[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's high school football playoff time in northwest Arkansas in the River Valley. The road to the Rock begins this week. We'll talk about it and more on this week's Prep rally.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: You're watching the Prep rally podcast.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: Welcome to the Prep Rally podcast sponsored by West Termite Pest and Lawn, Graham Thomas and Rick Fires here in Northwest Arkansas. And Leland Barclay joins us in the River Valley. And guys, the regular season is over. It's playoff time. Playoffs, playoffs, playoffs. Rick Fires, how are you today, sir?
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Man, I'm doing well. Man, the regular season went so well so fast. I hate it for some of the teams that didn't make it, but, man, that's what the playoffs is for. You just don't get to go till you got to earn your way there. Looking forward to seeing some of our local teams see if they can make a deep run in the playoffs.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: And Leland, you're holding strong with the mild temperatures. You just keep, keep getting this wonderful, wonderful weather. Except for last Friday night when we had the rainy weathers. We'll get that out of here. But how are you doing down there, sir?
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Well, you know, it's good. You know, it's November. I expect it to, you know, play feel like playoff time. And it did Friday night a little bit. And it will again, you know, it this time of the year, it is great, but it is a little bit bittersweet because close to half the players, half the teams in the state have already put up their football stuff. We went through senior nights the last couple of weeks and a lot of those seniors on those teams have put on their helmet and shoulder pads and, and their jerseys for the final time. And over on, you know, over the next five days on Friday night, we'll lose another half of those teams. So we'll be down to a quarter of the teams and players in the state left after this week. So it is a little bit still, as much as I love it, still a little bit bittersweet.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: All right, well, let's. As we always do to open up the podcast, let's jump into the. Give me five for this week. Leland, you're up.
[00:02:14] Speaker C: These are the top five performances of the past week in the River Valley. And of course, number one, we always start with the River Valley Democrat Gazette player of the week. And for the first time, we get a little defensive on this show. Cash Archer, senior linebacker for Greenwood, intercepted two passes in Friday night's 42 to nothing win over Mountain Home. And both of those were in Greenwood territory, including one right before the half with Mountain Home knocking on the door and threatening in what was at that point still a very close game.
So two big pickoffs for him. And the defense was so key for Greenwood that first half. Even though Greenwood scored on their first possession, the next two possessions ended in fumble, a lost fumble and then they turned the ball over on down. So defense really carried the Bulldogs in that first half. And then also Cash Archer got in a little bit on the offense. On the opening drive with a pouring rain, Cash Archer went in as a blocking back.
Taylor Jasnah, another defensive player, went in as a running back and ran for a 28 yard touchdown on, on the first possession for to give Greenwood a seven to nothing lead with Cash Archer kind of leading the way on that play. So big game for Cash Archer on Friday night. He's our player of the week, man.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: And just really great hearing you know him talk about his friend Isaiah Arrington. And I know that Isaiah would have been proud of the way Cash Archer played Friday night.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: Well, and again, you know, it was senior nine and a great tribute to Isaiah Arrington who passed away last week in a house fire along with his mom and little, you know, five year old sister. And you know, Isaiah's dad, Dan Arrington was there with that side of the family and they carried his jersey out and it was a very, you know, very kind of subdued senior night, but also just a great tribute. All the Greenwood players wore the name Arrington on the back of their jerseys, which is the first time that, you know, I've been told that Greenwood has ever allowed players names to be put on the back of the jersey. So just a great, great tribute for him too. And also kind of, you know, I mentioned this to Cash Archer too, that you know, Isaiah Arrington wore the number zero. And how fitting is it that Greenwood's defense held Mountain Home to zero points and a shutout win on Friday night.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Man, that, that is cool. Just a little, just a little things like that, right? All right, Leland, who's number two and then number two.
