Newton coming up big for Pointers

The Van Buren Pointers must feel like they’re jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Van Buren wraps up its toughest two-game stretch in the 7A-West by hosting Fayetteville on Friday night, a week after traveling to Bentonville. “It is a tough two-game stretch, and there are more of those stretches to come for us,” Van Buren head coach Crosby Tuck said. “That’s just part of this conference. You’re going to have some tough stretches, and we’re in one.” Bentonville has the top-ranked defense in the conference while Fayetteville has year in and year out the best skilled position players in the conference. “Always, Fayetteville always is up there with the most talented teams in the state,” Tuck said. “I don’t think this year is any different. When you go through the film and break down the positions, they’ve got good guys across the board on both sides of the ball especially at the skilled spots.” The Pointers for the first time in a long time have skilled players that can stack up against the Bulldogs with a receiving corps that includes Jude Bartholomew, Haden Roark, Jaiden Henry, Isaac Nason and Maury Newton. Newton especially has been a big-play threat for the Pointers. “He’s made some big plays for us,” Tuck said. “He’s coming along, the way he’s practicing now. There’s been a switch in his attitude, he’s showing more seriousness. He’s really stepped up on Fridays and has helped us in a big way.” Newton has caught four touchdown passes this year, including three the first two conference games. Against Rogers two weeks ago, his two touchdown catches staked Van Buren to a quick, 14-0, lead. He caught a fade for a touchdown from 23 yards out and then caught a short pass, swatted away his defender and ran 77 yards for a touchdown with the safety shaded over to the opposite side where there were three Van Buren receivers with Newton isolated on the near side. Quarterback Gary Phillips also immediately saw the isolation. “When the play was called there was no one over there, and Gary noticed it, too,” Newton said. “I saw a bunch of green field. I just needed to make one person miss, and I was gone. We ran trips right and I was by myself. I like that. I can win a lot of one-on-ones.” Newton leads the 7A-West in yards per catch among receivers with at least 10 receptions, with 10 catches for 250 yards. “It’s going good,” Newton said. “I’m liking it a lot. Gary’s finding me open.” Newton grew up liking baseball the most of the sports, also still plays basketball but took football up again just before last season started after quitting after his seventh grade year. Newton left the baseball team to concentrate on spring football for the first time in preparation to possibly playing college football. He’s likely to play all three this season, however. “My mom really wants me to join back up and play baseball my senior year,” Newton said. “So, I might play all three.” On the football field, he’s still learning with just over a year of varsity playing experience. “He’s still learning the game and figuring things out,” Tuck said. “I like where he’s at right now both in how he’s practicing and the things he’s done on the field the last couple of weeks.” Newton also caught a 40-yard touchdown pass in the 53-21 win against Alma and again turned a short pass into a 45-yard touchdown in the loss to Bentonville last week. “Going back to seeing him practice more seriously, that’s directly showing up,” Tuck said. “If he continues that, there’s a lot more weeks in the season for that to grow.” Colleges are starting to notice Newton and his 4.6 speed as well as his game continues to mature. “His ceiling is a lot higher than what we’ve seen,” Tuck said. “If he had been in this the whole time and working at receiver, he’d be making even more explosive plays than what he’s making right now.” If the Pointers have success against Fayetteville on Friday, they’ll need more of those big plays from Newton and the rest of the offense. “We need to have some explosive plays,” Tuck said. “We don’t need to get bogged down in that mentality, but when you’re playing a team of this caliber you do need a couple of explosive plays. Maybe he can step up and make a couple of plays down the field.” For Tuck, he’ll be going up against Casey Dick, who hired Tuck to be his offensive coordinator last year at Van Buren before Dick left for Fayetteville after Billy Dawson retired. Tuck was immediately elevated as the Pointers head coach. In addition to coaching together last year, Tuck and Dick played at the same time for the Arkansas Razorbacks. Tuck caught two touchdown passes in 2007, one from Heisman Trophy candidate Darren McFadden against Troy State for 42 yards and the other from Dick for 40 yards against Alabama. In other words, they know each other pretty well. “I’m sure everybody involved is thinking we know they do this but they know we know they do this and what do we need to do to counter,” Tuck said. “You get into some of that a little bit, but I’m sure there will be a wrinkle here or there.”

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NEWTON COMING UP BIG FOR POINTERS

LELAND BARCLAY

Times Record | 10/11/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford