Note to Our Readers: The following story was sourced in its entirety from Mr. Glenn Parrish, Director of Communications for the Booneville School District. Mr. Parrish is a RNN Sports contributor, and we thank him for bringing this story to our readers!
The Bearcats have never played a game in Hackett. That changes Friday night when the Bearcats and Hornets square off at William R. Mills Field in Hackett.
That’s not to say Booneville and Hackett have never played. They did so just two years ago.
Hackett opted to play in the playoffs in 2020, then went to and won at Mountain View in one of the few opening round games, earning a trip to Booneville the following week.
The Bearcats won that game 41-12 which means current seniors, and possibly juniors, on the respective rosters have somewhat of a history against one another, as they were sophomores or freshmen in mid-November of 2020.
In fact, Peyton Tatum, now the starting quarterback for the Bearcats threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to Brooks Herrera in the playoff game.
That will not happen tonight as Herrera, though working diligently toward doing so, has not made his 2022 debut due to a summer baseball injury.
Hackett comes into the game off an open date, having closed their nonconference slate with a win over Panama, Okla., after losses to Centerpoint and Pocola, Okla..
Hackett won eight games and was a playoff team in 2021 and was picked third in the 3A-1 in a preseason poll of league coaches.
The Bearcats tangled with Harding Academy last week to complete their nonconference schedule.
While it is the first trip to Hackett for a senior high game, it is not the venture into the stadium whose field is named for a Booneville graduate who was a coach in the Hackett School System for 15 years.
While Mills was at Hackett the schools occasionally met in junior high and or seventh grade games, the most recent occurring when Allen Ray’s class were freshmen (1996).
The game will be livestreamed on www.boonevillebearcats.com