[00:05:03] Speaker C: Daniel Burton, senior running back for Mansfield. Seven carries for 253 yards and three touchdowns gives him now 82 carries for 1,247 yards and 16 touchdowns on the year. And if you do that math real quick, it's about 15 yards of carry over an entire season. That was in a 40:42-8 win over West Fork to secure Mansfield's second outright conference championship in school history in the first since 2010. What a great, great, great performance for the Tigers on Friday night.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Just, I Mean, just a great, great performance Friday. Great year. I mean, this is special year. They'll talk about this one in Mansfield for a long time.
[00:05:51] Speaker C: Absolutely. And then number three on Thursday night, junior quarterback Ryan Allen of Mountainburg had 24 carries for 271 yards and five touchdowns. He was also 8 of 10 passing for 148 yards and another touchdown in a 55 to 28 win at Johnson County West. West side. And even though both teams were eliminated already from the playoffs, a great atmosphere. Senior 9 at Johnson county west side. And just a great game by Ryan Allen going forward.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Yeah, this goes back to what you talked about, Leland, with you know, the end of the year and teams not getting to play again the rest of the year. And those two teams, I mean, what an important game that was. Anyway though neither of them were going to the playoffs but they all, they left it all out there Thursday night and I'm glad you were able to be there for it.
[00:06:44] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. It was just a great atmosphere, you know, small town football on a Thursday night, you know, just a great, great atmosphere and a great place to be and really a great game between two teams that really were playing their last game of the season.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: Leland, do they have artificial turf down there in that game?
[00:07:07] Speaker C: No.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: So that's what I. Man, playing in the mud, what a way to end your season. Maybe your career for some senior, the playing in the mud. So I bet there is fun to watch.
[00:07:20] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. In fact, you can look at the photos we got from the game that Ron Green took and you know, it's, it's very obvious that that game was not played on turf.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: And you know, I can't just.
Ryan Allen did not get, really get to play a full season for Mountainburg. He was injured quite a bit of the year. But man, we get to see him again next year. So I'm excited about that.
[00:07:44] Speaker C: I think he finished with right at 1600 yards rushing in basically eight games because he missed one game and he only played that one quarter against Tackett and he already had 100 yards in that quarter against Tackett before he went out of that game. So he basically played, you know, eight games.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Just a great.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: And of course, you know, he's going to, he's already started basketball. We're going to see him at, you know, he also runs track for Mountain Bird, plays baseball. So we're going to see him again very soon.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Oh, yes.
[00:08:17] Speaker C: And then number four, Carter Little, a junior quarterback for Charleston, threw for 234 yards and four touchdowns on Friday Night and rushed for a touchdown in Charleston's 44 to 13 win against Greenland. Carter Little now is thrown for 2,824 yards this season and 34 touchdowns to pace the Tigers to a, you know, that third seed in a very competitive 3A1 conference.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Another junior too. Watch out for Charleston next year.
[00:08:49] Speaker C: Absolutely. And then number five, AJ Lyons. Jarrell, senior running back for Pecola. He had 20 carries for 198 yards and two touchdowns in Pecola's 26 to 12 win against Haskell in a key game that earned the Indians a home playoff game on Friday night. They finished second in their district and also Lions. Jarrell went over 4,000 career rushing yards in that game.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: That's, that's a lot of yards. That's almost a mile.
So another great rendition of the Gimme 5 for this week and a lot of deserving kids and, you know, several on this list that easily could have made the Gimme 5.
Leland River Valley Sports Report time. Tell us what's happening.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Well, we're going to stay, of course, with football and you know, Mansfield, Boonville and Charleston. That conference has pretty much been decided for the last couple of weeks. Well, on Friday night, all three of them took care of business. No let down at all. Mansfield, Boonville, Charleston cruise to wins on Friday night to secure their top three seeds in the playoffs. And it's going to be really interesting to watch how they do. You know, of course they butted heads with each other. Mansfield went 1 and 2 in non conference after a beefed up non conference schedule.
