?

Sports are the sun.

Sometimes the story writes itself.

Yeah, yeah, that is exactly the cult that you mentioned, the culture in the program.

Because ten years ago it was the Central Conference asking themselves the question, how do we get on the same level as the West?

And with the rise of North Little Rock, Conway, Cabot and obviously Bryant, the power has clearly swamp.

Here's a pass play to get away, and he's in for the touchdown.

Look at get away right there.

He had to readjust.

And make the touchdown catch.

The penalty flag comes in as it's an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

They're great adjustment on the ball.

You see the kind of he's expecting it over the inside shoulder.

He has to completely turn around in a great play by what's generally a running back.

They lining up out wide, another big play in the passing game and I don't know if there's enough thing we could, enough nice things we could say about the way that Gideon Moats is coming in in relief after the game.

In the office but delivered, that penalty will be enforced on the kickoff.

The results of the play touchdown straight.

Yeah, and he's been the back of all year though.

And that's The thing is Walker has been the guy throughout the entire season and Gideon moats is just, you know, that's why coach is always saying, you know, be ready for the moment as they're going to fake it and take it to the right side and we'll get the two point conversion.

Running with the football for the Hornets that time?

That was Jordan Knox, who lost his helmet.

And he got in for the two point conversion.

Another flag comes out after the play.

And it's gonna be an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Once again, and so.

36 The Bryant Hornets lead at 36 to 7 you're watching the Centennial Bank State Football championships on Arkansas.

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Back here one memorials day in the Hornets, up 36 to 7, on the verge of making high school sports history in the state of Arkansas as they will be kicking off from the 40 yard line.

Here's a squib kick that's going to go down to the 38 yard line, and that's where Bentonville will take it first and 10th.

Jason no more 29 point lead for Bryant as they are just gonna inch ever closer.

And I guess we should probably just get used to saying this.

And when you think, OK, when's it gonna stop?

Some thought it was going to be last year, some thought it be two years ago.

Some thought it might even be tonight.

This is 53 consecutive wins against schools from the state of Arkansas.

I mean, there are not enough superlatives that we can sit here and say for the next 5 minutes and 9 seconds about how good this Bryant program has become.

Here's a catch that's made at the 45 yard line and with the reception that time, it was Carsten Pate as we'll take it down to the 48 yard line.

No, I mean look for anybody that thinks that.

This this Bryant team's not going away anytime soon.

Hey, by the way, the 9th graders at Bryant went undefeated this year.

Of course it did.

Because that's what they do, right?

And as they get inside Bryant territory down to the 48 yard line.

I mean this is this has been A and look brother you gotta give it up to to buck James and what he's done is he's not only built a Senior High program but he it's transitioned down into the junior high and and they're winning down in that area.

Yeah I'm not saying this happened tonight as night takes a big shot as he tries to deliver that one.

There's a lot of games that Bryant wins when they step off the bus.

Yeah because there's a lot of people who think OK they can't be not saying that happened tonight Bentonville.

Really took a big swing at him early, took an early lead, just couldn't get the ground game going and it snowballed from there.

It's just one of those issues that you have to play a near flawless game or you need Bryant to help you out.

And Bryant helped out better going times tonight, 3 turnovers, but you saw the staffing this flashed on the screen.

155 yards for a bit, yeah, and here's a pass play that goes right side into the hands of Pete and Pete will be upended and taken down at the 42 yard line.

That'll be near a first down on that third down conversion.

And depending on where they spot the football, maybe a it looks like it's gonna be about a yard shy.

So to bring up 4th down and one, yeah, that's another prime example of how tough things have been on 3rd down.

They look like they're about the easy pitch and catch and they chop them just short 2 of 13 on 3rd down for Bentonville, they've had opportunities, they haven't been able to capitalize on them.

Fourth down in one and now we've got whistles and penalty flags and once again, Bobby.

So third time on 4th down SNAP infraction on the offense.

I mean, missed opportunities for Bentonville.

Hey and look.

Whether it's it's the Bryant defense or not, those are just fundamental mistakes on the Bentonville offense.

Yeah, I mean, you're trying to do too much.

You're trying to get that early start.

You're trying to get whatever advantage you can to win the one-on-one battle right in front of you.

And for the third time, Bentonville pushes themselves back on the 4th down.

So it's 4th down.

And six is now.

He's gonna step up in the pocket, gonna look to run.

He'll slide, but it's just shy of the first down marker as he'll be down at the 49.

And that will be a turnover on downs at the 44 yard line.

The Hornets will get the football back.

Yeah, just another big stop by Brian Steffenson.

And I don't know if they're going to get another chance to walk onto the field, but if that's the last time we see them remember it because that's one of the best defenses I think, that we've seen in a championship moment.

They go out there and put almost a nearly perfect game plan and execute.

