FIVE THINGS
Haskell Harmony Grove at Centerpoint
ROSBORO — Centerpoint plays host to a familiar foe Friday night as the Knights take on Haskell Harmony Grove to kick off the 2018 football season.
Starting the season in Week 0, the two teams are just a few of the schools that opted to play early in the first year the Arkansas Activities Association allowed the extra week of play.
Here are five things to watch for Friday when the Cardinals line up against the Knights:
New, yet different
While the Cardinals are a familiar foe for Centerpoint, the team will look quite different from years past with new head coach Mike Guthrie at the helm.
“We’re familiar with them in terms of we’ve played them for several years, so we know the kids, the players a little bit,” said Centerpoint head coach Cary Rogers. “But they’re in pretty much a new system over there. They have a new coach, coach Guthrie, and he’s done a good job.
The Cardinals have moved to a run-based game that is quite different from the passing game the team has run in the past.
“We’ve seen them on film, and they look to be a run-oriented team this year,” Rogers said. “We’ve seen them in a Diamond-T on film, and they’ve been throwing the ball, three and four wide (receivers), the last few years. Even though we’re familiar with the players and such, it’s pretty much a new system we’re looking at.”
A Diamond-T offense puts four ballcarriers in the backfield, allowing for lots of misdirection by the team.
A couple of ‘Bright’ spots
Cousins Owen and Michael Bright stood out for the Knights last season, and Rogers expects to see great things from the duo again this season.
Owen passed for over 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns a year ago.
“They’re going to play a big role for us, of course,” he said. “Owen is kind of a dual threat. He can run it and throw it and does both above average.”
Michael led the Knights with 31 catches for over 500 yards last season.
“Michael Bright can catch anything you get near him,” Rogers said. “He has really good speed — probably about a 4.7. They’re both seniors, both starting for us since they were sophomores. They’re two of those kids … that have played a lot of football games. That helps.”
Rough start
The Knights were handed a 32-0 loss at a scrimmage at Foreman last Thursday, leaving the team with plenty of things to work on in preparation for Friday’s season opener.
“We didn’t fare too well in our scrimmage,” Rogers said. “We went over to Foreman, and, of course, Foreman has got a really good team. They won a state championship last year, and they have a good chance to do it again this year. We didn’t look to sharp in that scrimmage, but we’ve had some good practice.”
Despite taking on the reigning 2A state champion Gators, Rogers was not expecting
things to be quite as one-sided.
“I was surprised by how we played over at Foreman,” he said. “The defense, I know, gave up several touchdowns, but the defense, I thought, played pretty well. We just didn’t move the ball much. We got a few of the kinks out, and I think that’s going to be better.
“We were trying to work a few extra kids in on the offensive line. Foreman is just huge up front. They come at you with about three 275, 300 pounders up front, and that makes it difficult for you.
Even though the Knights return a bevy of players from last season, numbers are down, leaving several players having to play on both offense and defense.
“We’ve got a good group,” Rogers said. “It’s just kind of small. There’s 27 of us, and several are going both ways. That’s something we haven’t had to do the last couple of years. You want to stay away from injuries and get everybody in as good a shape as you can, and hopefully some of the younger kids will come on and take up some playing time for us.”
Playing both ways takes its toll on an athlete, and that quickly becomes apparent when they face opponents who do not have to see the same players on both sides of the ball.
“Two-way players, it doesn’t matter how good a shape you get them in, can’t match the stamina of a one-way player,” Rogers noted. “That’s going to make a difference for us. It’s going to be somewhat dependent on how quick the sophomores come on to thin the work load.”
Tough loss
While the Knights lost in last week’s scrimmage, the team had a tougher loss in the game.
“We lost a center for probably the year,” Rogers said. “He was one of the sophomores who was going to start.”
Rogers was breaking in a pair of sophomore centers this season — Kaden Bryant and Jacob Huff.
With Bryant now injured and unlikely to return, Rogers is looking to junior Jonathon Daniel to take over at center while Huff moves to left tackle.
“He was going to start at left tackle,” Rogers said of Daniel. “He played some last year but didn’t start.”
Fortunately for the Knights, the loss of the center was the only injury sustained in the scrimmage.
Small, but bigger
While the Knights’ front lines are not as big as many schools, Rogers said he is thankful for the extra size the team has this year.
“We’re bigger than we’ve been the past few years,” he said. “Compared to most teams, we’ll be undersized. We were talking about that yesterday.”
“Four of our five offensive linemen are going to be over 200 pounds. I don’t know that we’ve ever had that here. Even though we look smaller than a lot of high school teams you see, and we are, for us going forward, we’ve got four of our five offensive linemen over 200 pounds.”
The extra size continues on the other side of the ball as well.
“We’ve got three others on the defensive line that are going to weigh over 200 pounds, so we’ve got seven kids,” Rogers continued. “That’s unusual for us. We are used to playing at least two or three offensive linemen in the 160-pound range, so we’re actually bigger than we have been.”
Other games Friday night:
Magnet Cove at Mountain View
Head coach Caleb Carmikle will start his second year at Magnet Cove with a road game at Mountain View. The Panthers earned a tie of the 2A-5 conference title a year ago, but entered the playoffs with the league’s third seed. They finished with a record of 7-5 after exiting the playoffs, 20-14, to Hazen.
Mountain View was 3-8 in
2017 — 4-7 after picking up a forfeit win against Earle — but a
3-4 record in the 3A-1 conference gave the Yellowjackets a playoff berth.
Magnet Cove will have a twoweek break before hosting Atkins on Sept. 7.
Cutter Morning Star at Bismarck
Bismarck head coach D.J. Keithley kicks off his second season at home as the Lions host Cutter Morning Star. The Eagles defeated Bismarck the past two years, 27-6 in 2017 and 40-21 in
2016, but the Lions downed CMS
36-6 in 2015 and 46-34 in 2014. Bismarck took a 27-7 win in a preaseason scrimmage at Perryville last Thursday. Last season, the Lions took wins over Spring Hill and Poyen before closing out the season with eight straight losses after winning just one game in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Cutter Morning Star had a big win over the Fountain Lake junior varsity squad to open last season, defeating Bismarck and Bigelow at home for its only two wins against varsity opponents. The Eagles sport 30 on its roster this season, a far cry from the 17 listed at this point a year ago.