Arkansas high school football Class 7A final: Fayetteville defense clamps down on rival Bentonville for first state title since 2016

The victory earned Fayetteville its sixth state championship and first undefeated season in program history

LITTLE ROCK - When Fayetteville defeated arch rival Bentonville in a 7A-West showdown on Oct. 13 the two high-powered offenses combined for 63 points. 

Nearly two months later before an announced crowd of 11,710 at War Memorial Stadium, it was a defensive battle as the Purple Dogs slipped past the Tigers 22-16 on Saturday afternoon thanks to a late fourth down stand to win the Class 7A state championship. 

Facing fourth and 21 from the Fayetteville 31, Bentonville senior quarterback Carter Nye heaved up a prayer that was batted down and Fayetteville got in the victory formation three times to take the clock down to zeros. 

Fayetteville head coach Casey Dick, who won his first state title as a head coach, led the Purple Dogs to the 2021 finals where they fell in a heartbreaker to Bryant. 

Two years later, the vision he had for the program turned into reality. 

"This means everything and it is why we come to Fayetteville," he said. "We wanted to build something that could last a long time and I think we have done that the right way."

The Purple Dogs put the final points on the board via a six-yard scamper by Christian Setzer that preceded a successful two-point conversion on a pass from University of Minnesota commit Drake Lindsey to Lach McKinney with 7:35 remaining. 

Fayetteville's defense did the rest from there to keep the Tigers out of the end zone. 

Trailing 10-7 coming out of halftime, Fayetteville (13-0) regained the lead 14-10 following a 13-play, 83-yard drive that was capped with a one-yard score by Setzer. 

Bentonville (9-4) responded with a long drive of its own that resulted in points when Nye connected with University of Arkansas commit CJ Brown - who led all receivers in the game with 116 yards on six receptions - on a 30-yard score to retake a 16-14 advantage. 

The Tigers found the end zone first two minutes and 15 seconds into the game on a 39-yard pass from Nye to JJ Spafford. 

Fayetteville responded nearly five minutes later as Lindsey found McKinney for his lone touchdown pass of the day. Bentonville kicker Niko Martinovic nailed a 29-yard field goal with 53 seconds remaining in the first half to give the Tigers the lead heading into halftime. 

3 TAKEAWAYS

1

The 7A championship has been added to Fayetteville's trophy case, but the win for the Purple Dogs also took a big stride for the Northwest corner of Arkansas as it secured the first state title for a 7A-West school since the Purple Dogs last accomplished it in 2016. 

Class 7A was dominated by NWA programs from 2005-16, but North Little Rock took down Bentonville in the 2017 finals before Bryant went on its historic run from 2018-22. 

2

Saturday's matchup featured two of the state's top quarterbacks who both completed prolific careers for their respective teams and played their final prep game.

Drake Lindsey, who was named the game's Most Valuable Player, overcame two interceptions and completed 27-of-38 passes for 355 yards and a score with his future head coach, PJ Fleck, in attendance. 

"That is who he is, Mr. Consistent and gusty," Casey Dick said. 

Carter Nye went down with an injury in this season's first matchup between Bentonville and Fayetteville, but despite missing two games still surpassed 3,000 yards on the season. He completed 21-of-35 passes for 329 yards and two scores on the day. 

3

Bentonville made the state finals for the second consecutive season and not only did they compete much better than this time last year, they overcame an immense amount of adversity to get to this point. 

Along with not having Nye for essentially two and a half games in the back half of the regular season, the Tigers also started the season 1-2 falling to Conway and Rockhurst (Mo.) by a combined six points. 

Head coach Jody Grant praised his team for battling until the final whistle. 

"We worked hard for this opportunity and wanted this outcome to look different, but you have to pull the positives from this," Grant said. "I asked our kids to play our guts out for 48 minutes and they did that.

"We felt like if we played good this would be a game we could get, but we kind of got in the way of ourselves a few times today." 

Photos by Jimmy Jones

-- Kyle Sutherland