NORTH LITTLE ROCK – Braden Biggs’ field goal with six seconds left not only gave Heber Springs a 31-29 conference opening victory over Central Arkansas Christian but accomplished a first.
It was the first time in school history that a field goal won a game in the final seconds for the Panthers. His 28-yarder was the 64th made field goal in school history. His field goal ties for the 30th longest in school history. Nick James holds the record for longest field in school history when he connected on a 52-yard with the first-half clock winding down in loss to Highland in 1998.
OTHER NOTABLE FIELD GOALS:
SEPTEMBER 30, 1922: Bill Dashiell kicked a 10-yard field goal in the third quarter for the games only points in a 3-0 victory at Quitman (the goal posts were formerly on the goal-line). It was the first field goal in school history.
SEPTEMBER 21, 1962: Jim Patchell kicked a 25-yard field goal in the first half to give a Heber Springs a 10-7 lead over Augusta. The Red Devils would pull out a 14-10 win. That field goal was the first in Panther Stadium history, and second in school history.
SEPTEMBER 19, 1980: Kevin Attendorn connected on a 33-yard field goal with 2:38 left in the third quarter to give Heber Springs an 11-8 lead over Bald Knob. That would be the final score of the game.
OCTOBER 25, 1996: Mark Cresswell hit a 40-yarder with 31 seconds left give Heber Springs a 15-14 lead over Bald Knob only to see the Bulldogs score the game-winning touchdown with 6 seconds left.
OCTOBER 6, 2017: Julian Cameron kicked a 25-yard field goal with 3:25 left to give Heber Springs a 31-13 lead over Central Arkansas Christian. The Mustangs would score twice in the final minutes providing the field goal as the winning margin.
It was the legs of senior quarterback Liam Buffalo and not his arm Friday night at Panther Stadium that was making history.
Buffalo became the first quarterback in recorded school history to rush for more than 200 yards in game in helping lead the Panthers to a 40-28 victory over Lamar.
Buffalo’s 213 yards on the ground was the 24th best performance in school history, but the best ever by a Heber Springs quarterback. Markeyvus Mays rushed for 332 yards against Harding Academy in 2010 to set the standard for all backs, but Buffalo bettered the previous best mark by a quarterback of 180 yards set by Jerry Todd in a 1964 game against Clinton.
The senior quarterback also had the seventh-best performance by a back rushing for 14.2 yards on 15 carries. Mays holds the overall mark rushing yards per attempt (minimum 10 attempts) at 29.5 set against Cave City in 2010. Buffalo did set the rushing average mark by a quarterback bettering the previous mark of 13.4 set by Birch Grisso in a 1983 game against Clinton.
Buffalo finished the night with four rushing touchdowns tying him for 4th all-time in a game with 15 others. Jerry Pilkington set the school record with eight against Ola in 1949. Mays finished with seven against Cave City in 2010 and five against Newport in 2010 for second and third on the list. Buffalo however was the first quarterback in recorded history to rush for four touchdowns. The previous record of three was held by 10 other Panther quarterbacks.
Heber Springs junior Seth Dudeck ties his dad with record-setting punts
Heber Springs junior Seth Dudeck punts the ball during third-quarter action in Friday loss to the Pottsville. PHILIP SEATON PHOTO
It was a cold and windy November night when Heber Springs traveled to Mountain View to close out the 1987 season.
The Panthers were concluding a disappointing 3-7 campaign while the Yellowjackets were looking to wrap up a playoff bid.
It would also be the final game for the winningest coach in school history, Heber Springs High School graduate Dennis DeBusk.
The Panthers battled, and thanks to a stingy defense and field position, Heber Springs and Mountain View ended regulation all tied at 0-0. The Yellowjackets would go on to win in overtime 7-0 and claim a playoff a spot (they would lose to Greenbrier in the playoffs the next week).
One of the keys of the field position battle was the leg of junior Pat Dudeck.
Dudeck, who passed away in 2016, would punt the ball five times against Mountain View, including a school record 73-yard punt and a 65-yarder that ranks in the top 10 of longest punts in school history. He also became the first Panther in recorded school history to have two punts of 60-yards plus in the same game.
Though there have been five 60-yard plus punts since that cold November night in 1987, no one else has managed to have two in the same game like Dudeck.
That is until Friday night.
Pat’s son, Seth, moved right next to his dad in the record book with two 60-yard plus punts in the same game. The junior punted the ball five times and hit a 67- and 62-yarder in a 17-14 setback to Pottsville.
It was the first game of Heber Springs High School graduate Caleb Carmikle’s Panther coaching career.
“Man, he can bomb that thing,” Carmikle said. “Not many high school kids can turn a ball over like he can.
“That’s a weapon and that really does help you when you’re struggling offensively if you get somebody that can flip the field every time. It helps our defense out a ton.”
Besides the Dudeck’s, other Panthers to have punts of 60-plus yards in recorded school history include Dennis Astin, Gideon Tate, Ben Caston and father and son, Danny Martin and Adam Martin.
Pat averaged 42 yards per punt against Mountain View in 1987, but Seth one-upped his dad with 251 yards punting for a school-record 50.2 average (Adam Martin had held the school record with his 50 average on three punts against Greenbrier in 2018).
Seth also tied Jerry Todd (1963), Brock Bertrand (1995) and Edward Rouse (2004) with a school-record four points downed inside the 20.
Dudeck’s final punt of 62 yards rolled into the end zone or he would have broken the record.
Regardless, that punt flipped the field and kept the Panthers in the game.
“That last punt was incredible,” Carmikle said. “I think Seth has the potential to be a really, really, really good one. Obviously, you look at his frame and he’s a good-looking kid. He put a lot of weight on this offseason with strength and conditioning, and he can run.”
While Pat was a quarterback for the Panthers during the 1986 through 1988 campaigns, the younger Dudeck plays wide receiver.
Seth finished the night with two receptions for 37 yards and a touchdown in the loss to Pottsville.
“He’s got great hands,” Carmikle said. “We just got to get our timing down in the passing game. I hate it that we haven’t been able to show it yet with the preseason scrimmage and in the week zero game, but we showed some things this summer at camps that I’m waiting to see on a Friday night that are really going to impress people.”
One of the three wins during the 1987 campaign for the Panthers was thrilling 19-12 homecoming victory over Clinton in which Dudeck threw the game-winning pass to Shane Nelson in overtime.
Seth will look to accomplish the same thing tonight except be on the receiving end as the Panthers travel to Clinton to battle the Yellowjackets.