Yeah, and I. Bobby, I, you know, I I think about, you know, I think about that Springdale team that back in the day that yeah, that was really, really good.

I think more people think about the offense with them than they do the defense.

But I mean that that was a really good state championship team.

As Brian's gonna come out with three wide to that near side.

And get in.

Moats is gonna keep it himself and just stay right up the middle and he'll pick up 4, maybe 5 yards on the play out to the 49 yard line.

You know I've I've never been a big fan of comparing teams from you know, different eras or different decades because I think there is a recency bias.

We always what's in front of you.

You always assume that's the best thing you're ever going to see.

Right?

We see we hear the conversation of who's the best player of all time, quarterback, basketball player or whatever.

It's but I mean this is these brilliant teams like you watched them on film and you.

I think, OK, well maybe you can expose this or maybe you can expose that and all sudden the game happens and you can't expose either one of those things as here's a run by Daniel Anderson who just checked in the ball game and Anderson takes it a yard shy of the first down after picking up 4 yards.

And I'll bring up third down and one now for Brian, I mean in the the so the last five years has been the culmination of what's happened with the last 10 or 15 with the Little Rock metro, right.

There's been a a large amount of people.

Moving to the suburbs, Conway seeing that growth, Cabot seeing that growth.

Obviously Bryant and Benton's been in this championship game a handful of times.

And now Bryants, you know, reaping those benefits because they've gotten so many movements, so much talent come into their town.

Not because they're moving into play football, because they moved in with their kids or their parents moved there that had kids and they got into the school system.

Because we've seen that school grow by leaps and bounds over the last 10 or 15 years.

And unfortunately for maybe the rest of the state, I don't see a stop to it anytime soon.

I mean, and you heard Dorian.

Earlier in the broadcast say how Jody Grant for the Bentonville Tigers head coach he the all those W teams they all got together and said what do we gotta do to to be more competitive in the central as Malachi Graham has a short punt that's going to hit down at the 25, take a Bryant roll inside the 10 and it's going to roll down at around the 8 yard line and that's where Bentonville is going to have it first and ten with a minute 52 to play left here in the fourth quarter.

In the way of you noticed for the Bryant Hornets on that last play, Jordan Walker, who started this ball game at quarterback for the Hornets, he checked back in the ball game.

But all it takes is 1 game though, RJ, we sit here and talk about how great this program is and they could never be beaten.

They're gonna go undefeated for the end of time.

Right.

Yeah.

I'll take this one game.

You know, one play to go the other direction and in the championship swings another way.

But as of where it stands right now, Brian can sit on top of the mountain that is Arkansas High school football and say give me your best shot because we haven't been knocked off in five years.

Yeah.

No you're exactly right is here's a run by Ficklin and Ficklin will get out past the 10 to the 13 yard line and.

He's able to get a 5 yard run right there, bring up second down.

At the semifinals, wrapping up tonight, of course.

We've got two more championship games next week.

Looks like Charleston is well on their way to playing for a 3A title.

Of course, they've been a mainstay here and Little Rock and War Memorial Stadium.

Here's the pass play that goes to the near side, stays in bounds and for Bentonville, making the reception that was JJ Spafford, who Charleston's going to play still in question, though Boonville's got a 3430 lead on Melbourne.

Still 9 minutes left in that game.

Imagine a Charleston, Boonville.

Wow game.

Those two teams separated by what, 2530 miles?

Yeah, we kind of saw that championship match up earlier today.

Hazen and Carlisle separated by just 10 miles here is nice.

He makes the completion on the left side.

That's over to Luke **** and ***** right at the marker to pick up the first down.

It was kind of sad.

There's only 5 football games across the state.

Yeah, that means the end is near, unfortunately.

Tell you what, Bobby, I you know I love Championship weekend, but boy.

The pressure sinks in right after you really start to think more.

Football's about to go away as it's first and 10 and now we've got penalty flags.

Illegal substitution on the defense.

5 yard penalty, first down.

4A semifinals.

I think we're about to see a team that's used to be in here.

RJ Harding has got a chance at about a 30 yard field goal to beat Arkadelphia.

Wow.

Hey, that game turned around pretty quickly, didn't it?

It did.

It was 21, seven, and it looks like Harding just kicked the field goal to beat Arkadelphia.

Here's a first down play.

Fumble the football and it's picked up by.

That was Ficklin who picked it up and he'll reverse field, take it out to the 35, stay on his feet and he'll drag defenders.

It's gonna end up be about a 2 yard gain after it's all said and done.

This is all where my buddy Justin Rue is watching on Arkansas PBS tonight as.

He and his family are.

Watching for the first time and Buck James has got the Gatorade bath on the near side and they're gonna call a they're gonna do a sideline warning because I think the referee actually got some of that Gatorade bath.

The only time Buck James is not going to be worried about a sideline warning or sideline interference.

I don't think Buck James cares.

No, he's like you could you can mark off yards right now.

