The Fayetteville High School football team has finished No. 117 nationally for the 2011 season. The announcement was made by MaxPreps, a California-based company that ranks more than 16,000 high school varsity football teams.

Fayetteville (12-2) avenged one of its regular season losses with a 29-28 overtime victory over Bentonville on Dec. 23, 2011 to claim the Class 7A state championship. The Bulldogs, who were battered by Bentonville, 41-6, in September, ended Bentonville’s 25-game win streak in the process. Fayetteville, which also won the state championship for the 2007 season, is one of 50 schools being honored on the seventh annual MaxPreps Tour of Champions presented by the Army National Guard. The school’s girls’ basketball team was honored on the Tour of Champions for the 2010-11 season when it finished 18th in the rankings.[adsenseyu1]

“On behalf of MaxPreps, I would like to congratulate Coach Daryl Patton and the Fayetteville High School football team on an incredible season,” said President Andy Beal. “MaxPreps is once again honored to partner with the Army National Guard in saluting 50 of the top high school football teams in America. “With the Army National Guard’s continued support, the Tour of Champions has become one of the most recognizable awards programs in the country.”

“This is a tremendous honor for the school, the players and the coaches to receive recognition from an organization like MaxPreps that is known nationally and everybody would like to be a part of it,” said Fayetteville head football coach Daryl Patton, who completed his ninth season. “We’re honored to be a part of the Tour of Champions.”

Junior quarterback Auston Allen, who threw four touchdown passes and scored on the game-winning two-point conversion to beat Bentonville, passed for 4,150 yards on the season with 46 TDs versus 11 interceptions. Junior Brice Gohagans was the team’s leading ground gainer with 1,111 yards and 15 TDs and he caught 43 passes for 623 yards and five tallies. Senior Brad Culp led the team with 65 pass receptions for 1,298 yards and a dozen TDs.

Junior linebacker Brooks Ellis led the defensive squad with 92 tackles, 13 ½ quarterback sacks and 12 tackles for loss. Free safety Alex Brignoni, also a junior, made 127 stops, broke up 11 passes, and intercepted 10, returning two for touchdowns. Senior Max Coffin handled all the kicking duties, averaging 41.5 yards on 39 punts and nailed 12 kicks inside the opponents’ 10-yard line. He also converted on 9-of-16 field goals attempts with a long of 45 yards.

Arkansas Army National Guard Sergeant First Class Heath Cole presented Coach Patton and the team with the Army National Guard national ranking trophy during halftime of the boy’s varsity basketball game Tuesday night.

“We are pleased to announce that this is the seventh year the National Guard has presented nationally ranked football teams with the national ranking trophy,” said Lieutenant Colonel William Dones, Army National Guard Bureau. “It is our pleasure to support this program and honor these teams, players, coaches, schools, and parents, because they exhibit characteristics we hold dear in the National Guard, such as character, talent, and courage.”

MaxPreps uses a sophisticated computer program, known as the Freeman Rankings, to determine team rank for the Tour of Champions. The system utilizes the huge number of game results stored in the MaxPreps database. Generally, the more a team wins the higher the ranking, but the system takes into account quality wins (against other highly ranked opponents), margin of victory, and strength of schedule. Playoff games are weighed 2.1 times a regular season game.

Fayetteville

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