Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's purple perfection in seven a football as the Fayetteville Bulldogs finish 13 and O. Greenwood Bulldogs also finish 13 and O and bring the state title back to the River Valley. We take a look back at the state championship games from last weekend on this week's prep rally.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: You're listening to the Prep Rally podcast now here's your host, Graham Thomas.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Welcome to the Prep Rally podcast cast sponsored by West Termite, Pest and Lawn. I'm Graham Thomas with the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. My man, Rick fires here in the Fayetteville studio. Leland Barclay joins us in the River Valley. And fellas, what a weekend in Little Rock with the state championship football games. It was a great weekend starting Leland with the Rain Soaks Thursday night with eight man games. Then we had the two A game, six A games on Friday and seven A and five A on Saturday. So, boys, let's dig in and with kind of just to recap some of these state championship games, and I think it's only fitting that we start with the Saturday afternoon game between Fayetteville and Bentonville. What a game it was. Fayetteville 22, Bentonville 16 as the Purple Bulldogs complete a 13 and O season, the first perfect season they've ever had. And I tell you what, it was just a neat moment down there on the field afterwards, kind of seeing those guys. They completed the journey. And Rick, I know you were back up here watching at home, but you've seen Fayetteville more than anybody has this time of year, this season. So a little perspective here for Fayetteville Bulldogs.
[00:01:51] Speaker C: Well, you could tell by the way to, you know, winter knees is emotional when you start way back in the spring, then you go through the summer and this is what you play for. This is what you show up for practice every day when you're tired and your friends are out doing other things.
What an emotional moment for Casey, Dick and that team. And they got better. They really mean through the regular season. They had a lot of offense. I mean, they were for the show. But during go time, the Defense really came through. Special teams, everything. They were a complete team at the end of the year. So congratulations to fable. And they got that new swag building over there. And I know they can't wait to put that big trophy in there, that big plaque in there, if they hadn't already.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Now, Leland, you were down on the field for a lot of that, know, getting some video. And boy, that's the ideal place to be during a football game, I think, is down there on the field, up in the war memorial press box. It's way up there and you got a great view of the game. But, man, I'd like to hear just some insight about what it was like down there on the field.
[00:02:58] Speaker D: Yeah, and you're right, it's a great place to be, especially, man, it was a nice, bright, sunny day, and it was just an absolute great place and a great day to watch high school football, especially the two best teams in the state's largest classification. And the first thing that comes to my mind when I think back on that game, and even during that game, early in that game, not just at the end, but really throughout, was just how defensive the game was and kind of how it was an old fashioned seven a West game. Because used to, when we wrote about the seven a West, back when it was the, gosh, even the four A West and the five a West, we used to always say the rugged five a West or the rugged, now the rugged seven a West. And it's always what it was, was a ground pound defensive conference. And, man, the hitting that went on down there, and it was just really an old fashioned seven a West game. The two defenses combined, they only gave up, both teams combined, gave up 73 rushing yards. So it was hard for these teams to establish the run against the defense. And then when it came to the pass, well, the two defenses combined for eight sacks.
It was a tough day for the offensive coordinators and a great day for the defense coordinators because the defenses were just playing so great. And how many times have we talked over the last 15 or even 20 years about how these offenses have made it so difficult for defensive coordinators now and how it's probably the toughest job in the state, is to be one. And, boy, this game was all about defense. And it came down to really the last play, a pass into the end zone that was knocked down. That allowed Fayetteville to really escape and enjoy their 6th state title with a 22 to 16 win?
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Well, one of my favorite stats about the whole game, and I think this is right. Leland, please correct me if I'm wrong, but Fayetteville's longest rush was by the punter on a. I don't believe it was an intended fake punt, but that's kind of what it ended up being. He picked up about 14 yards, Nathan Cockle did on Fayetteville's very first offensive series, and they didn't score on it, but that just goes to show you when the punter is getting the very longest run for their team. That says a lot about how those defenses were playing.
[00:05:33] Speaker C: You know what? It's the old adage coach has been saying for 180 years. Defense win championship. And even in the modern era, where there's stats galore, 55, 45 games, when it gets right down to the business winning championships, the defense always bail you out and pull you through.
[00:05:57] Speaker D: Well, and you're right, Nathan. I guess it's. Cockle had a 14 yard run on a fake punt. Chris Ficklin did have a 15 yard run for Bentonville, but that was the two longest runs of the day, was 15 and 14 yards, and one of them was by the punter.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Well, here's another interesting note about Fayetteville's win here. They trailed three times.