So that's going to be really exciting to watch. And then how about Fort Smith? Southside went on the road road to win at Siloam Springs on Friday night for their first conference win of the season. I talked to of course coach Kim Dameron today and he said, you know, that's a, just a big lift going into the off season. Coming off that win, that was a.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Tough ball game for a little while. I tuned in on the live stream during the pouring rain and it was 28, 21 and Southside pulled away with a couple late scores.
[00:10:44] Speaker C: Yeah, we knew Silo Springs wouldn't, wouldn't go weekly, you know, in the, in the, you know, last game of the year and it was senior night for them.
So, you know, we knew that was going to be a battle. And then how about north side's Cam Massey? What a show he went out on on his final game as a Grizzly on Friday night in catches for 199 yards and all three of north side's touchdowns in that loss to Springdale.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: Did you go back and look at all 10 of those catches to make sure it was 199 and not 201 or something? Because anytime I see like the 199 or the 99, like one more yard, one more, surely they missed one.
[00:11:27] Speaker C: Well, no, I did not go back and look. He needed about 230 to get to 1,000 yards, which would have been absolute, you know, amazing considering what north side went through this year finding out before the season started that their returning quarterback, you know, wasn't going to play. And then Drew Jackson got the start at quarterback on Friday night for north side.
So he was the third quarterback this year to start a game for the Grizzlies. So it was, it was tough when I'm sure Cam Massey and really, you know, the whole offense when you have three different starting quarterbacks throughout the season.
And then in the 4A4, you know, we had the forfeit a couple of weeks ago by Lamar and Ozark ended up getting that fifth and final seed in a very, very tough 4A4 conference in Oklahoma. O went on the road and won at broken bow 31 to nothing to lock up the fourth and final seed from the 4A4 conference over there. Salisa, even though they lost on Friday, still will be at home on Friday in the playoffs. Salisa Central 1 on Friday night ended up in a three way tie for first and got dropped all the way down to the number three seed. So they'll have to go on the road in the playoffs. And then mentioned earlier, Pecola earned a, you know, a home playoff game on Friday night.
And then in cross country we had just some great performances especially on the girls. We had Emily Defoe of Waldron, Abigail McCarty, Olivia Proto from Mountainburg is a class A state champion. Elizabeth Merit from MA magazine won the class A state championship and then Abigail Harden from Southside and Phoebe Hopper from magazine was right behind Merit in in that classification.
All of them tremendous times, very close to each other and great performances by then them and then fortunate Southside earned the number, finished second in the Class 6A cross country as a team. Rhett Moss had a time of 16:11, the best time of the area. And then Braden Palmer was close behind him and then Evan Smith and Joe Grigg. Griggs had a hand in locking up that number two spot for Southside in the state cross country meet. And all of them will probably or a lot of them will be competing in the Arkansas vs Oklahoma All Star cross country meet in Broken Arrow next week.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: Just a tremendous event. That state cross country meet is it's two days now and just a, it's a great showcase. Henry Apple was there for both days, had some great coverage for us in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette and just really think of a lot of the job he did for us. So great job by all these cross country kids.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: Well, then I forgot, you know, basketball has officially started. There's three classics going on this week in the River Valley. Lamar is hosting, Johnson county, west side has a big one going on and then Clarksville all week long, a couple of those. So basketball has definitely started in the River Valley.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: No doubt about that. We'll be, we'll be getting to some basketball in this area pretty soon too.
But right now we're going to take a little break. As we go to break, we'll leave you with some video footage from the Mountain Home at Greenwood game with a Greenwood 420 win over the Bombers. This is Prep Rally and we're back on the Prep Rally podcast. Graham Thomas and Rick Fires with you from Fayetteville. And Leland Barclay joins us from Fort Smith. And Rick, it's time for top five performances of the week in Northwest Arkansas. Let's hear it.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: You know guys, we always appreciate our sponsors West Termite Pest and Lawn Control. That leads me into our Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette Player of the week, Jacob Critter. Gaylord Yep, the they call him Critter. He's kind of small, 59 compact guy.
