Gators face Dragons for shot at title

FOREMAN, Ark.—The Little River County locals hope “The Swamp” will be a 12th man tonight.

Foreman (10-1) host Junction City (10-2) at Memorial Stadium, kicking off at 7 p.m., for a chance to play for the Class 2A state championship at War Memorial next week.

“Our kids play with a little more swagger when we play at The Swamp,” Foreman’s head coach Mark King said. “We have great fans and they really make it a hostile environment for opposing teams. It’s always a tough place to play. That’s an advantage for us, hopefully, we can take advantage of that.

The Gators are looking to defend their Class 2A crown.

In the Dragons last three games with McCory, Moutainburg and Des Arc, Junction City has outscored them, 142-35. The Dragons has only allowed 8.2 points per game in their last nine games.

Dhante Gibson has rushed for 1,330 yards and 20 touchdowns this season for the Dragons.

“We looked at the film and Junction City is really good,” King said.” They’re big, physical and fast. It should be a great game.

“It’s two good teams going at it to play for all the marbles next week. You couldn’t ask of more as a coach.”

Foreman’s defense has only given up 89 points in 11 games.

Davin Cross leads the Gator defense with 73 tackles and four sacks, while teammate Chris Haywood has contributed 70 stops and seven sacks.

“We’re going to have to continue to play better and play hard on that side of the ball,” King said. “We need to do what we’ve been doing all year long over there. We’ve had a great year defensively.

“Our defense has kept us in a lot of ball games. I think if continue to do that, we’ll have a chance to be successful this week.”

The Gators also have an option-offense that can strike at any time. Foreman is averaging 321.7 yards per game this season.

Junction City’s athleticism will pose as a matchup problem but the Gators are prepared for the task at hand.

“They are a matchup problem for us,” King said. “Our secondary is going to have their hands full. They run a spread formation a lot but they like to run the ball a lot. They have two great running backs that can hit you at any given moment.

“The big thing for us is that we have to stop the run game. If we have them throwing the football all over the field, that will be to our advantage. They want to run the football. We are concerned with the mismatches in the secondary, but we’ll just have to play hard. Whatever happens, happens.”

The winner will face either Hazen or Mount Ida next week in Little Rock for the Class 2A state championship.