Semifinal Showdown
Junction City, Des Arc collide with berth in state finals at stake
Junction City's senior class will be taking aim at a milestone few classes get the opportunity to achieve.
Tonight, the Dragons look to reach the state finals for the fourth straight year, as Junction City travels to Des Arc for a showdown in the 2A state semifinals.
Game time is set for 7 p.m. The winner advances to the state finals, which will be held in Little Rock on Dec. 12 against the winner of tonight's other semifinal between Fordyce and Gurdon.
The Dragons (9-2), the 8-2A runner-ups, have won seven straight and reached the semifinals with wins over Marked Tree, McCrory and Poyen.
The Eagles (12-0), the 6-2A champions, defeated Mount Ida and Bigelow after getting a firstround bye.
Junction City reached the state finals while in 3A back in 2017 before winning the 2A state championship in 2018.
A year ago, the Dragons were the state runner-ups.
Now they have the chance to reach Little Rock again, but standing in the Dragons' way is a Des Arc team that has seen its season end in each of the last two years at Junction City's hands.
“They're Des Arc,” Junction City coach Brad Smith said. “The numbers don't change. The kids do, but they play the same. They're unreal blockers. They run their veer-option offense to perfection, and if you don't play it real well, they're going to hang a ton of points on you. They're going to get a ton of yards on you regardless of how well you play it just because of how dynamic their talent level is and how well they run their system.”
Luke Morton guides the Eagles' offense, but the senior dislocated his elbow during Des Arc's quarterfinal win over Bigelow and Eagles coach B.J. Paschal said via text message on Thursday that he was listed as doubtful for tonight's game.
Should Morton be unable to play, it would be a major blow
for the Eagles.
“Luke is a coach on the field for us,” Paschal said. “He understands exactly what we want to do really on both sides of the ball. Every move that we want to make, he knows our checks, he knows everything that we want to do. He’s the one that makes our offense go.”
Smith was impressed with Morton’s growth over the last year.
“He’s a year older and a year wiser,” Smith said. “He was really good last year. The trigger man on an option team is the quarterback, and he runs it better than anyone since I used to watch the old West Monroe (La.) quarterbacks play.”
However, the Eagles have plenty of weapons in the backfield.
Sophomore Jack Kearby scored three touchdowns against Mount Ida earlier in the postseason, and he added 137 yards and another score against Bigelow.
Not bad for someone who didn’t move into a full-time role on offense until Week 5.
“He went to fullback and he has really impressed us this year,” Paschal said. “He’s just a tough kid. I’ve coached his brothers. His brother was one of my linebackers last year, but he graduated. He just comes from a tough, hard-nosed family. He’s a tough kid that runs the ball well.”
Sophomore Trevion Reed and senior Eyan Holloway round out a backfield that averages over 350 yards rushing per week.
“That’s what makes this offense work so well is that we have guys who are dangerous with the ball in their hands,” Paschal said. “Kearby is kind of the hammer, Trev is the speed guy, Eyan is more of the shifty guy. He can find space too. It’s nice to have all of those who I feel very comfortable with the ball in their hands.”
The offensive line rarely gets much in the way of publicity, but senior center Jarrett Hambrick and junior guard Cooper Childers have been anchors in paving the way for Des Arc’s production.
“Our offensive line is all juniors except for our center, he’s a senior,” Paschal said. “They’re tough kids. We’re undersized compared to every team we play. We’re always smaller, but we come off the ball really quick and we play with really good leverage.
“If you’re undersized, those are two things you’ve got to do. That’s where we kind of pride ourselves is in our quickness and our leverage. I’m proud of the way they’ve played. Jarrett Hambrick is the center. He’s the captain of the offensive line. He’s just had a phenomenal year.”
Smith said fundamentals and repetition were hallmarks of the Eagles’ success up front.
