Jared Richey fought through his blocker and was closing in for a possible sack when the Bentonville West quarterback tried to get off a pass.

Richey, Bentonville High's senior outside linebacker, had help from a couple of teammates on the play. They forced West quarterback Will Jarrett into an intentional grounding penalty, and because Jarrett was in the end zone when he attempted the pass, the play resulted in a safety.

The Tigers used the two points from the safety and a touchdown from the resulting short drive after the West kickoff to claim a 37-28 win and the 7A-West Conference championship in front of a standing-room-only crowd Friday night in Tiger Stadium.

Bentonville (8-2, 7-0 7A-West) won its seventh straight game by leaning on its defense in the second half. The Tigers shut West (9-1, 6-1) out in the second half after allowing 28 first-half points.

"This was a team effort as a whole, it wasn't just one person," Richey said. "In the locker room at halftime we came up with a good game plan and we just executed it. We switched things up a little bit to catch them off-guard and it seemed to work for us the rest of the game."

The top two teams in the 7A-West played like it. In the first half it was the offenses making the noise, and in the second half the defenses of both teams dominated.

Special teams were also a big factor as Bentonville got a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Kam'ron Mays-Hunt, and Tigers' quarterback-punter Nathan Lyons kept the Wolverines pinned back most of the second half with three punts inside the 20.

"If you're asking me what the keys to the game were, I thought it was turnovers and special teams," West coach Bryan Pratt said. "I think they definitely won the special teams and turnover battle."

Bentonville scored touchdowns on its first four offensive possessions of the game. West was almost as good, scoring four times on five possessions in the opening half.

Mays-Hunt scored two of Bentonville's touchdowns, grabbing an 18-yard scoring pass from Lyons to put the Tigers on top 21-14 with 10 minutes, 44 seconds left in the second quarter, then answering a West touchdown with a 98-yard return of the ensuing kickoff to put the Tigers back up 28-21.
