Heber Springs’ Kenan Sneed leads the Panthers onto the field at Southside Batesville. PHILIP SEATON PHOTO
October 24, 2019
SOUTHSIDE BATESVILLE – The Heber Springs Junior Panthers dropped a 34-8 decision to Southside Batesville on Thursday.
Heber Springs (2-5) got a late touchdown to prevent the shutout. The Panthers used a 15-play, 75-yard drive to avoid being held scoreless. Ryan Bommarito carried 12 times on the drive for 50 yards to move the ball to the Southerner 20. With 3:56 left and facing a fourth-and-12, Conner Riddle flung the ball to the end zone as the ball bounced off a pair of Southside defenders hands into the arms of Easton Cusick for the score. Bommarito ran the ball in for the 2-point conversion.
The Panthers will look to close out the season on a winning note when they host Riverview at Panther Stadium Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Panther Stadium.
SEARCY – Harding Academy quarterback Kade Smith rushed for 247 yards and three touchdowns as the Wildcats downed Heber Springs, 40-0, in junior high action Thursday night.
Heber Springs (0-2) held Smith in check early though he did manage a 44-yard touchdown run and successful 2-point rush with 4:50 left in the first quarter. The Wildcats first score came off a Panther turnover. Heber Springs took the opening kickoff and moved inside Harding Academy territory thanks in part to a 15-yard run by Xander Lindley, but an interception stalled the drive.
The Panthers picked up a first-down on their next possession when Conner Riddle connected with Kenan Sneed for an 18-yard pass completion, but the drive stalled and Heber Springs was forced to punt.
The Panthers got the ball back two plays later when Hunter Edwards stepped in front of a Smith pass and returned it 14 yards — late in the contest Edwards would be carted off the field with an apparent arm injury.
Heber Springs then proceed to move the ball deep into Wildcat territory. On third-and-1, Riddley again found Sneed, this time for 10 yards to put on the Harding Academy 27. A third-down run by Channer Smith moved it to the Wildcat 17 while Riddle followed on the next play with a 14-yard run to put on the 3. But from there the drive would stall and Heber Springs would turn the ball over on downs with 5:10 left in the first half.
From there, the Wildcats would go on a 13-play, 97-yard drive to go up 16-0 with 48 seconds left in the half as Smith kept for an 11-yard touchdown run and successful 2-point run.
The Wildcats wasted no time going up 24-0 in the second half using a three-play, 58-yard drive that Kyler Hoover capped off with a six-yard touchdown run.
Heber Springs’ best chance to score in the second half came after Riddle picked off Smith and returned it 36 yards to the Wildcat 33. After a first-down pass from Lindley to Dalton Yancey moved to the Wildcat 13, the drive would fizzle out three plays later when Lindley was intercepted.
Harding Academy would close out the third-quarter scoring on the next play when Smith raced 83 yards for the score on the quarter’s final play.
The Wildcats added another score with 1:30 left when Hoover ran in from 15 yards out.
Heber Springs will be idle on Thursday before return to play on September 26 when it travels to Lonoke.
Heber Springs junior high head coach Chase Roberts after Harding Academy
Battle of the Little Red: Heber Springs vs. Clinton
Heber Springs junior Matthew Cook fights for yardage as Vilonia’s Kyle Vines brings him to the ground during a scrimmage at Phillip D. Weaver Stadium in Vilonia on August 27. See story below. PHILIP SEATON PHOTO
Radio: Billy Morgan with handle the play-by-play with Lance Hamilton providing color on KSUG 101.9 The Lake. Panther Pregame begins at 6:30 p.m. followed by the game. Listen live link here.
Honorary Captains: For Heber Springs, members of the “chain gang” from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. For Clinton, former Clinton Yellowjacket and Harding University quarterback Park Parish.
PREGAME FESTIVITIES
Pregame tailgating starts at 4:30 p.m. with a free concert by Clinton’s Heath Sanders beginning at 5:30 p.m. Sanders, a former oilfield worker turned full-time musician, whose popularity skyrocketed after a performance on Arkansas native Bobby Bones’ radio show in early 2018.
