CLASS 3A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

HARDING ACADEMY 47, PRESCOTT 25

DECEMBER 11, LITTLE ROCK — The Harding Academy Wildcats were officially deemed dominant in their farewell tour of Class 3A.

The Wildcats won their third-straight state championship with a second-half flurry in a 47-25 win over Prescott at War Memorial Stadium for their ninth state championship.

Harding Academy finished 13-2 in the final season in Class 3A before being elevated in classification due to the new Competitive Equity Factor. The Wildcats accumulated 15 points over a four-year span, just a point shy of the maximum, and thus were considered ‘dominant’ according to the Arkansas Activities Association’s new classification rules for private schools.

The last team to beat Harding Academy in the Class 3A playoffs was Lamar in 2018. Harding Academy defeated Osceola, 51-26, for the 2019 championship and McGehee, 71-44, in the 2020 title game.

Prescott held Harding Academy to just 118 yards and a field goal in the first half and led 12-3.

“We were in a little bit of shock,” Harding Academy head coach Neil Evans said. “We had been in very many tight ball games. I say that humbly. When yhou don’t play a tight game often, then you’re in one you’re thinking something’s wrong. The only thing that’s different is that you’re playing a very good team.”

The Wildcats took the second-half kickoff and scored three touchdowns and added a field goal in the third quarter and three in the fourth quarter.

“Tale of two halves for us. Just a tremendous job by our kids not to panic,” Harding Academy head coach Neil Evans said. “It’s easy to panic in those moments. It was really good job by our staff. A lot of times when you get in those situations, you try to abandon what the game plan was and start to press. We didn’t do that. It was a really good job of giving the best player the ball late in the game and leaning on the offensive line.”

Harding Academy had 18 plays for 167 yards in the third quarter and 15 for 106 yards in the final quarter.

The Wildcats wiped out their half-time deficit on their first two drives of the second half and held Prescott, which led Class 3A in scoring offense, to just 174 yards in the final half.

“They did some really good stuff with their defensive line early in the game,” Evans said. “I think it rattled our young offensive line. We were able to make a couple of tweaks at halftime and just came out and executed. Our defense played real well.”

Kade Smith threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Miller to complete a 10-play, 64-yard drive that used the first 3:08 of the third quarter.

Eli Wallis intercepted a pass on Prescott’s first play of the second half, and three plays later Harding Academy went up, 16-12 on Kade Smith’s 10-yard scoring run with 7:43 left in the quarter.

Cooper Welch recovered a fumble on Prescott’s fifth play, and Kyle Ferrie booted a 36-yard field goal with 3:52 left in the quarter for a 19-10 advantage.

Sikan Akpanudo intercepted a pass on Prescott’s second play, and it took just one play for the Wildcats to cash it into a 26-12 lead on Kade Smith’s 58-yard touchdown pass to Landon Koch.

After Prescott’s Carston Poole threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jacaylon Zachery 56 seconds into the final quarter, Kade Smith ran for touchdowns of 20 and 2 yards and threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Miller.

Smith was the game’s Most Valuable Player, completing 9-of-15 passes for 113 yards and two scores and rushing 13 times for 115 yards and three scores.

Miller ran 20 times for 157 yards, and caught three passes for 35 yards and two scores.

Ferrie boomed eight touchbacks out of nine kickoffs, punted three times for average of 39 yards, and kicked field goals of 27 and 36 yards.

“Their kicker is unbelievable,” Prescott head coach Brian Glass said. “He’s the guy that we feared the most going into the game. He’s the biggest reason the game was able to get the way it got. He kicks it against the wind into the end zone. It’s a huge difference.”