In the Gravett game, their leading rusher, Gabe Holmes, who's got about a thousand yards rushing.
Normally Critter is the H back but they put him at the feature back position after Gabe Holmes went out with the stinger on his shoulder and they held him out as a precautionary. The game was closed. But all Critter does, he goes off for about three second half touchdowns and helps them actually leads him to a 3114 victory over Gentry and a big rivalry game over on the west side over here in Washington County. Up in Northwest Arkansas, Gaylord finished with 132 yards rushing on 22 carries. 3 second half touchdown. He also caught a pass for 33 yards and if that wasn't enough, he's also the middle inside linebacker.
Seven tackles, two for loss, two force fumbles. So this is this we hear coaches talk about the next man up mentality. This is exactly what they want. Here's the guy who's the blocking back, doesn't get to carry the ball that much and he just goes off for 132 yards and scores three second half touchdown to help them finish. Gravett finished second in the 4A1 conference. So great job by Critter there.
Our game of the week, the one you covered up there. Bentonville again, they started 003. We knew, we knew not to count Bentonville out because they started off with a great non conference schedule. All they do is they go seven zero in conference play. They win another conference championship. Just a really awful night. A miserable night with the driving rain and. But Bentonville gets it done. They didn't have to pass about that 409 yards on offense on the ground and they won 42:13 over Bentonville West. Bentonville west still hadn't beaten them yet. But a lot of props to Bentonville starting off four and three, coming back out and they're just roaring and into the playoffs. Here's one of my favorite stories is Springdale. They was 2 and 8 last year. They've been down and they win their. They ended three game losing streak by going into Mayo. Thompson State winning 31 to 21 over Fort Smith. Now north side, so they get to host a first round play. They finish seven and three on a year. They're going to be the number four seed from the 7A west and they're going to host Cabot. I mean Cabot's been a great program for many, many years. So man, looking forward to that. That's going to be some good football. And you folks up here, if you don't have kids in high school, come out and watch these kids, man. Man, they're just busting it and that's some really, really good football. Instead of watching some directional school on ESPN on Friday night, get out there and watch these kids go at it. Speaking of going at it, our man Henry Apple made a long trip down there to Hot Springs at the racetrack and on the inside of the race track at Oklahoma park they have the cross country meet. Cross country girls, Lily Beshear from Rogers set a course record to lead Rogers to the Class 6A state championship in Hot Springs. She set a course record 5000 meters, 17 minutes 5.44 seconds. I haven't done it, but I know that's pretty impressive. Rogers wins the second consecutive state championship for the girl, 18th overall. Just a great job by the lady Monty and especially Lily.
Cross country boys, Bentonville wins the state. Bentonville boys win the state championship. But Alan Gallardo Lopez de Fayeva won the individual championship at the 68 meet. He covered the course in 15 minutes, 21.37 seconds. So just great job by our athletes all throughout the region in football and in cross country.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: Man, that's some, that's some good stuff there. We're going to talk some more about the cross country here in a little bit.
You're right, Rick. I mean, the first of all, about Critter. That was a great segue. I didn't know you were going to do that. We do appreciate our sponsor West Termite Pest Lawn. And they need to go visit Critter out there at Gravette.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: They need to go Gentry do some spraying out there because he ran rough shot over them on Friday night.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: All right, that's going to lead us into our Northwest Arkansas report. We're just going to stay on the cross country here for a little bit.