They trailed seven to nothing. They trailed ten, seven and half. Okay, they did pull ahead in the third quarter, 14 to ten, and then got behind again. Bentonville scored, hit CJ Brown for a touchdown, and then they swapped turnovers for a while there. There were a few fumbles, and Fayetteville did score in the fourth quarter. And then Bentonville was knocking on the door.
In talking with Jody Grant, they kind of felt like Bentonville kind of felt like they had some opportunities slip away in the first half. They had a situation where they had completed about a 43 yard pass to Carsten Pate, down to the 20, and had first and ten at the 20, and then a couple of negative plays and then a penalty and then an intentional grounding, put it behind the 50 yard line. And Bentonville goes from a first and ten at the 20 situation to having to punt. I mean, that's just kind of one of those frustrating moments for Bentonville. And then, like Leland said, right there at the end, they were knocking on the door and had the ball, I think, at the 13 yard line. But some more penalties got, put them behind the sticks and they had to kind of throw one into the end zone. Not an ideal situation, but Bentonville had a chance right there at the end. And at the end of the day, sometimes that's all you can ask for, is a chance to win.
[00:07:51] Speaker D: Well, and I don't think I've ever seen this on stats, and I love to look at the numbers.
On third down attempts, Bentonville averaged twelve point, 913 yards to go on third down, they were six of twelve, and their average yards to go on third down was 13 yards. Fayetteville's average yard to go was ten yards, and they were four of eleven. So that just tells you what kind of day it was for the offense.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Drake Lindsay, to no one's surprise, was the state MVP in that game wasn't his best game overall, but he gave him a chance and just a great job, a great season for the Purple Bulldogs. So we are going to now move on to the Greenwood Little Rock Christian game, which was Friday night. And Leland, I've gotten my notes here, and this is the headline we used in the River Valley Democrat Gazette. But Greenwood completed their journey to the ship, and maybe you can give us a little more insight about that rallying cry for the Greenwood Bulldogs in August.
[00:09:05] Speaker D: They have team sanes every year that they kind of adopt, and this year the shirts they handed out in August said journey to the ship. And it meant to the championship, not to the championship game. As Coach Chris Young pointed out after the game, because, especially the senior class, they had been twice in a row and come know empty, losing two state championships in a row to El Dorado two years ago and then of course to six a West faux Pulaski Academy last year.
So that was kind of their mantra for the season was journey to the ship, meaning the championship and not the game.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Well, in this ball game, it was all Greenwood from the very start. I mean, they were all over. Their defense was all over Little Rock Christian to open up the game. They had two straight stops and then the offense turned around and scored two straight times and was up just like Greenwood does to people. They were up 14 to nothing and they really controlled the whole ball game. Leland, that's kind of the way I saw it.
[00:10:21] Speaker D: They did like you said, Little Rock Christian got the opening kickoff three plays. Punt. Kane Archer threw a 27 yard touchdown pass to Grant Carnes. Little Rock Christian Greenwood forced another punt and then Kane Archer capped a 14 play drive with a 1 yd touchdown run near the end of the first quarter. And like you said, it was 14 to nothing.
Little Rock Christian was within 14 to six and then stopped Greenwood, and then Greenwood's defense turned around with a fourth down stop near midfield and from there it was over. And I never got, and I don't think anybody really got the feeling that this game was going to end up anyway.
But a Greenwood championship and wrapping up a 13 and O record, their fourth undefeated season in school history.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: How many championships do you say that was?
[00:11:20] Speaker D: Eleven overall. Fourth straight or not fourth straight, but fourth undefeated season for the Bulldogs. 11th state championship in all.
[00:11:32] Speaker C: Are they the number one football program in Arkansas, say, over the last 25 years, 20 years?
[00:11:39] Speaker D: I think so. Pulaski Academy has also won eleven. When they beat Greenwood last year, that was their 11th state title. But I think since Greenwood went to the state title game in 1996 and then won it all in 2000 under Ronnie Peacock. I'd say the last 24 years, which is basically a quarter Of a century, they're the best program in the state.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: I mean, eleven state championships since 2000, I'm hearing, if you count the zero. I guess so. 24 football seasons, eleven state titles. That's every other year almost. They're winning a state title.
