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FS Northside's Dupire Claims Honor
Last updated Monday, September 29, 2008 7:37 PM CDT in Prep Sports
By Leland Barclay
SPECIAL TO THE MORNING NEWS
Fort Smith Northside ran the no-huddle shotgun offense during Kodi Burns' three-year career as the Grizzlies' quarterback.
This year, coach Darrell Henry added the hurry-up for quarterback Dax Dupire.
"We're just speeding everything up," Henry said. "The routes are quicker, and the throws are quicker. We're doing everything in a hurry."
With Burns (now at Auburn), Northside ran the Spread option where Burns would read the defense and either keep or pass. Now with Dupire, the Grizzlies want to throw first and run later. It's the difference between West Virginia's Spread offense and Texas Tech's Spread offense.
"With Kodi, we ran the ball more than we threw it," Henry said. "We ran the zone and read it. We went to this with Dax, and the receivers, in mind. We knew we had a good athlete in Dax. We knew he had a strong arm, and we knew he was fast."
Another reason, too, was the lack of size along the line on offense.
"We're the smallest team in the league," Henry said. "We have to get rid of the ball quicker. We just thought this would fit us better. It's a different tempo and a different style."
Last Friday in Northside's wild 59-38 win over Rogers Heritage, Dupire for threw for 427 yards, completing 30 of 41 passes, with three touchdowns and rushed 11 times for 75 yards and four touchdowns.
"He looked pretty good in the spring, and then the summer 7-on-7," Henry said. "But it's one thing to learn the routes and find the receivers, and another to do it in real time. He's finding his comfort level."
In a 28-22 loss to Pine Bluff to open the season, Dupire threw for 257 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions. In the three games since, Dupire has 10 touchdowns and just one interception with consecutive 400-yard passing games while leading the conference in passing with 1,426 yards. He's second only to Pulaski Academy's Spencer Keith statewide.
"That's crazy," Henry said. "We're definitely setting some school records as far as passing the football."
Receivers Arthur Poole, Allen Johnson, Andres McKinney and K.J. Roberts also had to get used to the new, quicker version of the Spread.
"In the first game, we had eight drops," Henry said. "They realize they have to catch the ball first. They've all got great hands."
AGAIN?
After getting in a shootout with Rogers Heritage, Northside may be involved in another one on Friday when Springdale Har-Ber visits venerable Mayo-Thompson Stadium.
"This conference is just so tough," Henry said. "Har-Ber has an excellent football team."
Friday's game will pit the top two offenses in the conference against each other. Together, Northside and Har-Ber are averaging 945 yards and 80 points per game.
"They are scoring an unbelievable amount of points," Har-Ber coach Chris Woods said. "It will be a big challenge for our defense."
2-AND-O, O-AND-2
In a rare occurrence, the teams that won last week face off against each while the teams that lost last week also square off against each other. It means after just two weeks of conference play, two teams will be 2-0, two teams will be 0-2 and everybody else will be 1-1.
"You really don't notice that, you just focus on the next one," Wood said. "Friday night, our game ended about 10 o'clock. By 10:20, we were getting ready for Northside. We just try to keep the kids focused on the task at hand."
Advancing to 2-0 will give two teams a huge early advantage especially with six of the eight teams going to the playoffs this season under the new format.
"After winning on the road last week, it would be a big accomplishment," Henry said. "But, every game is huge in this conference."
The other winners last week, Bentonville and Fort Smith Southside, also square off. Bentonville beat Fayetteville, 31-3, while Southside upended Rogers, 27-13.
"We have the defending state champions and the pick for this year's state champions back-to-back," Bentonville head coach Barry Lunney said. "This league is just like the SEC."
DEFENSE?
In the age of high-octane offense, Bentonville, Har-Ber and Fort Smith Southside still managed to play stout defense on Friday night.
