Leopards excited for week 13 match up against Shiloh Christian
Week 13 is something new for the Malvern Leopards football team. But the Leopards are excited for the opportunity to get to play Friday night against the topranked Class 4A team Shiloh Christian.
“This is new territory,” Malvern head football coach J.D. Plumlee said. “No one on the team has ever played in week 13.”
In previous seasons, the Malvern Leopards’ seniors have gone 0-10 and 4-7. Last season the Leopards clinched a playoff berth but loss in the first round to Ozark 21-0. But it’s also the senior team members who are leading the charge into Shiloh Christian this Friday. This season it was the goal of the Leopards’ senior to win a playoff game and last Friday they did just that.
The Leopards shutout Trumann, 54-0, last Friday at Claude Mann Stadium-David Alpe Field, their first playoff win since 2014. They now move on to face the hootens. com number one ranked team in the Class 4A Shiloh Christian at Champions Stadium in Springdale.
Shiloh Christian boasts a 10-1 overall record and have not been beaten by an in-state team. Their only loss was by one point, 27-26, to a Class 6A school from Oklahoma in
non-conference play. But the Leopards are used to playing high ranking teams. “We face ranked teams weekly,” Plumlee said. “This is not anything they haven’t seen.”
Having played in the 7-4A conference, the Leopards are used to playing against potential state championship teams on a weekly basis. In four of the last five years, a team from the 7-4A conference has
won the 4A State Championship. Joe T. Robinson (currently ranked second) won the championship in 2019 while Arkadelphia (currently ranked ninth) went back-toback in 2017 and 2018, and Nashville (currently ranked fourth) earned the title in 2015.
The Leopards also face a tough non-conference schedule going up against Glen
Rose, ranked eighth in Class 3A, Hot Springs Lakeside, ranked eighth in Class 5A, and Lake Hamilton, ranked seventh in Class 6A. Plumlee said that six out of the 10 teams they faced this season are still fighting in the postseason. “It shows the caliber of our schedule,” he said.
For Malvern the keys to success this week are to continue doing what they’ve
done the past month. Offensively, the Leopards need to keep ahead of the chains and work with third and short situations. It’s what they’ve done in their past two victories over Arkadelphia and Trumann. Against Trumann, the Leopards never faced a fourth down situation and scored on all eight of their possessions. Staying ahead of the chains early gives the
Leopards more options in third down and short situations Plumlee said.
On the defensive side of the ball, Plumlee said that the Leopards need to keep playing sound football. The defense will rely on the speed of the defensive line to get stops, then tackling well when they get there. “We’ve really been doing that well the last few weeks,” Plumlee said.
Another key for both the defense and the offense is to limit Shiloh Christian’s possessions. For the Leopards’ defense, this means getting stops on third down, not allowing Shiloh Christian to convert, and for the Leopards’ offense limiting turnovers and keeping the ball in their hands. Plumlee knows that Shiloh Christian is bigger than the Leopards, but that the Leopards have more speed which he feels will make this game an exciting one to watch.
Despite an unusual week with Thanksgiving and different practice times, Plumlee feels that the Leopards will be ready to go on Friday. “I expect our focus to be like any other Friday,” he said. He added that the Leopards are excited and that good football will be played on Friday.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday, for ticket information visit the Malvern Leopards Football Facebook page.