Jarrett airs it out in West's win over Van Buren

Will Jarrett turned his first and only regular-season game at Wolverine Stadium into a noteworthy performance Friday night. Bentonville West's senior quarterback threw for 375 yards and two touchdowns in the first half and led the Wolverines to a 46-10 victory over Van Buren, setting the stage for next week's 7A-West Conference championship showdown against Bentonville High. "It was awesome to finally get that feeling of playing in this stadium," Jarrett said. "On senior night, it's pretty special, so I was glad to get the opportunity. "I still feel like the offense overall didn't operate like we wanted to. We had some missed opportunities here and there, and there were plays I felt we could have had. We had big plays -- explosive plays -- but we didn't have any of those long drives that we wanted to have." West (6-3, 6-0) needed only 39 seconds to get on the scoreboard as Tyrese Smallwood bolted 33 yards for a touchdown, but it was the only score that took place in the first quarter. Both teams failed on scoring opportunities as Smallwood was dropped for a 3-yard loss on a fourth-and-1 play at the Van Buren 21, while the Pointers had a 44-yard field-goal try fall just short. Blake McDoulett started the second quarter with a 39-yard field goal to put the Wolverines up 10-0 before Jarrett found ways to go deep. He hit Tucker Swoboda with a 51-yard pass to set up Smallwood's 1-yard touchdown run with 9 minutes, 8 second before halftime, then he hit connected with Swoboda again for a 78-yard touchdown pass before he hit Jadon Jackson with a 92-yard touchdown pass to make it a 31-0 game. "These games are tough," West coach Bryan Pratt said. "Everybody knows down the road there's going to be a big game in the near future, and it was a little hard for us to get motivated. I don't think we were as clean and crisp as we were last week, but it's tough to get up for these games. But it's a win and we're happy about that. "It was Will's first game here, and Will is Will. He's still working to get his way back, and I couldn't be more proud to see him play on senior night. A couple months ago, we didn't think it was going to happen." Jarrett, who finished with 394 yards on 18-of-28 passing, played West's opening series of the second half, then stayed in and threw one more pass before he went to the sidelines midway through the third quarter. The last pass came after Nick Whitlatch returned an interception 10 yards for a touchdown and made the score 38-7. Van Buren, whose touchdown came on Christian Morrow's 25-yard touchdown pass to Jude Bartholomew with under a minute remaining in the first half, added a 25-yard field goal by Chris Flores to make it a 38-10 game. Tanner Anderson, however, returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for West's final score, and McDoulett turned a bad snap into a two-point conversion pass to Jonas Higson, forcing the running clock.

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JARRETT AIRS IT OUT IN WEST'S WIN OVER VAN BUREN

HENRY APPLE

Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette | 10/27/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlie Kaijo