Van Buren opener

While Alma will play its season opener on Friday night, Van Buren opened in week zero against Siloam Springs and won, 35-21. Siloam Springs and Van Buren began talking about moving its nonconference game to week zero when Casey Dick was still the head coach at Van Buren and when current head coach Crosby Tuck was still the offensive coordinator. “That was something that me and coach Dick talked about months ago in the offseason,” Tuck said. “We just moved some things around. It worked out well for Siloam. We’re happy with opening up with Siloam.” The two teams will be members of the 6A-West after this season with the reclassification that moves Van Buren to Class 6A so next year the two teams will play conference games. Friday, the Pointers used the big play to notch four of their five touchdowns. On the fourth play of the game, Braden Rivas took a screen pass from Gary Phillips and turned it into a 52-year touchdown pass. “One of the plays that I was most proud of was on the first touchdown when we threw the screen to Rivas out there on the perimeter,” Tuck said. “The thing that got the whole play set up was Jude Bartholomew doing a great job blocking, Jaiden Henry going a great job blocking and Isaac Nason doing a great job blocking. We had three receivers involved down field getting blocks that set up the play for the touchdown. That’s when you know that you’re coming together as a unit when you have three receivers all part of touchdown blocks on a screen pass. That’s a big deal.” After Siloam Springs scored to tie the game on the next series, Henry took the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. “That was a huge play for us,” Tuck said. “That’s an answer to someone else’s touchdown. That negates the touchdown they just had. We did a good job on the kick return team getting the wash and the kickout blocks that we needed to create that. It was a great special teams play. It was a good job with a lot of people involved. That turned the momentum around for us.” Van Buren had a balanced attack with 216 yards and two touchdowns on the ground and 230 yards and two touchdowns through the air, marking the first 200-200 game since 2015 in a 42-35 loss to Conway, and just the third since 2009. “I was very pleased with the energy that we played with the whole time,” Tuck said. “I feel like that never waned. We never let off the way we were playing. That was good to see.” Defensively, senior linebacker Devin Swearingen led Van Buren with 13 tackles, including two for loss, two sacks and two fumble recoveries. R.J. Riley and Giovany Alas also had fumble recoveries, and Henry had an interception at the 4 that squelched a Siloam Springs’ drive. Alas added two sacks. David Evans had a key tackle for loss, snuffing out a screen pass on third down for a loss of a yard that forced a punt in the third quarter with Van Buren leading, 28-14.

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Times Record | 9/5/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford