It didn’t take Warren Coach Bo Hembree long to recall when the Lumberjacks previously met the Prairie Grove Tigers in the 4A state football playoffs.
The answer: 2016 and 2017. Warren won the 2016 matchup in the semifinal round, en route to the school’s fourth state championship, and the 2017 rematch in the quarterfinal round while on the way to a runner-up finish.
Maybe it’s a good omen for the Lumberjacks (9-3), who will host the Tigers (7-5) at 7 p.m. Friday in a battle of No. 3 seeds. Warren won home-field advantage due to being on the top slot of the matchup in the official playoff bracket.
Warren survived the second round last Friday, beating Gosnell 44-42. Junior Jackson Denton threw for 403 yards and 5 touchdowns against Gosnell, but the Lumberjacks had to overcome turnovers that helped turn a seemingly runaway victory into a nailbiter.
“I’ve said it all year, that this team is fun to coach,” Hembree said. “They may not be as talented as the ones we’ve had in the past, but they’re really fun to coach and they play extremely hard. They come to work every day. We’ve still not played our best football. We do in spots, but we’re very inconsistent, so if we can ever get it where we can play our best football all the time, we can be a strong football team. We’re still working on us a little bit, and that’s sad to say in Week 13, but we are.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Prairie Grove, which has won its last four, started the season in adversity of its own with three straight losses (Sequoyah of Tahlequah, Okla.; Farmington; and Coweta, Okla.). The Tigers have impressed on the road in their two previous playoff games, beating Heber Springs 34-14 and Pocahontas 27-20.
“They run the Wing-T. They’re fast and physical with two really big running backs,” Hembree said. “They do a really good job of trying to play ball possession and keep the ball away from you. That’s something we need to keep from happening. We need to come out and score and take advantage of every possession. We can’t have the turnovers like we did last week in the second half.”
Should Warren beat Prairie Grove a third time and Monticello win at Dardanelle, the Lumberjacks will be at home again to renew a next-door Conference 4A-8 rivalry with the Billies next Friday. But Hembree, who last took the Lumberjacks to a state final in 2017, said he isn’t thinking about that possibility just yet.
“We’ve got our hands full,” Hembree said.
Redbugs save gas
Fordyce will host Mayflower for its 3A quarterfinal at Paul “Bear” Bryant Stadium at 7 p.m. Friday, but the Redbugs almost took a short road trip just to practice Tuesday.
Fordyce Coach Tim Rodgers had planned for the team to work out on Watson Chapel’s artificial turf when the sunshine dried up the Redbugs’ practice field enough to keep them home. Despite school being out for Thanksgiving week, the Redbugs have continued to practice in the afternoons to allow players and staff to “sleep in,” Rodgers said.
The Conference 3A-8 champion Redbugs (11-1), who made the semifinal round last year, are still in the championship hunt after holding off Charleston 36-35 in overtime last Friday. Fordyce needed all of junior Micah Gamble’s 247 yards and 3 touchdowns to hold off the Tigers.
“Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good,” Rodgers said. “We had four turnovers Friday night against Charleston and still won the ballgame.”
Two of the turnovers were interceptions and the others were fumbled snaps — one at the Charleston 5 and another at the Fordyce 30, Rodgers recalled.
“One good thing about it was, our defense stepped up and stopped them three or four times when we were down and kept us in the ballgame,” Rodgers said. “We got to overtime and we ended up scoring at the end to win it.”
The Redbugs have identified their key playmakers to rely on especially in the close calls this season, including junior wideout Jamartez Stroud, senior wideout Jamarcus Cranford and Gamble.
Mayflower is the No. 2 seed from Conference 3A-2, with a 12-7 loss at Salem on Oct. 31 the lone loss. Each of the Eagles’ wins except a 3-0 win at England on Sept. 12 have been decisive, with the smallest margin of victory being 27-6 over Atkins on Nov. 6.
“They are big, good, fast all the way around, and we’re trying to find some weakness on defense,” Rodgers said of Mayflower. “Whoever makes the least amount of mistakes is probably going to win this game.”
Friday: The Stuttgart Ricebirds are still unbeaten in their championship chase.