Man, that, you know, you talk about the top, the top four finishes in the girls for Class 6A. You have Rogers, Bentonville, Fayetteville, Bentonville West. I mean, just unbelievable. And you know, Lily Brashears with the state record and that's unbelievable. I mean, and then it was just set just a couple of years ago and now it's, it's been reset. And then, you know, she had her teammate, Samantha Schmershall, I think that's how you say it, right behind her. But she was, you know, Lily was in 1705. The next closest person was a minute and 20 seconds later. I mean, that's an eternity on cross country.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: That's like a secretariat kind of.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: That's not a knock on the second place finish. That's just how great Lily was in that, you know. And on the boys side. Well, actually, I must stay on the girls side because I want to talk about the Bishop sisters from Providence Academy. So Providence Academy, first year in the Triple A, they win the state championship in girls cross country. And it was Gabby Bishop and Maggie Bishop, sisters who finished one and two for Providence Academy within about 10 seconds of each other. So, you know, Elkins did well, Hoss Hall, Fayetteville did well on the girls side on that. And then just, you know, we're not, not intentionally skipping a bunch of athletes here. But I know that the young man from Shiloh Christian, Matthew Thurman, finished the class 4A individual state champion in front of Paxson Chernoda from Gravetta. You know, just a great job by these runners. So. And I just can't say enough about the cross country meeting.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: I mean, you know, this is strong and this is all across. THEY SING Teams from all across the state and Northwest Arkansas has always been a kind of a hotbed for cross country because you know, the mountains and the kids get out there and run and just keep running, running, run. So and they bring home the plaque. So congratulations to everybody in this region with their wins.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: And folks, you can find all these stories on the cross country meet
[email protected] or look on the app in the replica edition in the Friday and Saturday editions. A full page across country both days.
And that leads us kind of into the football for this week. Rick and man, like you talked about, what a great atmosphere it's going to be over at Springdale on Friday night with Cabot visiting. Cabot came up earlier this year and handed Bentonville West a loss. And so you know they're not going to be intimidated or anything like that coming up to Springdale. But again, what a great year it's been for Springdale High. They hit a little rut there with Murderers Row and they had to play Fayetteville, Rogers and Bentonville all in a row. But they got through it and I think they're maybe going to be somewhat healthy going into Friday night. So it should be a really good one at Gerald Williams Bulldog Stadium. And folks, I'm telling you, in terms of how close you are to the action at Gerald Williams, that is the closest you can be in terms of being a fan. I mean it is right on top of the field. Yeah, there's no track going around it and the sidelines are small. But it is an intimate experience over there. Rick, I know you've covered a lot of games.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: I've covered a man I've been around so long. I remember Gerald Williams going up against Mike Malheim for Cabot.
They had some knockdown, drag out brawls.
I'm so glad to see Springdale coming back up against Brett Hobbs. Mr. Bulldog, he was a standout linebacker at Springdale High and then Arkansas Tech and going up against Cabot, which is changed. They don't run the dead tee anymore. They kind of spread it out but they can still run the ball. And to me that's just a top game in Northwest Arkansas on Friday night to start the playoffs.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: As far as local games in this area and in the River Valley, there are a few to choose from. We're going to try and staff every one of them this Friday night. So keep your fingers crossed for us. But like I said, Cabot's at Springdale.
Little Rock Southwest is coming up to play Rogers. Those are Class 7A in Class 5A. BB is at Farmington. Then in Class 4A, Hamburg is at Gravett, Class 3A Paris at Mansfield, Stuttgart at Elkins, Magnet Cove at. I'm sorry, the Elkins game is a 4A game, too. Class 3AMagnet Cove at Boonville, and Class 3AMelbourne at Charleston. So these are all games in this, this area. Now, certainly there's a lot of teams that are having to make road trips on Friday night just to run through those real quick. Bentonville west plays at Little Rock. Christian harbor is at Pulaski Academy. Van Buren is going to Marion. Prairie Grove is at Lonoke. Ozark in Arkadelphia.