"You look at week three and all of those scores from around the state with teams scoring 40, 50 and 60 points," Southside coach Jeff Williams said. "Then we get into conference play, and Har-Ber holds Springdale to 14, and Bentonville only gives up three points to Fayetteville. Obviously, people still play defense."
Southside beat Rogers High, 27-13, holding the Mountaineers to 49 fewer points than they had scored the previous week in a 62-21 win over Van Buren.
"They are just so explosive on offense," Williams said. "The kids really did a good job tackling. They played assignment football. We had to tackle every down."
Rogers' usual Spread passing game that was leading the conference in rushing offense was forced to pass in the second half after Southside took a 27-0 halftime lead.
"Once we got them down at halftime, 27-0, they couldn't mix it up," Williams said. "That took away the thing they do really well. When that happens, you can really pin your ears back and blitz or you can play coverage. "
DEFENSE!
The key to Bentonville's 31-3 win over Fayetteville was that it didn't take a bunch of the Tigers to put pressure on sophomore quarterback Brandon Allen.
"We were able to put pressure on with three down linemen," Bentonville coach Barry Lunney said. "We didn't have to send two linebackers. We weren't sure how it would work out, but we have three pretty good pass rushers."
The starting front three of ends Ivan Gallegos and Rob Ferrell, and noseman Austin Taylor did most of the damage with Chase Gogel and Aaron Hernandez also contributing in a five-player rotation that kept the pass rush fresh and effective.
It resulted in four interceptions and just 204 yards by Fayetteville.
"We really played good defense," Lunney said. "It's what you hope for when you have nine seniors that have started and have another senior on the field (defensively)."
Linebacker Eric Rasdale returned one of the interceptions 26 yards for a touchdown. Another interception by Justin Mize returned inside the 5-yard line set up another score.
"Any time you get a defensive score or set up a score, it's huge in a big game," Lunney said.
Mize had another inception, and Zac Barczewski also picked off an errant Fayetteville pass.
AND MORE DEFENSE
Har-Ber's defense turned the expected offensive explosion into a defensive contest in the Wildcats' 20-14 win over rival Springdale High.
"The defense really did a good job, and the defensive coaches had a good scheme," Wood said. "They played hard and gave it all they had. They really kept us in the game."
Har-Ber held Springdale to just 79 yards rushing on 23 attempts.
"It's always key in the West to stop the run," Wood said. "Whoever wins is going to be whoever wins the line of scrimmage."
THAT FIGURES
The following are records set during Fort Smith Northside's 59-38 win over Rogers Heritage on Friday, consisting of games between conference opponents from 1973 to present.
1,184 combined yards (conference record)
671 yards by Northside (conference record)
852 combined passing yards (conference record)
153 combined offensive plays (conference record)
97 combined points (conference record)
95 combined passing attempts (conference record)
62 combined completions (conference record)
59 combined first downs (conference record)
59 points scored by Northside (conference record)
14 combined offensive touchdowns (conference record)
REMEMBER WHEN
The No. 1 team lost two straight games in 2006?
This season, Fayetteville jumped over Cabot after the first week of the season with what was perceived at the time as an impressive 35-0 win over Little Rock Central. The Purple Bulldogs stayed there for two weeks before losing to unranked Russellville, 35-21, to end nonconference play. It marked the first time that a No. 1 team lost to an unranked team since Springdale lost to Russellville, 48-33, in Week six of the 2002 season. Last Friday, Fayetteville dropped its second straight game, losing to Bentonville, 31-3.
In 2006, that happened twice.
Fort Smith Northside began the season ranked No. 1 and was 3-0 through its nonconference slate before losing to Fayetteville, 35-27, to begin conference play. The next week, the Grizzlies lost to Bentonville, 35-34.
After beating Northside, Fayetteville, which was ranked second, jumped into the top spot. The Purple Bulldogs beat Springdale and Southside before losing to No. 3 Rogers, 48-30. The next week, Fayetteville lost to Bentonville, 28-17.
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