By Rob Patrick
There may be no one that actually knows for certain how the seeding for the State playoffs in the 7A-Central Conference is going to shake out after this week. The power rating system that the Arkansas Activities Association put into effect this season has been left ambiguous in several ways and confusion is rampant.
Is there a new tiebreaking procedure that employs the ratings or is the old one, based on winning margins, still operative? Or is a combination of the two to be used?
It seems that everyone has conceded that, if Bryant, Conway and Cabot, finished tied for first in the 7A (mostly)/6A Central at 6-1 after tonight, only one of them will get a first-round bye in the playoffs because of the insertion into the mix of West Memphis from the 7A/6A (mostly) East. The Blue Devils have rolled through their regular-season league unbeaten (assuming the expected win over Little Rock Parkview tonight).[more]
It may actually be Saturday night or Sunday when the AAA officially announced the pairings for the first round of the playoffs, which begin Friday, Nov. 12, that anyone in the 7A (and 6A for that matter) will know precisely who they’ll be playing.
And to top that off, a lawsuit has been filed by Van Buren, a 6A team in the 7A/6A-Central Conference set to compete in the 6A playoffs, which could effect the whole post-season.
So, with all that in play, the Bryant Hornets will try to concentrate on the one thing they have some control over. They’ll get after the Central Tigers tonight at Quigley Field in an effort to retain their share of a conference championship.
And from there, let the chips fall where they may.
The Tigers come into the game as a bit of a surprise candidate for the sixth and final slot in the playoffs from the Central after they edged Little Rock Catholic 23-20 last week for their second win this season. Little Rock Hall, another 7A member of the East conference, could complicate the picture with an upset win over Jonesboro but they are heavy underdogs.
The Tigers, in their first year under Ellis “Scooter” Register, who’s been known to resurrect a program or two over the years, snapped a losing streak of over 20 games when they edged Russellville earlier this season.
“Central’s gotten better every game,” stated Bryant coach Paul Calley. “Defensively, they’re big up front. They’ve got three really good linebackers. They run a lot of cover-three and man. I think they’re going to load the box up and dare us to throw the ball.
“There’s some things we can do, I think, in the run game,” he mentioned. “It’s going to depend on how they play. They’ve shown a lot of different looks on defense so we don’t know exactly what we’re going to get. That’s why I’ve remade my play sheet about five or six times.
“But I think we’re prepared for everything,” the coach continued. “The bottom like is, we’ve got to be more physical up front than they are. And block their middle linebacker. (Brian) Anderson is really good and (Larry) Wilbourn is really good (at linebacker). Their secondary can run.”
Speaking of the Tigers’ offense, Bryant defensive coordinator Steve Griffith agreed, “Central’s improved greatly. You knew they would with Coach Register being over there. It was going to take a while to get his system in place and get the discipline brought to the team this year that he’s going to bring.
“They’ve got a good quarterback that does a good job throwing the football,” he added. “He’s very dangerous in the fact that he scrambles and probably throws the ball better on the run than he does sitting in the pocket. That presents problems to us.
“They use a variety of kids at running back, fullback, receiver but all of them, you know, they’ve got some very good athletes so our big challenge is going to be to try to contain the big play and make them earn their way down the field,” Griffith concluded.
The Hornets are still heeling from a mid-season battle with injuries. Senior defensive end Ben Seale and junior running back Karon Dismuke are among those that may be able to contribute this week but the Hornets’ 28-21 win over North Little Rock took its toll too.
In further assessing that game, Calley said, “Thank God for field position and special teams. We didn’t do a lot offensively. We didn’t have time to throw the ball, didn’t dominate the line of scrimmage. North Little Rock had a lot of young defensive linemen and they beat us up front.
“We scored when we had to and that’s good but we couldn’t establish a long drive,” he noted. “Right at the end, we had a long drive and took a lot of time off the clock. I think that helped us. But we were down there in a situation where, if we get one more first down, the game’s over. Hopefully, we would’ve kicked a field goal to ice it but we ended up losing yards twice on plays we shouldn’t lose yards on if we’re alert and do what we’re supposed to do. But, overall, it was a great effort.”
Griffith said viewing the video of the game, “verified that we didn’t start out very well (on defense) but we played much better in the second half. We had guys that got used to the speed of the game, guys that had to come in in substitution roles and it took them a series or two to get their feet wet. But once they did, they came on and played well. And they’re going to have to play well again this week. We’ve still got some guys banged up. Some of the guys that stepped in last week will have to play from the very first. Hopefully, with a week of practice in which they’re getting all the reps, that’ll help their confidence. We expect them to play well.”
BRYANT HORNETS STATS
Unofficial 2010 stats through 9 games
Score by quarters
Opponent 35 41 47 30 7 3 — 163
BRYANT 84 94 79 31 7 7 — 290
Team stats
Oppt. Bryant
First downs 146 157
Rushes-yds 315-1427 333-1708
Passing 123-223-11 88-138-4
Passing yards 1379 1256
Fumbles-lost 18-7 13-5
Penalties-yds 65-556 41-371
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing: Clark 111-702, Dismuke 63-514, J.Powell 47-198, Pritchett 28-149, J.Bell 24-105, Tolbert 2-51, Harris 4-9, Hampton 1-5, Henson 3-0, Davidson 2-0, Smith 1-(-2), Lessenberry 45-(-5)
Passing (C-A-I-Y): Lessenberry 79-116-3-1038 (6 TDs), Davidson 10-20-1-218 (4 TDs), Dismuke 0-2-0-0.
Receiving: Nichols 28-511, Winfrey 19-258, Garrett 12-106, Clark 10-113, Elmore 6-68, Daniel 4-46, J.Bell 3-38, Tolbert 2-47, Hampton 1-14, Pritchett 1-10, Dismuke 1-0.
Scoring: Clark 60 (9 td-r, 1 td-rec), Denker 46 (31 of 33 conv., 5 fg {20, 35, 32, 44, 19}), Lessenberry 36 (6 td-r), Dismuke 30 (5 td-r), Winfrey 24 (3 td-rec, 1 ko return), Tolbert 18 (1 td-r, 2 td-rec), Powell 18 (3 td-r), Nichols 18 (3 td-rec), J.Bell 12 (1 td-r, 1 td-rec), Pritchett 6 (1 td-r), Hampton 6 (1 td-r), Harris 6 (1 td-fumble rec), Mayall 6 (1 td-int.ret), Lowery 4 (4 of 4 conv.)
