A Jefferson County team will win its first game of the season Friday night during a meeting of cross-county rivals.
Watson Chapel will host White Hall for homecoming at Wildcat Stadium at 7 p.m.
Watson Chapel (0-6, 0-3 in 5A-Central) coach Steven Heard said bragging rights are on the line when these teams meet, but its his job to keep the Wildcats focused.
“It’s really just business as usual,” Heard said. “You gotta keep the boys focused off the extra things, as in the going back and forth on social media and what have you. It’s just going out and trying to put the best product on the field.”
This game always means something to both sides, but that may be especially true this year with both teams entering this matchup without a win.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
This has been an unusually tough year for White Hall (0-6, 0-3). The Bulldogs hadn’t started a season 0-6 since 2015, when they finished 0-10. Since then, they have had five seasons in which they finished with fewer than six losses, though their most recent winning season was the 2021 state runner-up campaign in which they finished 11-3.
White Hall coach Daryl Patton said this is a big game for both schools.
“A victory kind of lets everybody know, hey, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Patton said. “If you don’t win, you’re staring possibly at the chance of not winning a game, and that’s tough. Both teams are going to play hard. They’re going to get after it. It’s going to be a highly contested game.”
Each team has played a difficult schedule thus far. Both teams have played Joe T. Robinson and Searcy, the two highest ranked teams in 5A Central. The Wildcats also played Maumelle, which joins Robinson and Searcy in a three-way tie for first place at 3-0. The Bulldogs’ other opponent, Beebe, is 2-1 and sits in fourth.
Both were shutout at home last week: Watson Chapel by Maumelle, and White Hall by Robinson. It was the first shutout this season for the Bulldogs but the third for the Wildcats.
Patton said both teams will enter this rivalry game feeling like they have a chance to finally get a victory, but whichever team can keep its emotions in check will win the game.
“We talk about it every day,” Patton said. “Last year, we know what happened. At the end of the game, we had the brawl, and a lot of kids got suspended. We’ve talked to our kids about how to act and how to play and how to respond to adversity. That’s not the way we want to play football. We’re going to go over there and try to play with a lot of class and play hard and play with some enthusiasm and emotion, but at the end of the day, do it the right way.”
Watson Chapel will celebrate homecoming on Friday, but this game will also be the final home game for the Wildcats this season. Their final three games will be on the road, though they will remain in town next week to play Pine Bluff.
The Wildcats haven’t beaten White Hall since a 21-20 victory in 2017 at Watson Chapel. That was the final piece of a four-game Watson Chapel winning streak in the series. White Hall has since won seven-straight games against the Wildcats.
Heard said it would mean everything to Watson Chapel to end the losing streak.
“We’re trying to get the Watson Chapel Wildcats back to where they used to be,” Heard said. “It would mean a lot. We did last year, we broke the losing streak of conference home games. We got our first conference win at the end of the season last year, and it’s all about progressing and moving forward for us. It would mean a lot for my seniors to come out with a victory for homecoming against White Hall.”
Watson Chapel’s last win against any Jefferson County school was a 2019 home win against Pine Bluff.
This will be the first of three matchups between the three Jefferson County schools this season. Pine Bluff will host Watson Chapel next week, and White Hall will host Pine Bluff during the final week of the regular season.