Arkansas high school football Class 3A state final: Booneville seals win over Prescott on controversial call
LITTLE ROCK — Was it or wasn’t it a first down?
That’s the question Booneville (13-2) and Prescott (13-2) fans were asking after Booneville’s Dax Goff covered a fourth and one with 1:13 left to seal a 25-22 victory for the Bearcats in the Class 3A state championship game before an announced crowd of 6,465 at War Memorial Stadium.
With the Bearcats facing fourth and one at the Prescott 33, Goff, who was named MVP after rushing for 245 yards and 3 touchdowns on 31 carries, got the carry and headed up the middle behind his offensive line. At first, it appeared that Prescott had him stopped as the chain crew on the Prescott sideline turned the chains around. But after a measurement, the officials ruled Goff picked up the necessary yardage for the first down and seal the victory.
It’s a call that will be celebrated by Booneville and questioned by Prescott for months and years to come.
“That last carry, I put my trust in my linemen and they put their heads in there and got the yard that I needed. That was their yard. They got it for me,” said Goff.
Booneville head coach Doc Crawley said he had no doubts that Goff picked the first down.
“That was the biggest one,” said Crawley. “I really thought he had the first down and then they came running in and they signaled their first down. When they looked at the chains, they measured it and signaled it.”
Prescott head coach Brian Glass, who declined to come to the interview podium for the post-game media session, did speak to reporters outside the Prescott locker room and disagreed with the call.
“We did stop them,” said Glass. “The chains were on the line, and they didn’t get the line. We were ready to call a play and next thing you know there’s a measurement. The ball didn’t get to the line they needed to get a first down. All of a sudden, they get a measurement because there’s somebody down and the chain is not where it was. I have no idea what happened.”
Glass said there was stoppage because there was a player down, allowing time for the measurement when there hand’t been a measurement previously.
Glass said had a play ready to go after the play ended. Prescott had reason to believe it could go 67 yards in 1:13 with one timeout. And with good reason. With 3:14 left, Jah’Noah Harris scored around the right end on a 10-yard run to close it 25-22, but didn’t get the chance as Booneville got into victory formation to run out the clock.
Goff didn’t waste any time in dominating the game. He had touchdown runs of 31 and 13 yards in the first quarter as Booneville jumped out to a 12-0 lead as a bad snap on the extra point led to Rhett Nietert throwing incomplete and Goff getting stopped on the second conversion.
Goff made his only mistake of the game when J.K. Jones knocked the ball away from him on the right sideline and Kayden Gleason picked it up and ran it back 51 yards for a touchdown at the 6:48 mark of the second quarter. John Rabadan’s extra point was good and Booneville led 12-7.
With 1:16 left in the first half, Booneville quarterback Jace Washburn capped off a 13-play, 41-yard drive with a touchdown from a yard out. Juan Moreno’s kick was no good and Booneville led 18-7.
Prescott opened the second half when Decari Prater took a direct snap around the right end for a 4-yard touchdown at the 8:05 mark and ran in the conversion to make it 18-15.
Goff answered two plays later with a 73-yard touchdown run and Moreno added the extra point to make it 25-15 with 6:43 left in the third quarter.
For Crowley, Goff’s touchdown was big after Prescott closed to three points.
“We talked about that at halftime,” said Crowley. “They were going to be fired up and we needed to sustain the punch and we got the momentum back on our side. Dax’s touchdown was everything. It changed everything and he picked a good time to do it.
“He’s so special. It’s bittersweet, we don’t get to watch him do it anymore. He left a legacy and the things behind for a long time.”
3 Takeaways
1
For Booneville, the victory was rewarding after last year’s 41-12 loss to 3A-1 rival Charleston in the state championship game. Goff said the team wrote last year’s score on the door going out to the locker room and used it as motivation.
Crowley said the victory was special because the Bearcats, along with Prescott, were picked as the top two teams in Class 3A a year ago and were able to deliver its first state title since 2018.
“This is amazing. I can’t describe it right now. It means so much to our community to be able to bring home a fifth state championship,” said Crowley. “There’s always pressure at Booneville. We had a lot of talent coming back with Dax, Rylen (Ray) and all these seniors and they lived up to it.”
2
While Booneville dominated in rushing yards (359-152), first downs (16-10), plays (65-43) and time of possession (31:32-16:28), Ross was proud of the fact his team hung in there defensively in the second half. The Bearcats held Prescott to 166 yards, one touchdown and forcing two punts.
“It’s difficult because you have to have a defense to do the same thing over and over again,” said Crowley. “Our theme was to hit them over and over again for four quarters because no 3A team had done that.”
Despite the ending, Crowley was proud of the way his team played. “I told them it’s the proudest I’ve been of them. Did you see the fight in those guys? We could have easily backed down because things didn’t go easily. Offensively, we had trouble clicking and the defense we stood in there. We had a chance to score there.”
3
Ray, who tore his ACL a year ago and missed four weeks this season with a broken leg, finished the game with 95 yards rushing on 23 carries. Crowley was proud of the hard work Ray put in to come back from two injuries and contribute to the state championship victory.
“Ray is the heart and soul of our team. He’s our emotional and vocal leader,” said Crowley. “People don’t realize how hard he worked to get back after a broken leg and a torn ACL last year. He’s had some bad luck, but worked super hard to get back.”
Photo by Kai Caddy
--Jeff Halpern
