Leopards advance in playoffs, shutout Trumann
With a shutout win, the Malvern Leopards (6-5 overall) are moving on to week 13 of Arkansas High School Football and on to the third round of the 4A State Playoffs.
The Leopards were at home at Claude Mann Stadium-David Alpe Field for Friday’s round two playoff match up with the Trumann Wildcats and were dominate throughout the game to get the shutout win 54-0.
“It’s special,” Malvern head coach J.D. Plumlee said about the win. “It’s been a crazy year and I’m just super proud of these seniors. When you’re practicing on Thanksgiving you’re a good football team.”
Winning a playoff game was a goal the Malvern Leopard senior members made during week 6 of the regular season. “That was our goal,” Plumlee said. “We met about week six and they said ‘Coach we want to leave our legacy on winning a playoff game.’ We haven’t done it in a while and now we’re on to week 13.”
The Leopards now take their winning momentum on the road to Springdale where they will face the Shiloh Christian Saints (10-1 overall) at Champions Stadium next Friday. The Saints defeated DeWitt 48-12 Friday to advance to round three.
The Leopards showed dominance over Truman throughout the entire game Friday on David Alpe Field. From the time they won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff, to the final touchdown scored by freshman Jahnoah Harris in the fourth quarter, the Leopards never faltered.
On their first drive senior Jacobe Hart established the run game while sophomore quarterback Cedric Simmons showed his passing ability
by connecting with senior Dante Reed for a 24 yard gain. It was Hart that would open scoring for the Leopards though. Hart hit a hole to get into the end zone on a 31yard touchdown. The Leop
ards PAT was good and at the 10:20 mark the Leopards held the lead 7-0.
On Trumann’s first drive the Leopards’ defense bent, but never broke. The Wildcats were able to get to the
Malvern 23-yard line but senior Isaiah Beard came up big with a tackle on fourth down to force a turnover on downs.
Once again it was Sim
mons who found receivers Chace McCalister and Dante Reed to move the ball down field. Hart and senior Malique Reliford also moved the ball on the ground with Reliford busting down the sideline to the Trumann 7-yard line on a 33 yard gain at the end of the first quarter. At the 11:16 mark of the second quarter, Hart would score his second touchdown of the game on a 10 yard run. The PAT was good and the Leopards took the lead 14-0.
The Wildcats ended up punting on their next drive and the Leopards wasted no time to get into the end zone. Simmons found junior receiver Carter Martin for a 34-yard passing touchdown. The PAT was no good but the Leopards went up 20-0 with 7:47 left in the second quarter.
The Leopards defense then came up big on the Wildcats’ next drive. On their third play, the Wildcats were intercepted by Reed to give the ball back to the Leopards. It was only 37 seconds later that Simmons was connecting with Martin for their second touchdown, this time on a 19-yard pass. Simmons then threw to Reed for a 2-point conversion to put the Leopards up 28-0 with 7:07 left in the second.
The Wildcats went three and out on their next drive and were forced to punt. The punt was fielded at the Malvern 1-yard line. Going almost the entire length of the field was
no problem for the Leopards though. Despite penalties that erased big plays early, the Leopards were able to drive down the field and score. Simmons threw his third touchdown pass of the night hitting McCalister for a 25-yard score. On the PAT attempt, the Leopards fumbled the snap then tried to go for two points. The 2-point attempt was no good but with 26.2 seconds left the Leopards led 34-0.
The second half went much like the first half. Trumann was forced to punt after going three and out on their first drive of the third quarter and Malvern was able to capitalize. Starting at their own 5-yard line, the Leopards again went the length of the field to score.
Simmons was able to move the Leopards downfield on a 64 yard run while Hart moved the Leopards into the red zone and scored on a 2-yard touchdown run. The Leopards PAT was good to go up 41-0 and enforce the Sportsmanship Rule.
Mirroring the first half, Trumann’s next drive ended with an interception by Reliford at the 2:18 mark of the third quarter. Reliford returned the interception to the Trumann 19-yard line, where Keith “Man Man” Caradine scored the seventh Leopards’ touchdown of the game. The score came right at the end of the third quarter to put the Leopards up 47-0.
In the fourth Trumann would punt once while the
Leopards would score once more. From the Trumann 44yard line, freshman Harris found a seem and ran for a touchdown to put the Leopards up 54-0.
The Leopards know the win is big but will continue to learn and practice over the next week to get prepared for Shiloh Christian. “Anytime you win a playoff game 54 to nothing, you’re going to gain momentum,” Plumlee said. “You can always learn from a win and a loss so we’ll get in there, watch it [film], and learn from it and get on to week 13.”
Next week’s game is set to kickoff at 7 p.m. For ticket information visit the Malvern Leopards Football Facebook page.