Arkadelphia at Shiloh Christian
Arkadelphia was overlooked by many in the state after an 0-5 start. The Badgers won the Class 4A state title last season and will return to the semifinals tonight to face seven-time state champion Shiloh Christian.
The Badgers (8-5) enter the 4A semifinal after a 21-0 shutout at Stuttgart (9-2), maintaining an unmarred 5-0 record against the 4A-2 conference champion. The Saints (12-1) come in off a 40-21 victory over 4A-7 runner-up Nashville (10-3).
Here are five things to watch in tonight’s game: Last week
Arkadelphia rolled to a 14-0 halftime lead last week, but a stout Ricebird defense left the Badgers relying on big plays instead of slowly working their way down the field.
The Badgers used a powerful defense to shut
down Stuttgart, allowing just 90 yards of total offense. The Badger defense showed itself in the second play of the game as junior quarterback and linebacker Cannon Turner recovered a fumble by the Ricebirds’ quarterback.
On offense, Turner accounted for all three touchdowns, rushing 54 yards for the first before connecting on passes of 62 and
11 yards to Zion Hatley and Buster Thomas, respectively, for the other two.
“For us, we feel great about the win because it means that we’re going to play another week of football,” Arkadelphia head coach J.R. Eldridge said. “At this point in the year, that’s the goal: Let’s play another week. Coming off of that win, and really at this point, too, every game has got to be a team win. We’ve got to find a way to overcome whatever happens within the football game.
“I felt like Stuttgart was a really good football team, and our defense did an excellent job of shutting down really everything that they tried to do versus us.”
While kicker Gabe Goodman did miss a
41-yard field goal attempt on Arkadelphia’s first offensive drive due to a stiff headwind, Eldridge said he was impressed with the Badgers’ performance on special teams.
“I thought our special teams did a great job,” he said. “We had a punt return called back, but we secured the ball every time it was kicked to us, so that was really positive.
“And then offensively, we were able to score 21 points versus a really, really good defense. I guess it helps us to feel great about playing another week coming off of that win.” Scrappers
Last week, the Saints took a 19-point victory over a Nashville team that defeated Arkadelphia, 28-23, in Week 4.
“I think every game every week is a new week,” he said. “Our biggest focus this week was having a great week of practice. We’re not big on score comparing.
“Shiloh executed well, played really hard. They won the football game. Nashville did not play well. They didn’t play as hard as Shiloh, and they lost the football game.”
The Saints rolled on Nashville early last Friday, taking a 21-7 lead in the first quarter before the Scrappers pulled within 28-21 at the half. Shiloh Christian shut out the Scrappers in the second half while adding 12 to secure the win and the semifinal berth.
“It’s two good teams going at it in the quarterfinals last week, and Shiloh came out a winner,” Eldridge continued. “For us, we’ve got to make sure that we want to play another week. We’ve got to make sure that we execute and play as hard as we can.”
Arkadelphia managed to take a 17-14 lead into the break against the Scrappers on Sept.
21, but Nashville put up 14 points in the third quarter while allowing just six for the Badgers in the second half.
Offensive powerhouse
Shiloh Christian has outscored its opponents by 400 points this season, 563-163, taking double-digit wins in all 12 of its wins. The Saints’ only loss came in Week 1 against Class 5A Texarkana (10-2), 54-38.
“Shiloh is a well-coached football team,” Eldridge said. “They play extremely hard. Offensively, the do a great job. They’re very, very creative on their play design, and they do a great job executing.”
The Saints run a spread offense, helmed on the field by junior quarterback Eli Reece.
“They spread it out,” Eldridge said. “They try to go fast. They’ve got a quarterback (Eli Reece) that’s very, very accurate. They’re almost 50-50 run-pass. They distribute the ball well.”
Key players
The Saints have plenty of targets in their offense. With several players who can throw the ball, Shiloh Christian has tallied 3,425 passing yards with Reece leading the team with 2,375 yards on 148 of 225 passing with just five interceptions.
Sophomore Jaiden Henry and senior Jaret Russ lead the team in rushing with Russ tallying 604 yards on 103 carries and Henry carrying 62 times for 464 yards. The Saints have tallied 1,758 yards on the ground this season.
“They’ve got good skill guys, offensively,” Eldridge said. “Their quarterback’s accurate. They’ve got No. 4 (Henry); he’s good at running the football. He’s good at catching the football, and he can throw it, too.”
Junior Truitt Tollett leads the receiver corps with 69 catches for 1,086 yards, and senior Blake Thomson had 43 catches for
884. Henry had a strong game last week, catching five for 133 to bring his season tally to 22 catches for 366.
“They’ve got good wide receivers — No.
8 (Tollett), No. 1 (Thomson), No. 11 (Russ) comes in sometimes,” Eldridge said.
“They’re going to try to get the ball to the guy who’s going to be open. We’ve got to do a great job of staying disciplined defensively and making sure that we’ve got our eyes right.”
Senior-laden
The two teams field a combined 32 seniors on their rosters, accounting for 26 percent of their total players.
“For me, junior, senior, sophomore, whoever is in the game, we expect our guys to play as hard as they can and execute what we’re trying to do,” he said. “I’m sure Shiloh’s coaches expect the same.
“I think for me and any of our coaching staff, if we look at those things, we’re just distracted from what really matters in the game, and that is executing and playing as hard as you can. That’s been our real focus this week in practice.”
More juniors start for the defending 4A champions than seniors.
“We do have a lot of seniors, but our junior class is the heaviest for us,” Eldridge said. “We don’t have a senior on our offensive line. We’ve got two seniors at skill positions, and that’s it really.”