Parkers Chapel to face Mountainburg
Two weeks ago, Parkers Chapel extended their streak of reaching the playoffs to six consecutive years by winning at Strong.
Now the Trojans hope to end another streak.
In 2010, Parkers Chapel earned their first-ever win in the postseason.
Since then, the Trojans have been eliminated five straight times in the opening round.
Tonight, Parkers
Chapel aims to put an end to their first-round drought when they travel to Mountainburg in the opening round of the 2A playoffs.
Game time is set for 7 p.m.
The Trojans (2-7) are the 8-2A’s No. 5 seed, while the Dragons (7-2) are the 4-2A’s No. 2 seed after their six-game winning streak was snapped at Hector last week in a game that decided the conference title.
The Dragons sport one of 2A’s most potent offenses.
Until last week, Mountainburg’s lowest point total of the season was 29, and the offense they run is similar to the one Parkers Chapel coach Jacob Midyett ran when he was the Trojans’ quarterback.
“They run a variation of the spin offense that we ran back in (Stan) Sims’ days,” Midyett said. “There’s a lot of motion, a lot of counters, fake handoffs and handoffs, so there’s a real big emphasis on reading our keys this week. If you get caught up watching the window dressing, you’ll get busted big.”
Midyett added that the Dragons’ version differs from the one he ran.
“With us, it was almost like a flexbone-type deal with a fullback beside the quarterback,” Midyett said. “They get into a lot of funky stuff. They’ll go almost with two wingbacks on one side, and there’s a lot of empty stuff where the fullback
for us was beside me or kind of in front of me. It’s all over the place.”
The Dragons have had terrific balance in the backfield with four players tallying over 450 yards rushing with senior Austin Taylor leading the team with 894 yards and 13 touchdowns while averaging over 10 yards per carry.
“Our offensive system involves four backs with one of them being the quarterback,” Mountainburg coach Tom Harrell said. “It’s hard to tell week to week who is going to be the one that is going to get the most carries or be the most successful.
“It depends on what the defense does. Throughout the year, I think each one of them has had that night where it was theirs where the defense was keying on one particular aspect and leaving the other one to be more successful. That’s just the way we operate. They’re all going to carry the ball somewhere between seven to 15 times a game most of the time.”
Against Hector, Taylor had a season-high 17 carries, finishing with 117 yards for his sixth game of 100-plus yards this season, but Harrell said each of the running backs has their own attributes.
“We’ve got two that are really quick and fast and one that is just a big bruiser, but he can break away, too. He’s gone 70 yards a couple of times this year,” Harrell said. “The quarterback is more of a shifty type. Austin Taylor is probably the fastest kid I’ve coached. When he gets a crease, he can go.”
Malachi West, a senior, has 685 yards and five touchdowns while averaging over eight yards per carry, and Midyett was impressed with what he saw on film of him.
“They really do a good job of spreading the ball around,” Midyett said. “They have one bigger one (West). He seems to be their lead guy and they do a lot of stuff for him and he seems to be the centerpiece of their offense.”
The Dragons’ offense is guided by sophomore Ethan Gregory, who has accounted for nearly 1,300 yards rushing and passing while completing nearly 51 percent of his passes.
“He does a good job,” Midyett said. “He has a pretty good arm. They run a lot of easy reads for him so he’s able to get the ball out quick and make things happen. If you end up watching that motion, a lot of people can get wide open, so as long as we read our keys and go where the play takes us and not where the backfield motion takes us, we feel OK with it. They’ve done a good job of keeping people off-balance and being deceptive with where the ball is at and where the ball is going. That’s allowed him to make a lot of easy throws and complete a lot of big balls.”
Parkers Chapel junior quarterback Caleb Jacobs also makes plays both with arm and feet, but Harrell said that’s where the similarities between the quarterbacks end.
“He’s a good runner, but he’s not a scrambler,” Harrell said of Gregory. “He’s going to set up and throw it, and if it’s not there, he’s going to either throw it away or tuck it up and go straight ahead for five yards or something like that.
“Their quarterback is very elusive. He scrambles and throws well. He looks like a really good athlete. They spread you out and he causes you a lot of misery scrambling around running and throwing.”
Gregory has attempted only 55 passes in nine games, but the sophomore has thrown for 732 yards and 10 scores while throwing just three interceptions, giving the Dragons a solid option when they go to their passing attack.
“In our situation, we get the box loaded up on us so many times,” Harrell said. “In our offense, we really have five receivers sitting up there at the line of scrimmage. There’s times where if they’re not paying attention to it, we’ll run a little go route with them and hit them off of a play-action. It’s big. It’s difficult running the ball when you get up against a good team and they’ve got 10 people in the box, so we do need to be able to throw it.”
