Southeast Arkansas football teams make up half of this year’s Class 4A final four.
Stuttgart and Warren will each play in state semifinals games this Friday at 7 p.m. as they seek a trip to Little Rock next week. The Ricebirds will host Elkins, while the Lumberjacks will travel to Dardanelle.
Stuttgart head Coach Josh Price said having two southeast Arkansas teams from Conference 4A-8 in the semifinals shows how deep the conference was this year.
“That just tells you how heated our conference race was throughout the course of the season,” Price said. “A lot good football players in the 8-4A. Hamburg got a tough draw, had to go to Dardanelle round two, or they’re probably in the mix of the finals.”
Stuttgart (12-0) won the 4A-8 championship this year with an undefeated regular season which included a 59-55 win against Warren (10-3). The Lumberjacks finished third, their first time failing to win a conference title since 2020.
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Two 4A-8 teams reaching the semifinals is just the latest show of the conference’s depth in these playoffs.
Helena-West Helena Central finished fifth in the conference but took perennial powerhouse Mills, the 4A-2 champion, to the limit in the opening round before falling 40-38. The other four playoff teams all reached the second round, while three reached the third round.
Entering the semifinals, the conference holds an 8-3 record this postseason.
Warren Coach Bo Hembree said the playoff performances show this has been one of the best seasons of Class 4A football in southeast Arkansas in a long time.
“I’ve been here 26 years as the head football coach, and this is by far the toughest it’s been,” Hembree said. “I think that gets you playoff ready. I don’t think anybody knows how good each conference is until you get to the playoffs, and I think this year’s proven that our conference is a lot better than it has been.”
Warren’s opponent this week, Dardanelle (13-0), has been 4A-8’s kryptonite this postseason. The Sand Lizards knocked off Hamburg, the league’s runner-up, 35-34 in the second round before dispatching fourth-placed Monticello 35-14 last week.
Dardanelle was also the only team so far this season to beat Stuttgart’s semifinal opponent, Elkins (12-1). The Sand Lizards beat the Elks 14-10 in a nonconference matchup in September.
That game is the only one this season in which the Sand Lizards scored fewer than 26 points. Dardanelle has scored 56 or more three times, including in their first round win against Malvern.
Defensively, the Sand Lizards have four shutouts this season. Hamburg’s 34 points are the most any team has managed against Dardanelle.
Warren has been on a scoring tear, scoring 42 or more points in each of its past eight games, but Hembree said the Lumberjacks need to be more consistent on offense against this defense.
“There’s times where we look really good and we can put some points up, and there’s some times when we don’t look as good, and we don’t put as many points up,” Hembree said. “Our biggest thing on that side of the ball is being consistent and don’t turn the ball over and just find ways to get our playmakers the ball.”
Elkins won the 4A-1 championship and played each of its first three playoff games at home after finishing the regular season with a home game. Friday’s semifinal in Stuttgart will be Elkins’ first road game since Halloween.
Stuttgart’s offense hasn’t been held below 42 points since the season opener against Lonoke and is averaging 50 points per playoff game so far, but the Ricebirds will face a stiff test this week.
The 21 points Batesville Southside scored against Elkins in the second round were the most any team has scored against the Elks this season.
Gravette, which scored 16, was the only other team to surpass 14.
Elkins was the state runner-up last season and is coming off its fourth straight conference title. The Elks have much more playoff experience than the Ricebirds, who missed the playoffs last season.
Price said the Ricebirds must have confidence in their own talent against this veteran opponent.
“It’s that ‘us against the world’ mentality,” Price said. “Everybody’s picking Elkins to come in here and beat us, and that should put a little chip on our kids’ shoulder. They got a long bus trip. They gotta come to us, and we usually serve fairly well at home. We need to play our best football and try to punch our ticket to Little Rock.”
The winners of these two semifinal games will meet in the Class 4A championship at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 13 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.