They reeled off several in a row there for a while now.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: The reason I'd ask. I like the football history. We put out our prep rally history of Arkansas football. Leland puts out his every year updates about Arkansas football history. And I remember back in the day, Little Rock Central, they were dominant, like nationally then. I remember reading about those four dice teams, those Pine bluff teams. But right now, Greenwood is the team in Arkansas right now. As far as football.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Well, after the Greenwood game, we were kind of going back and talking about, and there was some ugliness to it.
Greenwood won kind of going away, but it's not like Kane Archer threw for 450 yards and they had 670 yards of offense or whatever it was. They did have some struggles.
And Chris Young, we talked about after the game, he kind of told Kane Archer, he's like, we don't need to score here. We need to run clock and secure a shit. They were more concerned about securing the championship and not necessarily just blowing them out.
It was an interesting line of thinking there, but you had a young sophomore quarterback, and I think you wanted to kind of keep the moment a little real there.
[00:13:42] Speaker D: Yeah, I don't think it's kind of like I've had a couple of corvettes in my life, and it's kind of like there's no sense in having a vehicle that'll go 125 miles an hour and get a speeding ticket. They just kind of put it on cruise control and just cruised on in. They ran the ball 46 times for 251 yards.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:14:03] Speaker D: They had possession 30 minutes to Little Rock Christians almost 18.
It really was a game where they got the lead and there was no need to do anything other than just play ball control and also rely on a defense that has been very good all season.
I don't think there was any sense on Greenwood's sideline That Little Rock Christian was going to be able to mount this huge, gigantic rally against Greenwood's defense that has been so good and really dominant all season long in all aspects of the know. They intercepted three more passes on Friday night.
Cash Archer had a sack and a was just. They got the lead and just kind of put it on cruise control.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Well, boys, I'd like to Brag, I did have Greenwood at the very beginning win state.
You know, early on, we thought it was Little Rock Christianster. A lot of you guys did. I certainly didn't. I had Greenwood, Dad Gummet.
Well, moving on to the Class five A game. So this was Saturday evening, and, man, it was my first time in a couple of years seeing Little Rock park view with my own eyes. And they just really handed it to Shiloh Christian.
And then the conversation became, well, is Little Rock Parkview the true number one team in the state this year? And, boy, I'd love to see Fayetteville, Greenwood and Little Rock Parkview kind of round robbing this thing out to see who really is the best. But anyway, well, that's what they used.
[00:15:48] Speaker C: To do in basketball, is called the overall. And, man, you set it up, and I'll be there watching it.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Well, Parkview was all over Shiloh, and this was a mercy rule. And you got to give credit to coach Brad Bolding and Little Rock Park View. They have got just a really fine football team, and they repeated as Class five a state champions.
So to put you on the spot here, Leland, we talked about it Saturday night. But Greenwood, Little Rock Parkview, or Fayetteville, who's number one?
[00:16:23] Speaker D: Well, you know, and I've thought about this a lot, and I think anybody could make a case for any of these three teams that was leaning that way.
First and foremost, Fayetteville is undefeated in the state's largest classification.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: It says a lot.
[00:16:42] Speaker D: The seven a West, undefeated.
They beat the best from the Central conference. Bentonville at least knocked Brian out of it. Then Fayetteville had to beat a very good Bentonville team a second time to win the title.
So the bottom line is, in that regard, Fayetteville is an undefeated state champion in the state's largest classification. To vote anybody else as number one in the final poll would be unprecedented and, in my opinion, unfounded. Now, I know that Parkview is very good, and teams that watch them and say that, but they're the state champion in Class Six A.
Oh, no, wait. They're not even the champion in Class Six A. They're the champion in Class five A. Now, granted, twelve mercy rule wins out of 14 wins, but it's Class five A. I think the only other case would be Greenwood's case by being the state champion in six A, because, again, undefeated in the next largest classification against very good competition. Again, the biggest case there for Greenwood would be, if we want to put it on a scrimmage game in the.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Middle of August, they did dominate that scrimmage.
Know you came out of that, know it wasn't really a competitive game, but.
[00:18:19] Speaker D: It was a so, but it was a scrimmage. But it was funny because I was down on the field after that listening to coach Casey Dick talk to his team. And based on his conversation with his team after that scrimmage, he didn't treat it like a scrimmage. But evidently the light came on. And for the next, what, 15 weeks, 14 weeks? Well, I guess the one week off, 15 weeks, Fayetteville was the best team in the state.
