4A REPEAT
Arkadelphia wins second straight Class 4A title
LITTLE ROCK — Prior to Saturday, Arkadelphia had three straight losses against the Joe T. Robinson Senators, the most recent coming in Week 5 of the regular season.
All that changed as of 8:50 p.m. Saturday night as the Badgers (10-5) completed the sixth shutout in their last 10 games to claim Arkadelphia’s first back-to-back state titles with a 28-0 rout of the Senators (12-3) at War Memorial Stadium.
“I’m just so thankful,” Arkadelphia head coach J.R. Eldridge said. “Glory to God. We go from 0-5, from having doubts to being able to rip off 10 straight just says so much about our coaching staff and these players and their character and their ability to believe in themselves, their coaches and their teammates and be able to come back to work every single day.”
Junior quarterback Cannon Turner echoed his coach, while admitting that he felt “very cold” following the game in temperatures near freezing.
“I feel great,” he said. “It’s just such a great feeling. It’s just so much sweeter after going 0-5 to come back and win it. I just feel great.”
Turner, who was named the game’s MVP, rushed 13 times for 127 yards and a touchdown. He completed 2 of 3 passes for 44 yards and another score as the only player who accounted for two touchdowns on the night.
Turner had tears in his eyes following the win.
“It’s just so emotional, this group of brothers I’ve been playing with forever,” he said. “We’ve been playing since Pee Wee, and I grew up with all of them. To win another one after going 0-5 is the best.
“It’s great for the community. This is one of the best communities to play for, and it’s just great to win another one for them.”
Turner connected with senior K.J. Terry
for a 40-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter to put the Badgers ahead, 21-0.
The Badgers struggled in their first possession, failing to get a first down, but a fumble by Robinson senior running back Tyler Jones was recovered by Arkadelphia junior Cole Turner at the Senators’ 37-yard line with just 1:33 off the clock.
Seven plays later, senior running back Zion Hatley took the ball eight yards over the right end for the first touchdown of the night with 7:06 left in the first quarter. Senior kicker Gabe Goodman split the uprights to make it 7-0.
The remainder of the half became a defensive battle. The two teams combined for just seven more first downs in the first two quarters with Arkadelphia finishing the half with seven to the Senators’ three. Both teams also punted the ball away four times apiece between the score and the halftime break.
“It’s great,” Eldridge said of his team forcing the shutout. “That’s a credit to our defensive coordinator, coach (Chris) Kizer, coach (Ben) Chandler and coach (Jeremy) Myers on the defensive side of the ball just doing a great job installing our schemes and getting our players to buy into the scheme and then our players executing on Friday nights.”
While the defensive efforts were clear during Saturday’s final, Eldridge said it was nothing new.
“I think they’ve been doing it,” he said. “It’s been a habit for them over the last 10 games.
“That doubt has kind of eliminated itself over the time that we’re able to win, and our guys kept coming back to work, kept believing and just kept playing vicious, violent and relentless.”
Arkadelphia had a rough start to the season, going 0-5 before going on a 10-game winning streak to claim the school’s fifth state title.
Not only are the Badgers the first team to win a state title after an 0-5 start, they are also the first team to defeat four No. 1 seeds in a state tournament run. The only top-seeded team the Badgers did not face was Ozark, the No. 1 seed from the 4A-4 conference which lost to Robinson, 38-16, in the quarterfinals.
“I don’t think there was a specific (turning) point,” Eldridge said. “I think every week was just a new challenge, and I think that was good for us, knowing that every week was a new challenge. We never felt like we had arrived, even going to Warren, beating that 1-seed and then Stuttgart and then Shiloh and then here.
“We never felt like we arrived. We kept talking about playing our best football toward the end of the season, and our guys took it to heart and did it.”