Big plays lead Harrison to victory

Published 6:30 pm Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Harrison used big plays to send a message to the rest of the 5A-West.

The Goblins scored on five players of 22 or more yards on the way to dismissing Clarksville, 56-8.

With the win, Harrison moves from a seventh-place tie with the Panthers into a tie for fourth-place in the 5A-West.

Sitting at the top of the league standings is Greenwood and Farmington. The pair meet on Friday night.

Pea Ridge is in second place. They are a game ahead of Harrison, Alma, Dardanelle and Morrilton. The Blackhawks have a 2-1 record and the four teams tied for fourth are 1-2.

Alma travels to Dardanelle and Morrilton goes to Clarksville to round out the slate of league games.

Harrison scored three times in each of the first two quarters and then added two scores in the third period.

The first score came on a Gunner Johnson 79-yard run.

That was followed by a Xavier Frieze three-yard score and a Killian Eddings eight-yard run.

Truett Bardwell completed each of the scores with the point after attempt to make it 21-0 at the end of the first period.

The same three players scored for Harrison in the second period.

Frieze ran 30 yards for a score before Eddings scored on the longest play of the game. He ran 85-yards for a score.

Johnson rounded out the scoring in the frame with a 22-yard score.

Bardwell made it 42-0.

Brayden Rhein scored both of Harrison’s touchdowns in the third period. He had a 22-yard run and one-yard run.

Bardwell was true on the point after attempts to send the score to 56-0 after three periods.

Clarksville was able to score in the final period.

The Goblins finished the game with 419 yards of offense. They picked up 339 on the ground which included 250 yards on scoring plays.

The team had 80 yards through the air.

Clarksville ran more plays than Harrison, 46-36.

Four players averaged double digit yardage on their carries in the game. Eddings averaged 30.67 yards on three totes for 92 yards. Johnson averaged 28.33 yards on three carries for 85 yards; Frieze had 12.4 yards on five carries; and Dawson Smith 10 yards a carry on two totes for 20 yards.

Rhein had 56 yards on six carries and Michael Howard 24 yards on three carries.

Johnson had a very accurate day as the quarterback. He was 7-of-8 passing for 80 yards.

Smith had three catches for 44 yards; Sky Lee two for 15 yards; Jenner Thomas and Cooper Campbell one catch each for 13 and 8 yards respectively.