Shiloh Christian rallies by Arkadelphia
CLASS 4A SEMIFINALS SHILOH CHRISTIAN 57, ARKADELPHIA 54
SPRINGDALE — Ben Baker has had his share of big plays during his career at Shiloh Christian. He may have saved his biggest for his final game at Champions Stadium.
Baker rushed for five touchdowns, the last with 1 minute, 47 seconds left, to lift the Saints to a 57-54 win against Arkadelphia in a Class 4A state semifinal in one for the ages in Arkansas prep football.
In a game that was as backand-forth as tug-o-war, Shiloh Christian (13-1) overcame multiple deficits to punch its ticket back to the state championship game for the third straight year. The Saints will take on Joe T. Robinson at 6:30 p.m. next Saturday in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
“Going into this game, I was just asking to be calm,” said Shiloh Christian Coach Jeff Conaway about keeping his team focused despite multiple lead changes for both teams. “That was a very emotional game. It was back and forth, just a great high school football game. It was a classic. It was a slugfest. Just so much respect for the way Arkadelphia played. There were so many opportunities for both teams to maybe give up.
“The momentum just kept going back and forth. We’re proud to come out of this with a victory.”
The big plays in the game were numerous for both teams. Seemingly every time one team scored, the other responded with a scoring drive to retake the lead. With just over six minutes left, Arkadelphia (10-4) trailed 49-48 after Baker scored his fourth rushing touchdown to give the Saints back the lead.
Starting at their own 20, Badgers quarterback Donovan Whitten led his them down the field. With star running back Jaishon Davis sidelined with a leg injury, Whitten used his legs and his arm on the march.
Arkadelphia moved to the Shiloh Christian 39 and was facing fourth and 9 with 2:38 left. After a timeout, Whitten escaped a heavy rush and found Tripp Campbell for 30 yards down the left sideline, and three plays later Whitten hit Campbell again for the goahead score with 2:19 left.
“We were just trying to make a play, just get where we needed to be,” said Whitten of the fourth-down pass. “My guy made a play to keep the drive going.”
That left plenty of time for the Saints and Baker. The Shiloh Christian senior carried the ball three straight plays on runs of 18, 15 and 21, the last for the final touchdown of the night. Saints quarterback Eli Wisdom ran in the two-point conversion to make it a three-point game at 57-54 with 1:47 left.
“We thought maybe we scored too quickly,” said Conaway. “We felt like we had some advantages with Ben running the ball, and he exploited them. That’s what a running back should do.”
Baker finished with 207 yards on 23 carries. He also caught 5 passes for 26 yards, returned a kickoff and played the entire game on defense.
“Kudos to him for playing both ways and on all three phases of the game,” said Conaway. “He played a lot of snaps tonight and finished that fourth quarter as well as I’ve ever seen him finish.”
Both teams scored on their first three possessions of the game before Shiloh Christian finally finally found a way to slow down the Badgers’ offense when Davis was injured in the second quarter. The Saints took their first lead of the game at 28-21 when Bo Williams raced 69 yards for a score with 7:47 left in the first half.
The Saints saw that lead evaporate in the final 2:17 of the half when Badger cornerback Latonnieo Hughes stepped in front of a Wisdom pass and returned the interception 35 yards to tie the game at 28-28.
Another Wisdom interception led to the Badgers taking a 35-28 halftime lead when Ollie Ware pulled in the pass at the Saints’ 23. Three plays later Davis, who came back for a few plays after the injury, raced in from the 15.
Shiloh Christian answered to start the second half, but it took some heroics from Jacob Solomon to do it. The Saints drove 80 yards in 11 plays, but it was a huge 33-yard pass from Wisdom to Solomon, who got behind the Badgers’ defense on third and 17. Solomon was tackled at the one and Baker scored on the next play.
Arkadelphia led 41-35, 4842 and 54-49 but could not hold off the Saints at the end.
“I can’t say enough about our seniors,” said Badgers Coach Trey Schucker. “They have been great leaders for us. We’ve had a great season. Not the way we wanted to end it, but I just loved our fight. This was a great football game. Hat’s off to Shiloh. They’re a great football team and that called a great game. It was just a dogfight and that’s the way it should be in the semifinals.”
JOE T. ROBINSON 43, WARREN 13
WARREN — Joe T. Robinson scored touchdowns on six of its first seven possessions, invoking the Arkansas Activities Association sportsmanship rule early in the third quarter of a victory over Warren at Jim Hurley Stadium.
It was the fourth time in four weeks the Senators (13-1) have built a 35-point lead to require a running clock on their road to next Saturday’s state championship game at War Memorial Stadium.
Coach Todd Eskola took out the Senators starters after the mercy rule was invoked with 10:38 to play in the third quarter after an 18-yard touchdown pass from Jack Cleveland to KJ Owens, their fourth touchdown connection of the game.
Robinson led 36-7 at halftime, and wasted no time in ensuring a running clock with a 4-play 82-yard drive, the big play coming on a 64-yard run by Daryl Searcy.
“I believe in our kids and they believe in each other,” Eskola said. “If we take care of the football, we’ve said for weeks we think we’re a pretty good football team.
“So as long as we don’t turn it over, we feel we can play with and beat anybody. And the kids are playing at a high level right now.”
Warren scored a touchdown with 6:24 to go in the fourth quarter against the Robinson reserves to make the final score.
Robinson scored touchdowns on their first five possessions of the first half before taking a knee on their final possession.
Cleveland was in the middle of all the scoring, throwing four touchdown passes to Owens — good for 20, 27, 50 and 18 yards.
“We spread the ball around, but he caught the touchdowns,” Eskola said of Owens.
Cleveland also ran for two touchdowns— on runs of 28 yards and 1 yard — and ran for a two-point conversion.
“Those are just option reads that we’ve had in,” Eskola said. “A lot of our stuff is post-snap. So the kids are doing a better and better job of reading things.”
Cleveland’s biggest run was a 50-yard play that set up his 1-yard run in the first quarter.
Warren made it a 22-7 game on the first play of the second quarter, scoring on a 20-yard run by Cedric Calbert to complete an 11-play, 79-yard scoring drive that consumed 3:56.
That was Warren’s only highlight. Robinson answered Warren’s score with another of its own — coming on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Cleveland to Owens, his second TD pass reception of the game.
It was 29-7 at the 11:13 mark of the second quarter.
Robinson jumped out to a 22-0 in the first 8:11 of the first quarter.
“That was a very emotional game. It was back and forth, just a great high school football game. It was a classic. It was a slugfest. ... The momentum just kept going back and forth. We’re proud to come out of this with a victory.” Shiloh Christian Coach Jeff Conaway