10-0 in 8th grade, Gold still rolling a year later
Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008
Daily Record photograph by Sarah Nader Bentonville Black quarterback Corbin Copeland tried to push away Bentonville Gold defender Duncan Balch before being tackled during Thrusday’s football game at Tiger Stadium in Bentonville.
BENTONVILLE — Bentonville Gold picked up right where it left off last year as eighthgraders at Washington Junior High.
After going undefeated as Wildcats a year ago, Gold started its season off on the right foot with a 21-0 win against rival Bentonville Black on Thursday at Tiger Stadium.
The group’s winning streak overall is 11 games dating to last year’s 10-0 season, which included seven shutouts.
“ So far so good, ” Gold coach Toma Whorton said. “ We hope we can keep it up but we’re going to take it one week at a time. ”
Damarcus Murphy rushed for two touchdowns, a 4-yard run in the first quarter and a 2-yard run in the third, to give Gold a 14-0 lead.
Cody Ryder’s 3-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter put Gold ahead 21-0. Ryder led all rushers with 70 yards on 10 carries.
Gold rushed for 95 yards on 25 carries. Gold quarterback Dallas Hardison completed 8 of 13 passes for 92 yards to give Gold 187 total yards of offense.
Black, meanwhile, was held to 62 total yards on the night.
“ They played pretty good but I thought we helped them out some, ” Black coach Chris Hutchens said. “ They’re very athletic. They made good plays. They played a good football game. ”
Gold led 7-0 at halftime and got the ball to start the second half. Starting at its own 25, Gold drove down field to the 18 but a penalty and two incompletions set up a fourth-and-20 from the 28.
But Hardison hit Chris McKnight for a 26-yard pass on fourth down to set up first-and-goal at the 2. Murphy plunged in for the 14-0 lead. McKnight had two catches for 37 yards and the game’s only interception. Mason Snow had two catches for 33 yards.
“ Overall we played really well, ” Whorton said. “ There’s a lot of things we’ve definitely got to go back and work on. I’m hoping a little of that was first-game jitters. Hopefully that’s out of our system and we can go work and get after it next week. ”
Black’s best scoring chance came with three seconds before halftime when Gold muffed a punt and gave Black the ball at the 18-yard line. Placekicker Jack O’Connor’s 36-yard field goal attempt went wide right.
“ We’re going to get better, ” Hutchens said. “ We’ve got some people that are playing positions they haven’t played before. They’re getting reps in game situations. It’s a lot different than in practice, especially when you’re going up against the speed that Gold has. We’ll be all right. ”
Gold travels to Fayetteville Ramay next Thursday while Black hosts Springdale Southwest at Tiger Stadium.
Washington Junior High beat Lincoln Junior High in the eighth-grade game 14-7. Wildcats quarterback Reese Dollins threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Austin Haggard in the first quarter and a 23-yard TD toss to Chris Mizelle in the third.
The Leopards pulled to within 12-7 with a 1-yard touchdown run by Kaleb Haney at the end of the third period, but the Wildcats got a safety midway through the fourth quarter to set the final score.
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