[00:18:52] Speaker C: I'm like, Leland Fable won the highest classification. Let's not forget either that at one point, the six A's were included in seven A, and they broke off several years. It wasn't Greenwood. Greenwood doesn't care. They'll play anybody anytime. But Benton. Some others, it was 32, wasn't it? 32. And they broke it off into 16, seven A and six. And I'm always going to give the seven a team the benefit of a doubt.
I'm like, Leland, if I had a vote, Associated Press vote, I got fable number one overall.
[00:19:30] Speaker D: Well, and why did the state's largest classification, which had 32 teams through 2005, why was that divided?
[00:19:42] Speaker A: I can't answer that question because those.
[00:19:45] Speaker D: 16 schools felt like that they could not compete against the biggest schools.
[00:19:49] Speaker C: That's what it was.
[00:19:50] Speaker D: So they wanted their own classification because they could not compete against schools, the biggest schools in the state.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: That's exactly right. I remember whoever the ad at Benton, I think he led the charge there. So, sorry, Greenwood, you guys did everything asked of you, but I'm going with Fable and seven a.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: So you would have put Alabama in the College Football Playoff over undefeated Florida State as well?
[00:20:15] Speaker C: No, that's a whole different conversation.
[00:20:19] Speaker D: That's a whole different thing. Now the bottom again, too. All three of those teams are very good, and they're all state champions and they're all undefeated. So, I mean, it's a rare instance in this situation.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: Well, it was a lot of fun for me. It had been, oh, let's see. We do the math about 15 years since I covered a state championship game at War Memorial Stadium. And to cover three of them in two days, that was a lot of fun.
They did a great job at War Memorial. We were treated really well.
[00:21:00] Speaker C: You guys did a great job, too. I can't wait. 06:00 a.m.. I still get my print edition. I had all those stories in there, all those stats the sidebar. And if you're not reading the Democrat Gazette, the River Valley, and you're getting it off a website or some, you're just missing out big time, I'm telling you.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: All right, guys, well, we are going to take a break, and when we come back, we will take a look at some more playoff games that we had in our area and look ahead to one more state championship game this upcoming weekend.
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[00:22:20] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Prep Rally Podcast Sponsored by West Termite, Pest and lawn Graham Thomas, Rick Fires, Leland Barclay and gentlemen, we are going to now go back to last week's Class four A and three A semifinals. To recap, so up in northwest Arkansas, Rick Fires, you, covered the Elkins Harding Academy game, and Harding Academy battle two unbeaten teams. Harding Academy defeats Elkins, ends the elk season. What a great season they had. But Harding Academy wins and you were there for that one.
[00:22:56] Speaker C: This is the fifth time Harding Academy will play for a state championship. And they really wanted to get back to Little Rock War Memorial Stadium after losing to Malvern last year, I guess the first time in their foray after they won a few in three a Hardham Academy. Man, they are exceptional.
They're Owen Miller, their quarterback. You talk about a run, he's only a junior. Because I was asking, I said, man, who's looking at this guy? His stock is climbing. He's going to start getting more. He's not a really big guy, maybe six one or so compared to somebody like Drake Lindsay, who is six five. But he is a true run pass option guy. And he was zipping all over the field with his runs and throwing down field. They had great receivers, great line play.
Elkins, I just kind of feel bad for them. They didn't play their really good game.
They had some drops. They had a lot of drops. There's no other way to cut know as rainy as a misty rain and it got a little bit more rainy as the night went on, and they did. They had some drops, and they caught a couple during the middle of. And then they had some drops late.
Our quarterback, Dizzy Dean, he was right on the money for most tonight, but defensively, they just couldn't stop. Just an excellent Harding Academy team.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: Yeah, we were all enjoying the Elkins run.
[00:24:27] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: But we knew this would be a really tough game. And congratulations to coach Zach Watson and his team.
You get into the four A competition, it's hard.
You got some really good teams in foray.
[00:24:43] Speaker C: And I tell you what, under Zach Watson, people across the state know who Elkins is now because they've built up that program last few years, and I've been on the other side to.
