IT'S BENEFIT GAME DAY

It’s (kind of) game day today so Bearcat football players are, as the song says, wearing those game day jerseys down the hall.

It is an AAA benefit game, but Triton Halpain, Rhett Nietert, Seth Wilson (above) and the rest of the Bearcats will be in uniform in Dardanelle tonight.

The Bearcats and Sand Lizards are playing the Arkansas Activities Association benefit game for the third straight season.

The schools have met 57 times with a result incrementing the win or loss side of the hyphen of each school’s season record, most recently in 2021, a game the Bearcats won 32-0.

Dardanelle comes into the 2024 season off a 4-6 season in which they were members of the 5A-West. The Sand Lizards were picked to finish second in the 4A-4 by league coaches and go into the season ranked 11th in Class 4A by Hootens.com.

• Mascots: Booneville Bearcats; Dardanelle Sand Lizards
• When: 7 p.m., August 20, at Bob Keenan Field at Sand Lizard Stadium
• Series: Booneville leads 40-17 (0.702)
• Streak: Booneville has won last 3
• Last Meeting: Booneville 32 Dardanelle 0 on August 27, 2021
• First Meeting: Dardanelle 57 Booneville 0 on November 4, 1921
• Conference Affiliations: Booneville is 3A-1; Dardanelle is 4A-4

TODAY IN BEARCAT FOOTBALL HISTORY: There have been no games played on August. 20.

NOTES: With 57 regular season meetings, Dardanelle is the ninth most faced opponent for the Bearcat football program and the 40 wins over the Sand Lizards ranks them as the eighth most beaten. With the winning percentage just over .700 Dardanelle is one of 63 opponents in that category. Dardanelle’s 17 wins in the series represents the sixth most losses to a single opponent as well.

The Bearcats will open the season at Bearcat Stadium with Poteau, Ok on August 30. Dardanelle opens the year hosting Hall Steam, also on August 30.

Tonight's game is set for 7 p.m. and will follow a game between the two schools' junior high teams.