When does a loss feel like a win?

Southside’s 48-35 loss to No. 1 Har-Ber wasn’t without a few defensive letdowns.

But after falling behind, 35-6, with a minute to play in the first half, the Mavericks outscored the Wildcats, 29-13, over the final 25:13.

“What I was proud of was with how they responded,” Southside coach Jeff Williams said. “They could have turned it in pretty early. (But) we kept fighting and fighting, and when you play hard good things happen.”

Junior quarterback Taye Gatewood threw three touchdowns and ran for another, and junior receiver Tyrese Solomon and junior running back Ricardo Savoy also had solid performances.

Gatewood completed 22-of-33 passes for 351 yards, with Solomon snagging nine passes for 197 yards.

“I thought offensively we played pretty well,” Williams said. “We started off pretty slow, but as the game went on we got a lot better. Tyrese had a big game, Taye played well, and Ricardo had a good game. All those guys hadn’t played, and then you throw a young offensive line in there against the No. 1 team in the state, I was very pleased with the way we played.”

Savoy caught six passes for 79 yards and ran hard for 44 yards.

“We did good, versus the No. 1 team in our first game,” Savoy said. “We’re not there yet, but overall we did good.”

Another test

The Mavericks’ secondary was torched by Har-Ber quarterback Grant Allen’s six touchdown passes. And there isn’t time to feel sorry for yourself when this week’s quarterback, Connor Noland, may one day be throwing touchdown passes in the Southeastern Conference.

Noland, a University of Arkansas commit, and the 6A No. 1 ranked Greenwood Bulldogs host Southside this Friday.

“Defensively, we gave up some plays, but a lot of those guys hadn’t played, either,” Williams said. “I thought they got a little bit better as the game went on. We don’t have rest for the weary; we’ve got Greenwood coming up and they’re No. 1 in 6A and No. 3 overall.

“They’re good offensively and defensively, but our kids are excited about it.”

Junior Mason Gregory set up the Mavericks’ final TD with his first interception of the season.

Tough Start

Northside coach Mike Falleur knew it was going to be a difficult challenge as it was having to open the season last Friday against Greenwood, the top-ranked team in 6A.

It was even more imposing with the fact the Grizzlies were breaking in a slew of new starters on both sides of the ball.

Greenwood took advantage of the Grizzlies’ inexperience, quickly getting on the board within the first two minutes and the Bulldogs went on to score on all six of their first-half possessions in building a 34-0 lead, eventually winning 34-7.

“I knew going into it, because we do so much with them (during the summer), that they’re a very, very good, solid and well-coached football team,” Falleur said. “This is my fifth year here and this is by far the best team they’ve had. ... What I saw Friday was a very good offense, I saw a very good defense and the kicking game is solid.

“I don’t know that if we had played perfect we could have beat them. We went in there with 17 kids that had never started a game on Friday night and an 18th one that was playing quarterback for the first time on Friday night, and it showed. When things went bad early, we didn’t handle it well, and that happens when you’re young and inexperienced. ... The first half was brutal because we’re not used to that around here.”

The Greenwood defense was just as strong in Friday’s win, holding Northside to 69 yards of total offense in the first half.

Better After Halftime

One positive Falleur did take from last week’s loss was the Grizzlies avoided the mercy rule, holding Greenwood scoreless in the second half and also being able to keep from getting shutout.

“I will say this; I was proud of our kids the second half, because they could have easily just turned their tail and it could have been 50 or 60 (points) or whatever. ... Our kids got better, so that’s the positive I took from this game and maybe one of the only positives I took from it,” Falleur said. “My hat’s off to (Greenwood); coach (Rick) Jones and those guys do a great job and it’s going to take a really good football team or them having an off night for somebody to stop them.”

Another positive for the Grizzlies was the punting of senior Jason Serpas. He punted nine times for an average of 38 yards, including a 60-yard punt in the second quarter as well as another 60-yard punt in the closing seconds of the game.

Northside’s only TD came with 5:32 left on a 56-yard pass from quarterback Deuce Wise to J.T. Thorne. On defense, junior defensive back Greg Washington and junior linebacker Anthony Travis each had 13 total tackles. Travis, a member of the 7A state champion basketball squad who joined the football team, also had a sack as did senior lineman Tre Rideout.

The Grizzlies must now regroup and get ready for their home opener this Friday against Van Buren.

“It’s like I told them (Monday), we’ve got two options,” Falleur said. “You can feel sorry for yourself and put your head down and not get better or we can go to work. Not that they haven’t been working, but we were definitely shown our weaknesses, which were many.”

Times Record sportswriter Buck Ringgold also contributed to this report.

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High School Football

(Arkansas statistics)

Quarterbacks

Comp Att Int Yards TDs

Gatewood, Southside 22 33 1 351 3

B. Hester, Hackett 10 12 0 248 3

Buckner, Clarksville 7 10 0 219 2

Noland, Greenwood 20 31 0 217 3

Stovall, Mansfield 20 35 1 203 2

Dietz, Ozark 10 15 1 186 2

Jensen, Alma 14 24 0 170 3

Wise, Northside 4 11 1 66 1

Hertlein, Subiaco 4 7 1 65 1

K. Graham, Paris 1 1 0 44 1

Roxin, Mountainburg 2 3 0 17 0

Running Backs

Att Yards TDs

Wise, Paris 22 241 3

Williams, Waldron 16 220 2

Jensen, Alma 16 160 0

Buckner, Clarksville 21 129 0