But everybody knows who the Elkin football is, and they got some really good players coming back. Just a really great season, but they ran into a powerhouse in the.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: You know, we were up in the press box at War Memorial. We had Walter Woody up there, and he had all the games streaming on his laptop, so we were getting Elkins updates and watching some of that as we could. We were also following the Booneville Glen Rose game, and the Booneville Bearcats do defeat the Glen Rose team in advance to the state three a championship game. And Leland Booneville, they got that Russian game with Dax Goff and Rylan Ray, and those guys certainly did their thing again on Friday night. They also threw some passes again.
[00:25:50] Speaker D: Yeah. Through for 100 yards again. Dax Golf threw his second touchdown pass of the season. It was 1313 at the half, and then Booneville scored three touchdowns. The first three touchdowns of the second half, and went up 30, 413, and then hung on for the 34 25 win to advance the War Memorial Stadium for the second straight year. And you're right, the one two punch, and I think that has been a big lift to the Bearcats the past few weeks, is having Rylan Ray back as another threat in the backfield to go along with Dax golf, because either one of those guys can carry a team. And, of course, Dax golf, 159 yards or 157 yards and two touchdowns. Rylan Ray, 117 yards and a touchdown. So, the Bearcats are going back to War Memorial Stadium for the second year in a row.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: So Booneville will play.
Prescott. Prescott, Curly. And we got to hit on this a little bit. Our Mansfield Tigers, the Magic season, the Magical Cinderella run ends at Prescott, but that game was closed for a long time, and really good job by Witt Overton and the Mansfield Tigers. I don't know if you've been able to follow up with them yet, Leland, about that, but what a great run after they went through the gauntlet of Charleston, Booneville. Mansfield is kind of licking their wounds a little bit, but they picked everything back up and got back to work.
[00:27:30] Speaker D: Every Friday night during the season, there's always some games that we have know interest in, and we're always know scoreboards or Twitter to see updates and things. So the game I was most interested in was really the Mansfield Tigers to see if they could, wow, pull off a third straight stunner, really on the road. I think they ended up now traveling almost 1400 miles the last three weeks, back and forth to playoff games. And what a season it's been for the Mansfield Tigers.
But they did lose 28 to seven. They were up, well, I guess it was 77 early in the second quarter, and then Prescott scored right before the half and went up 14 to seven, then scored two third quarter touchdowns, including one on a fumble return for a touchdown to win that game. And Prescott's kind of been the team that has been at the top of class three a all season long.
So it was a great run by Mansfield.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Well, in the four A title game, it's going to be Harding academy versus Rivercrest. Is that right?
[00:28:47] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: So a couple of more Eastern schools there, they're going to go at each other. And, boy, Rivercrest got a good football team, too, and I just don't know that anybody's going to be able to slow down hard in academy.
[00:29:03] Speaker C: Well, you know what? I started my career over there for the bliable courier, covering Gosno Pirates and Rivercrest with head coach Danny Graham. They got a lot of tradition over there. I remember covering Richard Brothers, Cortez Kennedy. They got some athletes. I know Harding Academy is one of those private schools, and they can do a lot of great things, but I ain't going to put anything past the old Rivers crest coats.
[00:29:29] Speaker D: All right, there's a lot of tradition over there. I made my trip, my one trip, maybe to Wilson, Arkansas, in my lifetime, to see Tyrone Henry. Yes. When they played Booneville in a. I think it was a semi final game several years ago.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: All right, well, guys, we are not going to do a prep rally live this week. We've got the one game with our teams from Northwest Arkhar and saw in River Valley. That's Booneville. So we're just going to pick it right here.
So Booneville versus Prescott, Leland, who you got?
[00:30:13] Speaker D: I tell you, at this point, I can't go against Booneville, especially the return of Rylan Ray, I think that's just a huge difference. He also plays defense, and that allows Dax golf to not have to carry the load.
I think Booneville will win this game.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: I'm with you on that one. I'm going Booneville as well. And man, I'm looking forward. I've not gotten to see Booneville play yet this year. So Leland and I are going down on Saturday morning, and we're going to go watch the Bearcats bring this one home. So the moment you all been waiting for, Rick's pick?
[00:30:54] Speaker C: Well, I got the cheat sheet because I got to see Prescott in the track tournament three, a state track tournament a couple of years. I think one year they got, they got some runners, guys. They got some speed. And Booneville is going to have to tackle at the line of scribbling and keep a four yard run from going for 48 yard run. Prescott, I've heard about the Curly Wolves a lot of years, but you know what? Nobody tops football small school football tradition more than Booneville. And I'm sticking with Booneville Bearcats.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: All right, well, Booneville Bearcats, we're behind you real quick on foray. I'm going with Harding Academy, Leland.
