The high school football playoffs may be out of reach, but Jefferson County supremacy will be on the line Thursday night.
White Hall will host Pine Bluff in both teams’ final game of the season at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bulldog Stadium.
Both own wins over Watson Chapel, giving the winner of this game outright bragging rights for the offseason.
White Hall Coach Daryl Patton said it can be hard to motivate the players for the last game of the season when the playoffs are out of reach, so ending with this matchup gives them a reason to still play hard.
“To have a rivalry game or a big team across town that you can play, it’s huge,” Patton said. “We’ve not ever beat Pine Bluff here at the school, and it would mean the world to come out and play our best game and compete and fight and scratch and claw and find a way to win the ball game against Pine Bluff, break that streak we’ve had.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Pine Bluff (2-7, 2-4 in 5A-Central) hasn’t lost to a Jefferson County opponent since 2019 and has won three straight against the Bulldogs since joining the 5A-Central Conference in 2022.
White Hall (1-8, 1-5) defeated Watson Chapel 32-28 three weeks ago but hasn’t had much luck otherwise this year.
The Bulldogs will honor their seniors Thursday during their final home game. Pine Bluff held senior night earlier in the year, but this will nonetheless be the final high school football game for the Zebra seniors, too.
Patton said he and his staff have been preaching to their players to play hard and try to end the season the right way.
“We’ve got 14 seniors that have donned the black and white with red trim jerseys,” Patton said. “They’re Bulldogs. It’s not been our season. It’s not gone the way we wanted it to, but to go out as the Jefferson County champs, that’d mean the world to us. It’s a good sounding board to get us going into the offseason, get ready for next year.”
Pine Bluff’s seniors include defensive lineman Emmanuel Hudson, who leads a defensive front the Bulldogs will need to contend with.
Earlier in the season, White Hall relied more on its passing game, led by senior quarterback Wyatt Golden. In the back half of year, the Bulldogs have leaned more on the running attack, which includes senior running back Xavier Wallace.
White Hall rushed for 220 yards in its lone with against Watson Chapel, but Hudson’s group has been good against the run and will challenge the Bulldogs.
Patton said the Bulldogs had too many negative plays when they played Pine Bluff last year, and they need to avoid those this year against what he called a physical and sound defense.
“We’ve got to not hurt ourselves with penalties,” Patton said. “We’ve got to have no mental mistakes, come off the ball hard. We’ve got to hit things quick. Backs have got to do a good job reading the blocks. If we do that … in any game, not just this week, you should have a lot of positive yardage plays, not negative yardage plays.”
This will be the second straight season and third in the last four years no Jefferson County team participates in the playoffs. Pine Bluff was the last team to qualify when the Zebras won the 5A-Central and reached the state semifinals in 2023.
Joe T. Robinson, Searcy, Maumelle and Beebe will be the conference’s playoff teams.
Watson Chapel at Jacksonville
Watson Chapel will wrap up its season on Thursday at Jacksonville at 7 p.m.
Jacksonville (3-6, 1-5 in 5A-Central) earned its first conference win in two seasons last week with a 49-8 home victory against White Hall.
Watson Chapel (0-9, 0-6) beat the Titans in Pine Bluff last year for its lone conference win but will face an improved Jacksonville team in Pulaski County this time.
The Wildcat defense will need to handle a Titan offense that has found its rhythm in recent weeks. Jacksonville managed 20 points combined in its first two conference games but has scored 27 or more in each game since. Each of the past four games, the Titans have scored more points than the prior week. The Wildcats haven’t held any team below 32 points.
Watson Chapel has 12 seniors but has largely played underclassmen who will return with more experience next season.
