Just about all the other quarterbacks in the 7A-West Conference receive more notoriety than Springdale Har-Ber’s Ryan Luther. That’s OK with him, though.

“He’s not for stats,” Har-Ber coach Chris Wood said. “His No. 1 thing is the team’s success. He’s going to do everything he can for the team to win.”

Friday night, Luther completed 9 of 18 passes for 217 yards and five touchdowns to earn this week’s conference Player of the Week award while leading Har-Ber to a 39-14 win over Fayetteville.

“I think Ryan had one of his better games on Friday night,” Wood said. “Even his incompletions were drops. He was real calm. He delivered some really good balls. He put a good touch on it. He played well in a big game.”

Luther surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season with Friday’s performance. Luther has thrown for 1,119 yards and 15 touchdowns. That may pale in comparison with four quarterbacks in the conference with more than 2,000 yards, but Luther is the only quarterback of a No. 1 team in the state and the only remaining undefeated team in Class 7A.

“He doesn’t throw for 300, 400, 500 yards and six touchdowns,” Wood said. “He just wants the team to be successful. As long as we’re moving the football and we’re winning, that’s what he’s about.”

Jordan Nicholson caught four of Luther’s touchdown passes with scoring receptions of 10, 5, 40 and 21 yards. Houston Pruitt also had a 69-yard touchdown catch.

Luther is also cool, calm and collected in the clutch.

“He doesn’t put a ton of pressure on himself,” Wood said. “He has great composure. He doesn’t get down on himself. A quarterback has to be able to forget the past and look forward.”

Not Just Defense

With a downright dominating defense, Wood has been content to rely on the old-fashion fundamentals of playing defense and field position and not taking big risks on offense.

That’s not to say that Wood didn’t know the capabilities of his offense, which rolled up 490 yards and 20 first downs in Friday’s win over Fayetteville.

“Our offense executed well,” Wood said. “I knew we could put it together.”

Har-Ber’s offense is sixth in the conference in yards and scoring and needed overtime to pull out wins over Fort Smith Southside and Rogers Heritage the previous two weeks.

“We just weren’t clicking,” Wood said. “It was a block here or a route there. It was just one or two things. The kids were playing hard. It was just a matter of getting some things down.”

Friday’s performance was the first 400-yard outing of the conference season for Har-Ber and a season high for scoring.

Top Showdown

Bentonville set up the showdown for the conference championship in the regularseason finale with a 28-0 win over Springdale High.

Bentonville will host the game that also features the Associated Press poll’s top two teams, the No. 1 Wildcats of Har-Ber against the No. 2 Tigers.

Since losing to Southside five weeks ago, Bentonville has rebounded. The Tigers have scored 170 points in the past four games and averaged 414 yards per game.

Last year, Bentonville entered the final week of the regular season ranked No. 1 and lost 20-6 to Har-Ber. The Tigers managed just six first downs in the loss.

Bentonville still won the outright conference title and went on to win the state title.

The Tigers are trying for a third-straight conference title. The only other time Bentonville has won three straight league titles was in 1961, 1962 and 1963 under Robert Fuqua, sharing the first and winning the championship outright the final two years.

Bentonville has won 12 conference titles since official districts were formed in 1946

Five Are In

Har-Ber and Bentonville have already secured the top two seeds in the conference and first-round byes in the Class 7A state playoffs.

Fayetteville and Rogers Heritage are each 4-2 and will play Friday night, with the winner securing the third seed and a first-round game against the loser of Thursday’s game between Conway and Little Rock Catholic. The loser of Friday’s game between Fayetteville and Heritage will receive the fourth seed and will play the winner of the Conway-Little Rock Catholic game.

Fort Smith Southside is the fifth seed regardless of the outcome of Friday’s game against Fort Smith Northside and regardless of the outcome between Fayetteville and Heritage since the Rebels lost to both of those teams in conference play.

Springdale can earn the sixth and final playoff spot with a win against Rogers. If Springdale loses and Northside defeats Southside, the Grizzlies will be the sixth seed. If Rogers defeats Springdale by at least four points and Northside loses, then the Mountaineers will garner the final playoff spot.

Another Rivalry

Springdale-Fayetteville and Rogers-Bentonville are the two most played rivalries in the state, but Springdale and Rogers have played each other almost as much.

Friday’s game between Rogers and Springdale will mark the 107th meeting between the two schools, with Springdale holding a 57-38-11 lead in the series, which began in 1913 with Springdale winning, 87-0, according to Springdale football historian Ron Bradshaw.

Remember …

When the last time the top-ranked teams in the Associated Press met?

Friday night’s showdown between Har-Ber and Bentonville will feature the top two teams in the state, according to the Associated Press statewide poll.

Cabot’s loss to Bryant two weeks ago propelled Har-Ber and Bentonville into the top spots.

Friday’s game will mark the first meeting of the season between the top two teams in the state and the first meeting in three seasons since No. 2 Fayetteville defeated No. 1 Fort Smith Northside, 35-27, in Week 4 of the 2006 season.

Fayetteville had 424 yards of offense in that game. Quarterback Dallas McCutcheon ran for 195 yards and had touchdown runs of 20 yards and 1 yard. Running back Renardo Mahone ran for 123 yards and scored on runs of 3, 24 and 10 yards to lead the upset in the conference opener. Northside quarterback Kodi Burns threw three touchdown passes.

Friday’s game will mark the 12th meeting between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the state since the merger of the big-school conference into the current playoff system in 1983.

The No. 1 team holds a 7-4 edge over No. 2 during that time.

Sports, Pages 8 on 11/03/2009

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