[00:31:38] Speaker D: Yeah, I don't see any reason to go against them. I don't see a Jalen Dupree and a Cedric Simmons like Malvern had last year. Even though Rivercrest is very good, they run the ball. I just think Harding Academy is playing at a different level. And like Rick said, boy, having a quarterback like Owen Miller and just how good that coach Neil Evans has known he was going to be since he was a freshman kind of pressed into the starting duty when their senior quarterback decided to concentrate on football a couple of years ago.
[00:32:14] Speaker C: Harding Academy, I'm going with the Rivercrest Coats. It's probably from the heart because I know those who are just good old country salt, new Earth people. I got a dollar 27 in my pocket and I'm putting it all on the Rivercrest coats.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: All right, we're going to take a break and we come back. We'll do our last top five of the football season.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: If you're enjoying this podcast, consider a newspaper subscription to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette or the River Valley Democrat Gazette. We have a special offer for our podcast listeners, so visit nwanline.com Podcast 23 to get started. You can also click the subscribe button on our websites, nwanline.com and rivervalleydemocratgazette.com. Or call us at 479-684-5509 and be sure to say that you're a podcast listener. Now back to the show.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Prep Rally Podcast sponsored by West Termite Pests and lawn Graham Thomas. Rick Fires Leland Barclay and gentlemen, we've been doing top five football and well in other sports throughout the year, but we're going to wrap up this podcast with another top five and I'll go ahead and start us off since I've got kind of the way this worked this year is that Rick has done the seven A, Leland's done the River Valley, and I've kind of filled in the gaps on what's left with the Northwest Arkansas teams, Class six A and below.
So to start us off with my top five, I'm going to lead off with the Elkins Elks finishing 13 and one.
All good things come to an end sometime. And for the Elkin Elks, it came to an end in the semifinals.
What a great season. They're going to talk about this one for a long time over there. Had a chance.
Maybe if the weather is a little bit better, a few less drops, maybe they can pull that one out again. Shiloh Christian gets to another state championship game and loses to a really fine Little Rock Parkview team.
I think we all kind of thought if anybody had a chance against Parkview, it would have been Shiloh.
A lot of good football teams would have lost to Parkview the way they played that night.
Another part, and this is number three for me, about Shiloh Christian. The season Bo Williams had some of the individual performances I kind of go back to. He nearly had 400 yards against Little Rock Christian on the ground.
He had another big night in the quarterfinals against Pine Bluff. At Pine Bluff. No, that was the semifinals. I'm sorry. At Pine Bluff?
[00:35:12] Speaker C: At Pine Bluff.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: What a great individual season he had. And he's going to make a really fine football player for somebody at the college level. They need to get on them and they got eliminated early. But I'm going to go back to the Farmington Cardinals winning that five a West Conference.
Not enough credit goes to coach Jr. Eldridge. They got off to a tough start, had some injuries and some adversity quarterback. And all they did was win the conference and beat Shiloh Christian along the way. And you can make the, you know, Shiloh's quarterback was hurt or this, that and the other. They won what I think may have been the toughest conference in our area.
And my last one, guys, this has been the longest football season for me, personally for high school in quite a while.
It's just been fun. I'm going to go back and count up how many football games, high school football games I've gotten to cover this year, but it's going to be a lot more than in previous years and it's been a blast.
I'm sad to kind of see it come to an end this next week and it's been a lot of fun. So, Leland, I'll hand it over to you and we'll let Rick wrap it up.
[00:36:34] Speaker D: Well, number one, of course, I've got to start with the Greenwood Bulldogs won their 11th state title with an impressive 41 23 win over Little Rock Christian.
Nine mercy rules out of their 13 wins this season. Undefeated second state title for Chris Young, which now gives him one more than his dad, Joe Fred Young.
And they only trailed twice this season in games at PA, which was very briefly, early, and then to Little Rock ChriStian in that first meeting in the regular season. Week ten. So another state title for Greenwood and then number two, the south side Mavericks. I love the way they ran the ball this year. They were very good team. Won a playoff game and just an outstanding season for coach Kim Damron and the Mavericks. And just more than anything, a really fun team to watch and a great team, great guys to go and talk to throughout the season.