Green Forest is heading down to mena. Gentry at DeWitt and then Lavaca at Mayflower, West Fork at Salem. So, you know, there's still a lot of our area teams in this 12 county region still playing football front. That's, that's the fun thing about it. You know, I don't know if you guys remember last year, Leland, but you know, Mansfield, I think their success for this year started on that run they made in the playoffs, all the way to the state semifinals last year.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: Absolutely gave them a big boost, especially getting in that, like I said before, you know, that gave him a big boost in the off season, but especially in that weight room. Boy, once they got in there and they started, you know, they saw that success and then they saw more success in the weight room and they went into the summer confident. And I just, I think it was all part of the success this year.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: No doubt about it. All right, well, we're going to go to break, and as we go to break, we'll show you some video of the state cross country meet that shot by Henry Apple. And he does it all, doesn't he? Man, I'll tell you what, he does some good stuff out there, so enjoy that. And we'll be back. This is Prep Rally.
And welcome back to the Prep Rally podcast, sponsored by West Termite, Pest and Lawn, with a special nod to Jacob Critter Gaylord from Gravett.
And it's time for who you got, our weekly predictions segment and another quick glance at the standings. And I just can't believe this, But Rick fires eight no week.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: What?
[00:28:09] Speaker A: All right, you ain't gone eight no. All year, have you?
Eight no. With a 65. And now you did lose the Conway pick. I will point that out, but that was just a bonus pick, so I didn't count those in the standings earlier one time.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: But Rick is holding a 65 and 23 record, which is two games in front of yours truly, who went seven one, and I believe Leland went six and two. So he's hanging in there at 59 and 29. A few games back, but still a lot of football to play, thank goodness, so.
And we are going to start off who you got this week in the River Valley. So we'll. We'll go to the Melbourne at Charleston game. And, Leland, we'll start with you. Who you got?
[00:28:56] Speaker C: I think Charleston, even though they're the three seed, the Charleston Tigers are not a normal three seed. And even though I think Melbourne's pretty good, not as good as they were a couple of years ago, but I think Charleston rolls in this one because of the. Just the strength of the 3A1.
[00:29:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to agree with you there, Leland. It's hard to pick against Charleston at home and Alumni Field. So give me Charleston. Rick, who you got?
[00:29:21] Speaker B: I think I got to go Charleston. To me, Melbourne sounds like more of a basketball school, I guess, because Scott Boland's over there, used to coach Harbor Boys, but I don't know. I don't think they've had a football program terribly long. But Charleston had. They've won a lot of games, so I got Charleston.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: All right. Our River Valley game of the week this week is a Fun1, featuring two local teams in the playoffs, which is difficult sometimes in the opening ground, but just the way the geography works with Paris at mansfield in class 3A playoffs.
Man, I. And I'll start us off. I just don't think there's any doubt. Mansfield going to take care of business in the opening round. The Fighting 20 Tigers.
Mansfield, Tigers. Rick, who you got?
[00:30:09] Speaker B: I got the weightlifters from Mansfield and Leland. Probably.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: No doubt on this one.
[00:30:14] Speaker C: Well, yeah, there's no doubt. I mean, Mansfield won the conference. There's not going to be a letdown at all. They're at home. A home playoff game for them. Tremendous. I think this is just the 22nd playoff game that Mansfield will ever, you know, has played in its history. But I tell you, Paris is pretty good, too, and they're coming out of a very tough conference, and I think this will be a very competitive game.
You know, Paris has shown some. Some moments this year, and Jeff Weaver will have them ready to go when they roll into Mansfield on Friday night.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: No doubt Coach Weaver will have something special dialed up for them on offense, for sure. We're going to move to Class 4A up in northwest corner of Benton County, Hamburg at Gravett. That's a long trip for Hamburg. Rick, where Is Hamburg okay?
[00:31:01] Speaker B: I worked at the Pine Bluff Commercial newspaper and I had to cover game down at Hamburg, and that was a long trip for me. It's way down there. Southeast Arkansas, not quite the Lake Village, but is a trip. And this is why coaches say, man, you want to pick a finish up in the upper region of your conference so you get to stay at home. That is a dreadful trip for Hamburg. Trying to come all the way diagonally all the way from the far southeast Arkansas. You can't hardly go any further northwest in Arkansas than Gravette. So that's a tough trip for Hamburg. But Gravett's really good, so I'm going to pick Gravette in that one.
