By Rob Patrick
So, will the Bryant Hornets be battling Cabot, North Little Rock and Russellville for a 7A-Central Conference championship down the stretch or will they be battling Conway and Little Rock Catholic and a couple of the teams in that first group for playoff seeding?
Tonight’s game at Conway will go a long way to determining Bryant’s fate in that regard.
If they beat Conway, they’ll go into games against Cabot and North Little Rock with a chance to lay claim to a title. But a loss to the Wampus Cats and the margin for error the next two weeks would be nil.
(League-leading Cabot (3-0), for example, has only two real tests left, at Bryant on Oct. 23, and at Russellville on Nov. 5. Same for North Little Rock with Bryant on Oct. 30 and Catholic tonight.)
And the Hornets have had their struggles in Faulkner County. In fact, their 17-6 in 2007 was just their second at Conway. The other was in 1999. Bryant lost their 27-22 in 2005 and 37-24 in 2003.[more]
But the Hornets find themselves in much the same position they were in last year, coming off a disappointing loss to Russellville. In 2008, the team regrouped and played one of its best games of the season in whipping Conway 38-7. Can they duplicate that feat?
It will be a different Wampus Cat team. That’s because Clint Ashcraft, who guided a resurgent Siloam Springs team before his move, has taken over for Kenny Smith as Conway’s head coach. Instead of Smith’s winged-T option and trap offense, the Cats run the spread with multi-talented junior Xavier Acklin calling signals. On defense, the Cats no longer work out of a 52, they’ll most often deploy in a 4-4 look.
Though 2-4 on the season, Conway, according to Bryant head coach Paul Calley, has been improving of late. The Cats are coming off a 31-0 win over winless Little Rock Central after playing Russellville tough despite a 19-6 loss.
“It’s been up and down,” Ashcraft said. “We are still struggling to get the right people on the field at the right spots. We’ve made changes to our line-up every week searching for the best fit. Doing what we’re doing now is so different from what they’ve done. You know, an o-lineman in the winged-T may not be the best o-lineman in the spread. So we’ve had to re-evaluate our kids every week and try to get the best guys out there.
“I’d like to think the changes are helping us to improve every week,” he added. “You don’t know that but, as a coach, you’ve got to feel that the changes you’re making are helping.”
Along with Acklin, Ashcraft mentioned wide receiver Tristan Eddings as one of the team’s top threats.
“Xavier’s a good hand and Eddings had five or six catches last week which is by far the most of any receiver we’ve had this season,” Ashcraft related. “He really had a great game.”
On defense, Will linebacker Spencer Noggle is a key playmaker. “He’s one of our senior leaders,” said the coach. “He handles all the checks and talks to our kids and makes sure they get shifted and in the right spots.”
The Wampus Cats have had their share of injuries too, making it difficult to set one line-up.
“We’ve had a shoulder dislocated, a broken pinky, a broken leg,” Ashcraft related. “Our best player, Desmond Cox, is done with an ACL. It’s just been one thing after another injury-wise. I’ve never really gone through something like that. It’s been rough on the team and the coaches.”
Starting noseman Tyler Bacon suffered the broken leg earlier this year, a receiver dislocated his shoulder and a starting linebacker suffered the broken finger which required the placement of a rod in it, preventing him from playing this week.
Bryant is led by senior running back Chris Rycraw who has followed up a school-record 1,500 season with 848 through six games so far this year. His threat sets up the passing game in which senior Jimi Easterling has completed 47 of 81 throws for 692 yards and nine touchdowns. On a wet surface last week, however, Easterling had his toughest outing completing just 7 of 21 throws.
Defensively, the Hornets will make an adjustment tonight with Trey Sowell drawing the start at middle linebacker after leading the team in tackles from the outside. Hunter Mayall, who has been the starting Mike, missed time this week due to illness. Holden Chavis will step into Sowell’s outside spot with Brennan Bullock, coming off a 10-tackle performance against Russellville on the other side.
“Everybody talks about Rycraw and how good he is and I agree with that totally,” Ashcraft noted. “But I tell you the thing that stood out to me is their quarterback and receivers, especially No. 2 (Brandon Parish) and No. 4 (Logan Garland), those guys are pretty good. So it’s not a team you can just load the box up on to stop Rycraw because they can also throw it and beat you.
“Defensively, they’re one of the most aggressive and best we’ve seen at flying to the football,” he added. “They do a great job on defense.”
The best thing for Bryant may be the fast track on the new artificial surface at Conway’s Centennial Bank Field at John McConnell Stadium. Last week, the mud pit that the Bryant Stadium has turned into seemed to hamper the Hornets, particularly on offense where, Calley said after viewing the video of the game, probably cost Rycraw a few breakout runs in which he was one typically quick cut away from leaving everyone behind.
“We had some uncharacteristic mistakes,” he related. “And the field conditions threw our timing off a little bit. Still, we got into position to score and just didn’t get it in the end zone. That’s the frustrating part.
“Hopefully, we can turn the negative of the loss into a positive for us,” he added. “It doesn’t change our goals and it doesn’t end anything for us. We’ll rebound, I think.”
Of Conway, Calley said, “I think they’re much better than their record indicates. They’ve played a tough schedule, they’ve gotten better each week. Their quarterback is dangerous. We’ve seen a lot of those this year and he’s another one.
“Defensively, they’re probably the biggest team we’ve seen up front,” he added. “They make it hard to run the ball. We’re going to have to throw the ball well.”
Calley continued, “It’s difficult to prepare for them because we haven’t seen them and a lot of the game tape we get doesn’t really give us an indication of how they’re going to defend what we do. It’ll be crucial in the first quarter for us to establish ourselves.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” he concluded. “Everybody thinks just because they’re 2-4 we ought to go in and win but that’s not the case. We’ve had some big games over the years and, traditionally, when we got to Conway, we don’t play very well. Hopefully, we got that out of the way Friday night (against Russellville) and that won’t be the case.”
7A-CENTRALCONFERENCE STANDINGS
Conf Ovl
Cabot 3-0 6-0
BRYANT 2-1 5-1
North Little Rock 2-1 4-2
Russellville 2-1 4-1-1
LR Catholic 1-2 4-2
Conway 1-2 2-4
Van Buren 1-2 1-4-1
LR Central 0-3 0-6
Friday, Oct. 16
Bryant at Conway
Little Rock Central at Cabot
North Little Rock at Little Rock Catholic
Van Buren at Russellville
Friday, Oct. 23
Cabot at Bryant
Conway at Van Buren
Little Rock Catholic at Russellville
North Little Rock at Little Rock Central
Friday, Oct. 30
Bryant at North Little Rock
Van Buren at Cabot
Russellville at Conway
Little Rock Catholic at Little Rock Central
Thursday, Nov. 5
Little Rock Central at Bryant
Cabot at Russellville
Conway at Little Rock Catholic
Friday, Nov. 6
North Little Rock at Van Buren