“They do one thing, and they do that one thing every day,” Smith said. “Everything is an attack, an inside. They trap and pull some, but they’re either going to zone you or come right at you at angles. They’re going to leave people unblocked intentionally. When you do one thing, it just depends on angles. You get good at it.
“You drill that. People always want to hear you talk about variance, but if you can get into something and stay into something and learn all the time, practice truly means perfect.”
So how do the Dragons try to stop a team that ranks third in the state in 2A in points scored?
“You can’t get out of place,” Smith said. “You get out of place, and you get in serious trouble. They do it to you time and time again. That’s what is so frustrating about it. They get three, four or six, then you get a guy that decides he’s going to help somebody, so when they get one, then they’ll pull it and pitch it, they get 41. They go back to the grain enough that you can’t sit on motion or anything like that, so they’re just a tough bunch to deal with.”
The Eagles have rarely been slowed down this year.
Outside of their 16-7 win at Clarendon that sealed the 6-2A title, the Eagles’ lowest point total in a game this season has been 38, which they have done twice, including last week’s 38-22 win over Bigelow in the quarterfinals that saw the Eagles score the game’s first 30 points.
“We started really fast,” Paschal said. “We kicked off, got a facemask and a personal foul, they got the ball on the 15 and scored right before half. We gave them a little bit of life there. They came out in the second half and moved the ball on us a little bit, but we were able to hold for the win. I’m very proud for the way that our guys responded to a little adversity. Bigelow is a good football team. They were undefeated for a reason. They played very hard. They were a good team.”
During their seven-game winning streak, Junction City has scored 30 or more points in each game, and while the offense continued to produce in last week’s 48-38 win over Poyen in the quarterfinals, Smith said he is concerned about the defense, which has allowed 68 points in the last two weeks.
“We got after them pretty good offensively,” Smith said. “Defensively, we’re struggling with a couple of things right now, and we may have to make some personnel changes because we’re not getting the production we need. It’s the time of year where if you’ve got to shorten your bench to win, you do it, and we may have to do that. We’ll find out a lot in practice this week. That’s two weeks in a row where we’ve had sort of the same mishaps on the same play, and you can’t allow that. You’ve got to get it cleared up.”
Against Poyen, Junction City rotated several linemen, and Smith said that helps wear down the offensive line.
“We’ve got a lot of big guys, and there’s no sense in sitting over there and rusting on the bench,” Smith said. “Every time you’re beating on somebody with somebody new, we’ve always had the theory around here that helped us win a state championship in ‘13, is the more guys we can play defensively up front, the more quality snaps we get out of guys.
“You put a guy out there for 45, 50 snaps, unless he’s a wunderkind, your quality is going to be down. But if you have two or three groups of them and they’ve got 15 to 18 snaps, there’s no reason for those snaps not to be just absolutely wide open and you’re forcing an offensive lineman to see two to three different guys at fuller speed and fuller conditioning.”
If the Eagles are to advance, Paschal said his defense must find a way to contain Junction City’s speed.
“The biggest key is going to be to contain their speed and not let them get the edge on us,” Paschal said. “Last year, I think it was 14-8 or 14-7 at halftime. We were down one score.
“We came out in the second half, and we played with them pretty well early in the third quarter, but then they were able to reverse field on us several times and get the edge on us. It seemed like it added up on us real quick, so the biggest thing is going to be to contain them, to play well up front, not have any holes and just to rebound if something bad happens. We are 12-0, which is a great thing, but at the same time, we have not had to overcome a ton of adversity. To be able to rebound when something bad happens, that’s going to be a big thing for us.”
Smith said the Dragons must limit miscues and win the battle in the trenches if they are to advance.
“No pre-snaps (penalties), don’t fumble the ball,” Smith said. “Offensively, run our lead blocks. Defensively, play your position and keep your pads low. If anybody gets upstairs with them, knock them off the ball. We’re going to have to win the line of scrimmage on both sides. If you do all that, you should be happy. Pitch it, catch it, tackle it.”