[00:31:44] Speaker A: All right, Leland, who you got in this one?
[00:31:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, road trips matter. I. In fact, I've. I've heard that Hamburger is leaving Tuesday afternoon after school to make that trip.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: You need to better leave tomorrow. Yep.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: Yeah, but it's also time for my annual, I guess a little bit of a rant, you know, in the 4A and 3 especially, I think the first round game should be a more regional setup rather than having a team from Hamburg drive all the way to Gravett. You know, you look on this bracket, Ozarks going to have to go to Arkadelphia.
I mean, there's just some terrible first round trips, especially when you get fourth and fifth seeds that have to make those trips for a possible mercy rule game. I just think the first round should be more of a regional matchup and then, you know, change the brackets up like they do every year where it's not the same conferences meeting each other after the first round. But yes, long story short, I do pick Gravett to win this game, even though I know that they don't like me, you know, probably picking them to win. This will be the first time this year I've actually picked them to win.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: Wow. And they're nine and one, so not now. We haven't picked them every week. So I've got Gravett as well. All right, Class 5A BB at Farmington might be an intriguing kind of ball game. Now, Farmington was the number one seed last year and got beat in the opening round. So Leland, who you got in this one?
[00:33:19] Speaker C: Yeah, this is not, you know, that. That was a tough matchup for Farmington. This is not as tough a matchup this year from this, you know, BB is the number four team out of the Central Conference. I think Farmington gets it done. And then after this, then it gets tough for the Cardinals.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: I've got Farmington as well. Rick, who you got?
[00:33:40] Speaker B: I got Farm bb. Aren't they coached by Justin Big?
[00:33:44] Speaker A: They are, yeah. Former Gentry coach.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, former Gentry coach.
He get to come up here and. Sorry, Justin, but Farmington is going to lay it on your fellas.
[00:33:54] Speaker A: All right. Class 6A Van Buren @ Marion. It seems like we've had this one before. Leland Van Buren, no stranger to making that long trip and coming away with a win.
So do you. Do you go Van Buren here? Who you got?
[00:34:10] Speaker C: Well, in the past four years, I believe the west is 131 against the east in the first round the playoffs. Last year, the west went 4, 0, including Van Buren's win as the sixth seed at West Memphis.
And I just think that, you know, defines those two conferences so much.
I did. Look, I was doing conference standings and doing some things over the weekend. And of the 28 conferences in the state, the 6A east was the highest scoring conference in the entire state as a whole, you know, per game. So they love their offense over there. The west loves defense. You know, I got to go for Van Buren for the second year in a row, making a trip all the way across the state and winning a first round playoff game.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: You know, I got to tell us one story real quick. In 2019, when I was covering Silo Springs, the guys and I, we left Silo springs like at 9 or 10 in the morning, drove all the way to Marion.
That's all day.
We did stop at Knicks on the way over and had a nice meal in Carlisle, get to Marion, and the Panthers, I mean, just soundly defeated Marion and had to drive all the way back. And what a long day that was. But it just kind of goes to show you the west has had the upper hand a lot in these opening round games. And that's what that was. It was a Class 6, say, opening round game. That being said, though, and I know.
[00:35:51] Speaker C: Some of the parents, the Van Buren parents have already said they're gonna, you know, go a little early and go to eat some Rendezvous Barbecue.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, right across the river in Memphis. Yeah, absolutely. That being said, though, I'm gonna go Marion the Fighting Chuck Livingston's over there. Give me Marion. Rick, who you got?
[00:36:10] Speaker B: I'm gonna, you know, Northeast Arkansas basketball country. It just is. They got a couple of programs over there, but Marion is a football program. I think Marion's pretty good. And I've got the Patriots. I think the Marion Patriots just outside of Memphis, is going to take down the Pointers and point them back to Western Arkansas. With the loss.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: All right, class 7 8.
