Fayetteville Claims Arkansas 7A State Championship Title in 28-7 Win over Har-Ber

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

What started out looking like a potential shootout turned into a turnover margin battle in the Arkansas Class 7A State Championship Game Saturday night in War Memorial Stadium between the Fayetteville Bulldogs (13-2) and Har-Ber Wildcats (11-2). In the end the Bulldogs limited their mistakes while capitalizing on takeaways for a 28-7 convincing win over the Wildcats.

Fayetteville got on the board early in the first quarter off a Taylor Powell 12-yard touchdown pass to receiver Drake Wymer. The scoring drive was set up after senior safety Joey Savin hauled in one of three interceptions in the game on his way to Most Valuable Player of the game honors.

The Springdale squad responded midway through the first quarter getting an 8-yard Tali Nasilai touchdown run tying the game at 7-7. Har-Ber had opportunities to move the ball but four first half interceptions thrown ended drives giving the fast-paced up-tempo Bulldogs offense too many opportunities.

Midway through the second quarter, Bulldogs running back Luke Rapert broke free on a tough 45-yard touchdown run getting the would-be winning score. Fayetteville stopped another scoring drive of Har-Ber’s just before the half with Andrew Ellis registering the Bulldogs’ fourth interception of the game off Fuller Chandler. In all, Fayetteville intercepted the senior quarterback five times in the championship game.

Fayetteville found their offense in the second half getting two Javontae Smith touchdowns. Smith’s first score from 19-yards out, gave the Bulldogs a 21-7 lead. Smith ended the game with roughly 97 yards on 15 carries and senior Luke Rapert had 100 yards on 16 carries with one score.

Har-Ber senior running back Luke Hannon had a monster year for the Wildcats rushing for 1,882 yards over 12 games with 14 touchdowns scored but was held out of the end zone on another impressive night out of the backfield rushing 34 times for 190 yards. Chandler had a tough night in the pocket completing 3-of-12 passes for 20 yards with five interceptions thrown. The Wildcats had a sixth turnover on a bad snap in the second half.

Taylor Powell ended the game for the Bulldogs 15-of-25 with 175 passing yards and one touchdown against two picks.

The win against Har-Ber avenged a 47-43 loss (Oct. 16) Fayetteville suffered at the hands of their area 7A West Conference rivals earlier in the season. The 2015 Arkansas high school playoffs also erased the sting of losing to another area rival, the Bentonville Tigers. The Bulldogs lost 24-21 in the state championship game last year to the Tigers and again in the regular season (37-26) but got past Bentonville in the third round of the playoffs winning 31-21.

The championship win was the fourth for Fayetteville head coach Daryl Patton. Patton guided the Bulldogs to state championship wins in 2007, 2011, and 2012.

Photo credit: nwamediat.photoshelter.com; Fayetteville comes out of the War Memorial tunnel.