Number three, of course, the Booneville Bearcats will play for a state championship on Saturday. The one two punch of Dax golf and Rylan Ray has been great and the fact that they've thrown the ball some this year. Dax Golf, two touchdown passes.
Jace Washman has done a great job running the offense as a junior and also throwing the football. Dakota Matson, I think caught six touchdown passes this season.
And then of know, the Mansfield Tigers. Witt Overton's a Mansfield guy. Graduate took over the program in July and boy, took them into December playing football. Boy, those guys lived in the weight room. They lifted twice a week during the season and that strength, I think, paid off in the playoffs for the Tigers. Won two road games in the playoffs, traveled almost 1400 miles and three road trips.
Great season for the Tigers. And then the Ozark Hillbillies had a great season as well. Finished second in the four A one. They may be changing conferences next year. Jeremy Burns won his 100th game as head coach of the Hillbillies before they had to take that long trip and lost a playoff game at Warren. But just outstanding jobs by all five of those teams and just really also fun teams not only to watch, but just to cover and talk to their players throughout the season.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: Good stuff. All right, Ricky Fires same way with Leela.
[00:39:13] Speaker C: Man, this is the favorable Bulldogs. You're 2023, seven eight champion, 13. And for the first time in school of six overall state championship.
They were explosive on offense, and later on the defense came on special team. They were just so solid in all three phases of the Game.
Here's a number I want to throw out there that I stole from Leland Barkley. 52. The number of touchdown thrown this year by Drake Lindsay, which is the record for a player in Arkansas'largest class case, 52 touchdown passes. That's amazing. And I'm sorry, Arkansas fans. You all got on him too late. He's going to go to Minnesota. He's reconfirmed that dozens of times, and he'll be signing here what is a couple of weeks from now. Here's another number I thunk of this one by myself.
The number zero. That's the number seven a central team that we're in the finals at War Memorial. And reason I bring that out because the seven a central has been dominant for the last seven a years. They've had a couple of occasions. They had two seven a central team. So the seven a West rule this year, and it's kind of a little commentary, but, man, tremendous job by Casey Dick and his coaching staff. Get these kids ready and looking forward to the next game. You win one. That's only one. Let's go to the next one. Let's go. Next one. And the defense, how they came on to favor a lot of credit. Defense coordinator Derek, I didn't know who he was till midway through the season, and then they started winning some games with the defense. I said, man, I got to go talk to this guy because they were really a factor for favor of winning this state championship. And you know what? I got to go to Bentonville, too, man. They just played. They're an outstanding program up here in Northwest Arkansas. Across the board, Jody, Grant and that team, Carter and I, man, you and your other senior teammates, you guys just did a great job this year. That's a games that could have gone easily gone the other way. Just an outstanding job for Bentonville. They really represented the seven a West very well. And I guess, no, I won't be going to Little Rock to watch that last one. It's over for me. But football is my favorite sport. College football used to be. Now it's more high school football. So I get a little bit depressed when high school football season over. But New Year's Eve, I'll have a tidy or two, and then I'll be ready for the spring football all the way through the summer. Thank you guys for giving us a great team to cover a great year.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Thank you, man. About to get emotional over here.
[00:42:03] Speaker C: I am right now.
[00:42:07] Speaker D: There must be some dust in here.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: I'm not crying. You guys are all right. Well, folks, we appreciate you guys tuning into prep rally all season long.
This will probably be the last prep rally podcast for a few weeks as we kind of hit the reset button and get ready for several months of basketball.
Thanks again to our sponsor, Wes Termite, pets, and Lawn. We appreciate you guys. And reminder, we will not have a prep rally live later this week. So if you need to go back and hit the rewind button to see who we picked, then the standings going into the final picks, though, and I guess we're all going the same. Rick went with the Rivercrest Colts, but Rick is 32 and 13 and I'm 26 and 19, so he's well out in front. Six game lead. I can't catch him.
[00:43:03] Speaker C: I could have told you that at.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: The start of the year.
Yeah, you probably could have. Thanks always to Leland Barclay for joining us every week in the River Valley. And thanks to Rick Fires. And we'll see you guys in a few weeks with our basketball shoes on. We love you.
[00:43:22] Speaker B: The proceeding has been a production of prep rally podcasts. Find us on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify and more. And be sure to follow our host.