LAST SEASON
A back-and-forth game went to Clinton, 36-34, as Julian Cameron’s game-winning field-goal attempt was no good. Lyon College signee Blaze Nelson rushed 33 times for 288 yards and four touchdowns for Heber Springs, while junior Weston Amos passed for 209 yards and four touchdowns including five of those to junior Austin Drake, who finished with 190 yards receiving and three touchdowns.
Heber Springs Coach Will Cox …
GETTING TO KNOW COACH
When Darren Gowen resigned in May to pursue other coaching opportunities in northwest Arkansas (he has since been hired as offensive coordinator at Gravette), the search was put on hold and co-defensive coordinator Will Cox was named the interim coach for the upcoming season.
Will Cox
Cox grew up and graduated from Highland in 2007. After high school, he played football at Concordia College in Nebraska. He then entered the coaching field where he coached for two years at his alma mater before spending two years on the staff at Greenville College in Illinois. Cox joined the staff last season and was a co-defensive coordinator.
He is married to Taylor, and the have a son that will be two years old in December, Grayson.
Offensive- or defensive-minded?
I am more of defensive mind of guy. I played defense in high school and college. I’m just a defensive guy, so I enjoy that.
What will Panther fans see defensively?
You are going to see a big change. We have switched to more of a 3-3-stack defense. We are going to be more aggressive in what we are doing. We are smaller than we have been, but what we have done with our defense is identify our 11 to 15 best tacklers and how can we get them on the field. You have a guy like Landon Johnson that has been the starting linebacker. He’s playing nose right now and he’s wrecking havoc, making our offensive line better. He’s a good football player and the closer we can get him to the ball the better. Defensively, we are going to be pretty aggressive and faster. Since we are smaller than we have been in the past, I believe that puts us in a better situation. As a team that also means that we don’t have to use offensive linemen on defense which puts us in a situation where we can go faster on offense and stay fresher.
What about the offense?
We are going to be similar to last year and what coach Gowen did. We have Coach (Jay) Bishop who coached with him I think six years and really knows the offense inside and out, but just what you do each year, you change with the personnel you have. We have coach (Chase) Roberts in here this year, and him coach Bishop have really gelled well together. We are putting a little bit more of the quarterbacks’ plate this year, when you have a three-year starter (Adam Martin), you can do that so allowing in him to take a little bit more role of ownership of our offense in running more through him and putting the ball in his hands a little bit more. Losing Blaze Nelson, that does change things, when you have him that allows you to do certain things. We don’t have Blaze, but we have a group of running backs that give us a lot of different things. The offense will be pretty similar from what you seen on Friday nights last year, but how we get there will be a little bit different.
On the interim coach tag …
It’s an awesome opportunity. I think this school and administration has really helped for this team to be successful. We lost one coach and brought in two (Roberts and Hunter Davis). They understand the senior class we have is a talented group of kids, a good group of kids, that have been through a lot so trying to keep that continuity. I told our kids that this is a testament to them,and who they are, and how this administration sees these kids. To be the head coach in Heber Springs is a pretty awesome opportunity. We have a really great situation going. I would love for that tag to removed at the end of the season and continue on here. I think it’s a great place.
THE SERIES
HEBER SPRINGS VS. CLINTON “Battle of the Little Red” Clinton leads the series 39-38-5. Games played in Heber Springs: Tied, 19-19-1 Games played in Clinton: Clinton leads 20-18-4 Games played on a Neutral Field: Heber Springs leads, 1-0.