Maybe a chance for an offensive shootout in this one. Depends on which Springdale harbor team shows up. Is it the one that fought Rogers or is it the one that, you know, didn't really play well in a loss to Fayetteville last week? So, Leland, who you got in this one? Springdale harbor at Pulaski Academy.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: You know, I've got to go pa. I know it's their. Their first trip into class 7A, but, you know, they've, They've played. They played pretty well in the 7A Central this year, and harbor has been up and down. So, yeah, it might be a. I mean, it might be a 70 to 50 type game, but I do think PA wins.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: That's a unique setting over at PA it's just a little bit different. It kind of tucked away over there in West Little Rock and the stadium is just. It's. You got all these school buildings around it and so. But I'm, I'm going to go with you, Leland. I got Pa to Rick, who you got?
[00:37:28] Speaker B: Even when harbor scored 42 points on Rogers, they gave up 70. So Pa, there's no telling how many points they're going to score in this game. I got PA easily in this game.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: All right, Class 7A Bentonville west at Little Rock Christian. I'll lead us off with this one and just say that, you know, having seen Bentonville West a couple times this year and really had not seen them play well except the one night against Fort Smith Northside where they really got rolling. If they get rolling on offense, they're going to have a chance, and I think they're going to get rolling on offense in this one. So give me Bentonville west to may get an upset at Little Rock Christian on Friday night. Leland, who you got?
[00:38:12] Speaker C: I gotta stick with, you know, the home team again, you know, see. See the PA comments. But Little Rock Christian was also competitive in the 7A Central in their first trip up to the state's largest classification. And I think Little Rock Christian wins this game.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: Rick, who you got?
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Same way. Little Rock Christian.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: All right, and our Northwest Arkansas game of the week is going to be Cabot at Springdale. And you know, it's.
This has all the. All the makings of a slobberknocker. You know, I know Cabot isn't exactly in the dead tee anymore, but they still like to run the football and do. And do a sound job with that.
That being said, I think Springdale is going to be rocking on Friday night. So I'll take the Springdale Bulldogs at home over the Cabot Panthers.
Leland, who you got?
[00:39:10] Speaker C: You know, I still think the Central. You know, last year Bentonville and Fayetteville played for the state championship in the state's largest classification. Both teams from the West. We kind of could see that coming with two veteran quarterbacks guiding those teams. I think the power has shifted again back to the Central. And I think the Central is just that good at. The fifth place team from that conference wins at Springdale on Friday night.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: Wow, what an upset that would be on the road. Well, not, not so much upset. What a great win that would be for Cabot if they were able to get that done. All right, Rick's pick who you got, Rick?
[00:39:46] Speaker B: You know, Cabot came up here and Bentonville west played him tough early in the year. We were there, I was there. And Bentonville west had a chance to win that game, but Cabot pulled it out. And Leland. Exactly right. I'm basically going, I love Springtail, what they've done. But the 78 west has been dominant of late beside last year with favorite winner. So I think the Power Swifts back to the Central and I think Cabot comes up here and wins this game.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: All right, well, I hope. Hope the Red Dogs are watching this podcast and when they find you on Friday night, Rick, they're going to. They're going to come and throw it all in your face after they beat Cabot.
[00:40:23] Speaker B: I'm waiting on them.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: You'll have something for them then, huh? Yeah. All right. Well, folks, that wraps up this week's Prep Rally podcast.
Be sure and check out our playoff preview podcast that we're going to be putting out later this week as well.
You can find them
[email protected] or wherever you get your podcasts. We want to thank our sponsor, West Termite, Pest and Lawn.
And guys, it's playoff time. Let's go. Let's go. For Rick Fires and Leland Barclay, I'm Graham Thomas signing off. We love.
