LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—Fort Smith Southside had Bentonville pinned deep in what figured to be a tight defensive struggle. Then on first down, Erik Ragsdale ran through a hole up the middle and was in the clear for a 90-yard touchdown.

So much for bad field position.

“You can’t put a price tag on how valuable that was,” Bentonville coach Barry Lunney Sr. said. “The odds are you’re not going to go that far. You look at it statistically, you just don’t go that far most of the time against especially good defensive football teams. We hit it right.”

Ragsdale ran for 1...

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