With the threat of tropical depression Isaac looming, Little Rock Hall did not want to take a chance on the storm tearing up its grass field on the first Friday night of the high school football season, according to Sheridan coach Louis Campbell.
So, the scene of battle is now Hall’s rival home, Little Rock Central’s Quigley Stadium. Sheridan and Hall will kick off there at 7 tonight.
Youth is a big theme for Sheridan, a 6-6 playoff team last season that has only returned one defensive and four offensive starters. Campbell is hoping the theme won’t turn into a negative factor against the Warriors.
“We’ve got five or six sophomores starting, so progress comes slowly with inexperience,” said Campbell, who starts his third season at the Yellowjackets’ helm tonight. “We didn’t play well at all in the benefit game (against Vilonia), but we had good practices since then.”
Sheridan was held to one touchdown and allowed “thirty-something” points against Vilonia, Campbell said. But he thinks the returning offensive starters — quarterback Dylan Flores, running back Braden Lunday, guard Ryan Taylor and tackle John Strange — will make a big difference in the unit.
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“They have to bring us along offensively,” Campbell said.
He added the Yellowjackets’ keys for tonight are executing and “doing what we’re supposed to do” on offense and containing Hall’s skill players on defense, noting that the Warriors have excellent speed at the tailback and wide receiver spots.
Hall is coming off a 2-8 season including a 0-7 mark in the 7A/6A-Central conference.
Dumas at Mayflower
If the weather is what Dumas coach Mark Courtney thinks it’ll be, he won’t throw the ball much, if at all, against Mayflower in the storm.
“They’re going to throw it more than I will,” Courtney said. “I’d rather hand it off with the ball wet.”
He added Mayflower, of the 2-3A Conference, runs a spread offense and is heavy on the throw. Having seen so much passing during 7-on-7 camps in the summer, the Bobcats are ready to defend against it, Courtney said.
“The big concern is they run so many sets on offense, if we can line up to the sets that they run, we’ll be fine,” Courtney said.
With only nine returning starters, the Bobcats will need a better showing than they had in their jamboree with Barton and Mineral Springs at England.
“Our benefit game showed us how young we were,” Courtney said. “We made a lot of mistakes.”
Star City at Lonoke
Seven starters total have returned for Star City, which graduated 26 from its 7-4 team of 2011. So every game this season is viewed as an opportunity for this year’s Bulldogs to shine.
“We don’t look at what we lost, we concentrate on what we got,” Star City coach Blair Brown said.
Brown wouldn’t single out any one player when asked who made the biggest strides, but he said his offensive line is one of the Bulldogs’ strongest points. The group could see plenty of time on the field if the offense can maintain possession, which Brown said is key against the Jackrabbits.
“The hardest thing to do is sustain drives,” Brown said. “It seems like the weather is deteriorating, so the key is to handle it. It’s all a matter of your attitude.”
Defensively, the Bulldogs look to slow down who Brown called one of the best running backs his team will see all year — senior Eric Williams, who nearly had a 1,000-yard rushing season last year. Lonoke looks to rebound from a 3-8 season that saw it squeak into the 4A playoffs.
Star City won last year’s meeting 21-7 at Golden Lion Stadium.
Drew Central at Hampton
Drew Central finished 0-10 last season, so that can only mean one thing — the desire to win is huge.
“We’re real anxious to play and improve on last year,” second-year coach James White said. “We’re ready to go down there and see what we can do.”
The Pirates will start off with 27 players, 11 more than what they finished with last season. A third of their team is comprised of seniors, and some of their newcomers did not play last year.
But already they have suffered a key loss: Senior running back Gabriel Suber, the Pirates’ leading returning rusher, twisted his ankle in a scrimmage against DeWitt and will miss tonight’s game. He could return next Friday.
“We’ve got a senior, DeAndre Miller, and he’s a little bit faster, so we feel comfortable going in,” White said.
But offensively he wants the Pirates to spread out the Bulldogs’ defense and throw the football.
The weather had an effect on Drew Central’s junior high game scheduled for Thursday. The home game against Warren will be made up Sept. 10.
Woodlawn at Des Arc
Due to threats of Isaac, the KABZ-FM 103.7 “Sonic Blast” pregame activities scheduled prior to the game have been cancelled, but the game is still slated to go on as scheduled.
Woodlawn coach Ray Sessions could not be reached Thursday.
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The Monticello at Fordyce junior high game has been rescheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, according to the Arkansas Activities Association.