FIRST MEETING: Heber Springs’ first season of football was 1913 and it would be 26 years before Clinton fielded its first team. It didn’t take long for the two teams to meet after that with Heber Springs winning the first game played between the two schools on October 13, 1939, in Heber Springs. The Panthers won by a score of 31-0 on that day. The two teams met again less than a month later on Veteran’s Day (November 11) 1939 in Clinton where the Panthers and Yellowjackets played to a 6-6 tie. The teams would go on to play continuously after that with a couple of exceptions. During World War II, neither school fielded a team during the 1943 season while Clinton did not field one during the 1944 season. After the war, Clinton and Heber Springs would meet twice per season in 1945 and 1946 with the Yellowjackets winning all four meetings. Financial constraints in the Heber Springs School District forced the school to not field a football team for the 1947 and 1948 seasons. The two teams meet again during the 1949 season with Clinton winning both games of the home-and-home series. The teams would go on continuously playing until 2007 when the opener scheduled with Clinton — which was played during the 2006 season at the Hooten’s Kickoff Classic at Estes Stadium on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway — was changed to allow the Panthers to play Mayflower instead of Clinton in the same Kickoff Classic in 2007. The series resumed in 2008 and continues today. LONGEST WINNING STREAKS: Clinton has won six straight in the series twice. Once from 1945-1949 and the second time from 2000-2005. Heber Springs won seven straight in the series from 1978-1984. CONFERENCE FOES: Heber Springs and Clinton were first paired in the same conference in 1974. They would be paired in the same conference from 1974-1990. They would again be paired in the same conference from 1993-2001 and from 2008-2013. The two teams will be in the same conference next season when Clinton moves back up to class 4A. The Yellowjackets will replace Riverview in week 9. OVERTIME GAMES: There have only been three overtime games in the series and those all occurred during a four-year span from 1986-1989. Clinton won a double overtime home contest in 1986 (20-14) while the Panthers won in overtime the following season in 1987, 19-12, in Heber Springs. In 1989, Clinton defeated Heber Springs, 13-12, at Panther Stadium. CLOSE GAMES: Twenty-three of the games have been decided by a touchdown or less during the series, not including the five ties. NOVEMBER THE 4TH: Strangely enough the largest margin of both schools in the series occurred the same day 50 years apart with Clinton (56) winning 56-0 on Nov. 4, 1949; while Heber Springs (39), won 57-18 on Nov. 4, 1999. The 75 combined points both teams in that 1999 contest remain the most combined points in any contest during the series. DEFENSE: Of the 81 games played between the schools, the two teams have only combined to score more than 50 points or more 12 times, with seven those 50-plus combined scoring games coming since 2008. COACH’S WIFE: Clinton head coach Chris Dufrene’s wife Heather (Bivins) is a 1987 graduate of Heber Springs High School. TROPHY GAMES: Heber Springs won the trophy for the Hooten’s Kickoff Classic between the two schools in 2006, but since the inception of the “Battle of the Little Red” trophy, Clinton has won all three meetings, 28-20 in 2016, and 28-17 in 2017 in Heber Springs, and 36-34 last season in Clinton. Heber Springs will be looking to break a three-game losing streak to Clinton.
Heber Springs quarterback Liam Buffalo looks to get around the edge against Clinton in seventh-grade football action on Thursday in Clinton. PHILIP SEATON PHOTO
PANTHER SPORTS THIS WEEK
Saturday, September 7 – Volleyball at Cave City tournament
Monday, September 9 – Volleyball at Conway Christian, 4:30 p.m.
Monday, September 9 – Golf at Cypress Creek, 1 p.m.
Tuesday, September 10 – Cross Country hosts Josh Park Memorial
Tuesday, September 10 – Tennis hosts Pottsville, 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, September 12 – Golf at Red Apple Inn, 1 p.m.
Thursday, September 12 – Tennis at Clarksville, 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, September 12 – Volleyball at Clarksville, 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, September 12 – 7th-Grade Football at Harding Academy, 5:30
Thursday, September 12 – Junior Football at Harding Academy, 7 p.m.
Friday, September 13 – Senior Football at Greenbrier, 7 p.m.
Always taking submissions of old photos, and other collections of old sports notes and scorebooks of any sport on any level, including recreational, as long as it is Arkansas based.
VHS tapes: Can convert them for free. Please e-mail me at: [email protected] or message me on Facebook.