So it is a sideline warning on the Hornets.

There's 8 seconds remaining in this one.

Now he's going to look.

The throw goes right side in the hands of brown.

He'll get past the 50.

They get him down inside the 40 and that's gonna do it.

The Hornets are historic.

They are A5 time state champion at the high school level in Arkansas and you can put in the books.

The Bryant Hornets are 12 and O and state champions in 2023.

This might not have been the most dominant Bryant team we've seen as a whole roster one through 100 or 120, whatever is on their field.

Defensively, this is one of the best teams we've seen the long time.

You're exactly right.

Buck James gets his 212th win as a head coach and the Hornets win at 36 to 7.

You're watching this Centennial bank State Football championships on Arkansas CBS Sports.

Thanks, George.

Appreciate it.

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The Hornets win it, and let's head down to Dorian craft, who's got the winning head coach, Bud James.

Coach, you said earlier this week that defense always shows up.

Your defense held a Bentonville offense that was averaging over 400 yards a game to just 218.

How did your defense show out tonight?

Well, they were awesome.

I mean, they've been awesome all year.

I mean, well, last year we we they were all back, you know, from last year's team.

And if you remember, they scored a ton of points on us and.

We hardly can stop them, but that's what a year of growth and great coaching from our defensive staff.

And they played a great game.

I mean, I mean they had no answers for what we were able to do.

And I'm proud of our defense.

I'm proud of our defense coaches.

I'm proud of our offense.

Those guys did a heck of a job as well.

Gideon modes just ran past that.

He gave him a big hug, said I'm proud of you.

He came off the bench, 196 yards passing, 4 touchdowns.

What impressed you the most about his clay?

Well, you know, I mean, he struggled this year.

He's had a couple injuries and you know, it's just been enjoying played.

Well, and, you know, he kept battling and, you know, that's a good lesson for life.

I mean, not many kids do that.

And, you know, he's a good baseball player as well.

But he kept working every day, kept doing his job.

And, you know, he came here and helped win the state championship.

Coach, you're now the first program in Arkansas High School history to win five state championships in a row in the playoff era.

What is the biggest difference between the feeling of winning this one and the first one back in 2018?

Well, they're all special.

I mean, I I words can't explain it.

You know, I never thought we would be here.

At this point, and you know, it's a great sacrifice by our kids, our coaches and our administration and most importantly our parents.

They let us coach these guys and we coach them hard.

And to be them, to be able to do what they've done is it takes a whole group of people doing their job.

Coach.

Thank you, RJ.

Thank you, Dorian.

And you know, Buck James is not an emotional man, but you can kind of see that he what the moment meant for him.

The grind starts on January 1 for a lot of these programs and it doesn't matter if you win a state.

Camper chipper ego Owen 10 so when you go from January 1 to here we now on December the 2nd it's been 12 months 11 months and two days technically for Buck James to put everything he's got into this and for for it to come to fruition like this and to be able to to present at this trophy for the 5th consecutive time and in a dominant fashion on both sides of the football.

I mean it's got to hit you in the feels a little bit because he knows what the kind of work and the hours that not only he his staff and his players have put in.

Bobby I I don't know if people watching at home look at look at.

Like James right there.

I I don't know if people watching at home realize.

The historic moment that we were in right now, I mean, this is, this is extremely hard to do.

We we see state championships every year, yeah, but to see five of them in a row, what that means for the state.

When you look at what they've done as a whole and you and I get the the, the privilege of watching 7 state championships a year for Football, 14 for basketball, whatever the case is.

But to see this grow and then the program grow, it's amazing how many great football players have we seen in our state?

I mean, just recently, you know, of course, Michael Dyer, a Little Rock Christian and all the great quarterbacks that came through Pulaski Academy.

Mitch Mustaine, you mentioned the 2006 Springdale team.

None of those teams ever did this because you know what takes, you know, it takes to win.

Five in a row.

Multiple classes.

Not one group.

Not one kid who led your team for a long period of time.

It takes years of building that and sustaining that success, and it's it's been really impressive to see what they've been able to put together real quick.

This was just handed to me, the MVP of this game, Bobby Gideon Moats, 13 of 22, four touchdowns, 197 and it all started with one quarterback scramble.

It was third and long.

Bryant's offense had -, 33 yards at that point.

He scrambles for, I believe, his 14 yards.

Picks up a first down.

They start the option to read.

They started to get things going.

He settled in, Bryant settled in, and they put it in cruise control.

After that, well, it was a fun night as the Hornets are five straight champions.

That's what it is.

You heard it right.

The 7-8 champions go to Saline County and the Bryant Hornets for Bobby Swafford.

Dorian craft.

I'm RJ hawk.

Your final in this one.

The Brian Hornets win at 36 to 7.

You've been watching the Centennial Bank State Football championships on Arkansas.

PBS sports.