Foreman eager to start conference play

FOREMAN, Ark. — This has been a unusual season for most football fans in the area.

The Foreman is in a unusual spot in the football standings, but the Gators are excited to begin conference play.

Foreman (1-4) opens up conference play tonight, traveling to Dierks (5-1).

“We scheduled a tough non-conference schedule by design,” Foreman head coach Adrian Ivory said. “We didn’t win as many games out of it as we wanted to, but it’s a new season now that we’ve started conference play. The kids are the same as they were on Day 1.

“We’re focused on getting our third conference championship in a row and good seeding in the playoffs.”

The Gators were open last week, with their last competition coming in a loss to Gurdon, 35-16.

“We’ve had some growing pains this season,” Ivory said. “Covid has hurt us a bit. I’m not using that as a excuse but we haven’t had our whole team since the second quarter of our first game. We’ve also missed our all-state tailback some this season as well.

“We also have a young quarterback getting acclimated to everything, but these growing pains are going to help us out in the long run. It may not have turned out how we planned, but I know it’s going to benefit us later down the road. Players that are battle tested prevail in the playoffs, so that’s what we want.”

Dierks fell to Poyen last week, 21-12.

”They have a really good ball club there,” Ivory said. “I believe they’ve only lost one game this year and it will also be their Homecoming. They’ve had a really good junior high group the past three years, so now those guys are high school football players now. They do a very good job of running the Flexbone. We’re going to have to play assignment football.

“We’re going to have to make sure we’re lined up correctly and ready to play physical football. Dierks is a physical football team. It’s always a great game when we get to play Dierks. It’s turned into a rivalry. Our kids are jacked and ready to go.”