Senior James Vanourny leads the Dragons’ defense with 91 tackles while also handling the kicking chores, but a gruesome leg injury suffered in his junior year nearly ended his high school career.
“James has done a great job all year long,” Harrell said. “He’s one we try to get into position where we think the ball is going to go. He’s our best tackler. He’s a good athlete. He runs. He does everything well. He’s had a super year, and I’m glad he has. Last year, I believe it was Week 3, he broke both bones in his leg. It was questionable whether he was even going to get to comeback and play this year or not. It’s been good to see him have a good year.”
When asked if the Dragons were similar to any team the Trojans have faced, Midyett said they compared favorably to an 8-2A rival.
“Bearden,” Midyett said. “They run a lot of similar stuff being out of the showgun. We feel like they’re really comparable athlete-wise. They’re probably a little more physical than Bearden, probably a little better up front, but we feel they’re real comparable to Bearden. The only difference is where Bearden was almost more balanced with more formations, Mountainburg will load up to one side or the other.”
Both teams enter the playoffs on down notes.
The Trojans fell to Junction City in their season finale, and should they pick up a win tonight, Parkers Chapel could find themselves with a rematch next week.
“We sold it to them as that we knew where we were going seed-wise,” Midyett said. “We know we could get them again if we take care of business, so last week, we just wanted to get through it healthy and be full-go this week. We knew it wouldn’t have helped us either way win or lose. We were almost playing for nothing. We didn’t want to build them up to, ‘OK, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to that, we got to do this,’ when really in the back of our mind, we’re just making sure we get out of it healthy. We did some things, tried to show a little stuff for them. It didn’t turn out great. We had bad weather with the rain, but we got out it healthy, and I think we’ll be ready to go this week.”
After seeing their six-game winning streak snapped last week, Harrell believes his team will be ready for the Trojans.
“I’m not concerned about a hangover,” Harrell said. “I’m thinking our kids will bounce back with more hunger. That was a tough loss, and we made some mistakes that if you don’t make one or two of them, it’s a different ballgame. Sometimes it does you some good to get beat. You realize you’re not as good as you think you are and you go back to work.”
Midyett said the Trojans’ seniors will have to perform if they are to advance.
“We’re excited,” Midyett said. “Honestly, anytime you get out of school, the kids are pumped because of what they’re doing. We’ve talked about it. The seniors had only this week guaranteed. Whether or not they want to put up the white jerseys for the rest of the year or keep washing them and putting them back in their travel bag is up to them. With our seeding, we’ll be the away team for however long we make it. Either we’ll hang them up for the year or we’re going to keep putting them in that bag and keep loading the bus.”
Given how long their trip is, Midyett said the Trojans will be taking some breaks on the way up.
“It’s a long trip,” Midyett said. “We’ll probably break it up a little bit. We’re going to stop in Conway and do a walkthrough and eat. Then we’ll head up the rest of the way. We’re doing everything we can to make this as easy as possible and keep them focused.”
Mountainburg has been one of 2A’s most consistent programs over the years.
The Dragons haven’t missed the playoffs since 2009, and they have advanced to the second round in each of the last three years.
So what has been the key to their success?
“We’ve been here a long time, and we’ve had kids come through and we fill them in on what we’re doing,” Harrell said. “We’ve been playing a lot of kids, but I haven’t been playing hardly anybody both ways for the past three or four years, and I think that’s really helped our program getting kids out and keeping them interested. We’ve got a good weight program. I think our kids are physically strong.”
For the Dragons to reach the second round for the fourth straight year, stopping Jacobs will be a top priority.
“We’re going to have to contain their quarterback,” Harrell said. “We can’t let him get out and run crazy. We’ve got to make him sit in the pocket and throw it. Offensively, we’re going to have to block well. Last Friday night against Hector, we didn’t block real well. Part of that was them. They were very physical up front on defense. We’re going to have to get better.”
If the Trojans are to win on the road, Midyett said his team must win the battle in the trenches.
“We’ve got to be able to control them up front,” Midyett said. “Defensively, we can’t watch the motion. We can’t fall for the window dressing. We’ve got to read our keys and make them drive on us. They really haven’t showed a lot of long, sustained drives. A lot of their stuff has been two or three plays and score, so I feel like if we make them drive the field, they’re going to eventually turn it over or shoot themselves in the foot.
“Offensively, we’ve got to be able to throw and catch. We feel like we’ve got an advantage in the passing game, and we’ve got to be able to execute.”