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Faust Earns Conference Honors

Last updated Monday, October 20, 2008 6:36 PM CDT in Prep Sports

By Leland Barclay
SPECIAL TO THE MORNING NEWS

In the first quarter alone on Friday, Faust was 15-of-20 for 190 yards and two touchdowns. In the first half, he was 21-of-30 for 347 yards and five touchdowns.

"One of the things was (Rogers Heritage) loaded the box on us," Wood said. "The last two weeks, we were just pounding it and throwing it deep. We had to look at ourselves, and utilize the talent we have."

Faust spread out the wealth on Friday, completing passes to nine different receivers and throwing touchdown passes to five different receivers. Tay-Tay Lane and Brye Payton caught a pair of touchdown tosses with Jordan Nicholson, Ryan Freeman and Kaleb Vaughn catching one a piece.

Faust's performance reminded Wood of his early days as an assistant coach at Shiloh Christian when Gus Malzahn was starting to write the book on the shotgun, hurry-up offense. Wood was an assistant under Malzahn at Shiloh Christian from 1997 through 1999. That was during Josh Floyd's final two seasons when he put the finishing touches on a career that featured 125 touchdown passes and 1,059 pass attempts, and Rhett Lashlee's first season at quarterback that featured the 672-yard, eight-touchdown performance in the playoffs at Junction City in Shiloh Christian's 70-64 win.

"It did," Wood said.

ECKWOOD SETS RECORDS

Springdale High's LaDarius Eckwood also set single-game conference records with 19 receptions and 308 receiving yards in the Bulldog's 59-28 loss to Fort Smith Northside.

"It was a great performance," Springdale coach Kevin Johnson said.

Oddly, Eckwood was shut out of the end zone.

"They hit us with a couple of fades, and got us wide-eyed and scared," Northside coach Darrell Henry said. "Then they'd throw underneath to him, but I thought we did a great job to hold them to just 28 points and him to no touchdowns. That's the key."

SCHOOL RECORD

Northside quarterback Dax Dupire offset Eckwood's tremendous performance by utilizing his entire receiving corps to set a single-season school record.

Dupire threw for 443 yards in the Grizzlies' 59-28 win over Har-Ber and has now thrown for 2,247 yards, breaking Kodi Burn's record of 2,229 yards set in 2006.

"Dax has really played well," Henry said. "He really understands what we're trying to do. He's finding the receiver that's open."

Northside also set a single-game yardage record in the win, accumulating 677 yards and breaking the previous record of 671 yards set just three weeks ago against Rogers Heritage.

"Everything that's happening this year in the 7A-West is just over the top," Henry said. "It's amazing. There are really some great quarterbacks in the conference this year."

To illustrate Henry's point, the eight teams combined for 2,310 passing yards and just 930 rushing yards on Friday for an average of 810 combined yards per game or 405 yards per game per team.

DEFENSE

Occasionally, defense is still played around the league and a couple of defensive plays were keys to victories on Friday night.

Senior linebacker Adam Ratcliff forced a fumble and senior safety Steven Shelton recovered it with 20 seconds left to preserve Fayetteville's 24-21 win over Fort Smith Southside.

"They were at the 4-yard line and still had a timeout left," Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said. "They had their heavy boys in. Ratcliff got under the fullback. The ball was right at their quarterback's feet, and Shelton just out-battled him for it. It was two great efforts."

Fayetteville's defensive effort as a whole was tremendous, holding to the conference's best rushing team to just 52 yards on 34 carries. Daniel McGee, the conference's leading rusher, managed 73 yards on 22 carries.

"We knew it would be a big challenge to stop them," Patton said. "It's been a long time since we've played that well on defense. I thought we had it in us."

Ratcliff is a backup that has been called upon to step into the lineup on a defensive unit that has been besieged by injuries. Four defensive players were missing from the starting lineup from the first game of the season. Two weeks ago against Northside, Fayetteville was without five defensive players.

Bentonville denied Rogers High a two-point conversion with 2 minutes, 54 seconds left that preserved a 17-15 win. Linebacker Erik Ragsdale forced a fumble on the play that kept Bentonville's record unblemished.

Bentonville allowed just 198 yards in the win.

CHANGING IT UP

Fayetteville went back to pads and helmets last Tuesday and Wednesday in an effort to shore up a lack of tackling that in large part led to four-straight losses before Friday's win against Southside.

"The kids tackled great," Patton said. "This week we tackled well, and the effort and intensity was still there. We played a solid game against a great team."

During last year's charge to the first state football title in school history, the Bulldogs donned only helmets and shorts most of the week with limited contact.

"It worked well last year," Patton said.

Despite the win over Southside, Fayetteville still needs a win over Rogers to hold the head-to-head advantage in case the teams tie for sixth place. The top six in the conference go the playoffs this season with the additional week of post-season play.

"We have to continue to get better, and continue to tackle," Patton said. "This was a huge confidence booster, but we really need to beat Rogers in case it comes down to head-to-head."

REMEMBER WHEN?

Northside travels to Bentonville on Friday night, and the Grizzlies hope it's like 1994 for a couple of reasons.

Bentonville enters Friday's game as the No. 1 team in the state, according to the Associated Press poll.

The last time Northside defeated a No. 1 ranked team was 1994 when the Grizzlies pounded Russellville, 35-6, when Keniko Logan and Matt Edwards each ran for touchdowns. Since then, Northside has played the No. 1 team three times and has lost all three. In 2005, Springdale pounded Northside, 52-0, while the previous year the Bulldogs downed Northside, 35-17. In 1998, No.1 Southside won 38-20 in the regular season finale.

That season is also the last time that Northside has won at Bentonville, defeating the Tigers, 35-10. Bentonville has won the last seven at home against Northside.

Overall, since Bentonville joined the conference in 1991, Northside holds just a 9-8 lead over the Tigers.

THAT FIGURES

2,247 - yards passing for Northside's Dax Dupire, setting a single-season school record

1,999 - yards passing for Fayetteville's Brandon Allen, setting a single-season record for a sophomore in the state's largest classification

875 - combined passing yards by Northside's Dax Dupire and Springdale's Ashton Glaser

677 - offensive yards by Northside, setting a single-game school record

666 - offensive yards by Springdale Har-Ber, setting a single-game school record

308 - receiving yards by Springdale's Ladarius Eckwood, setting a single-game conference record

164 - combined plays by Northside and Springdale

19 - receptions by Springdale's LaDarius Eckwood, setting a single-game conference record

7 - passing touchdowns by Springdale Har-Ber's Zach Faust, setting a single-game conference record

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