FL looking for playoff seeding vs. Bauxite
After finishing a treacherous stretch of games to open 4A-7 play, Fountain Lake starts a more favorable run of matchups when the Cobras host Bauxite Friday night.
Fountain Lake (3-3, 1-2) fell to Robinson and Arkadelphia, but earned an historic win at Nashville across the Cobras’ first three conference games of the season.
Last year, the Cobras lost a heartbreaker 23-21 on the road at Bauxite after a late field goal saw the Miners take the lead. This season, Fountain Lake can start a push toward a favorable playoff seed with a victory over the Miners (2-4, 0-3).
“That was definitely a tough loss for us,” Fountain Lake head coach Kenny Shelton said. “We like the spot we’re in right now. We kind of, from here on out, control our own destiny. If we’re able to win out, we’ll finish third in the conference and be able to host our first home playoff game in quite a few years. … Again, we can never look past our week’s opponent. I told them we’re all in for Bauxite this week. It’s a must-win for us as far as playoff seeding is concerned.”
After the Cobras struggled in a 48-14 loss at Arkadelphia last week, Fountain Lake looks to bounce back with a homecoming win against Bauxite.
“It’s crucial to gain that confidence back,” Shelton said. “We lost a little bit of that confidence this last week. We need to get that ball rolling in the right direction. Just the speed of the game is going to be so much slower than it has been the last three weeks.”
Heading into the matchup with the Miners, Shelton has tried to simulate the different style of defense Bauxite runs, which has proved to be a difficult task.
“They run a very unique defense,” Shelton said. “It’s kind of hard to describe. There are times when they don’t have anybody within five yards of the football. There are times they only have one guy that is near the football. They are moving around trying to make it very confusing for offenses to block. So, not quite seen this before to this extent.”
Shelton added Bauxite’s defense makes it challenging for his players on the offensive line to know who to block.
“That’s been a lot of, just as much talking as it has been actually practicing on who to block and walking through,” he said.
To make it harder for the Cobras offense, Fountain Lake has been without running back Caleb Lacy since the conference opener against Robinson. Already a player that’s been carrying the load for the Cobras, running back Steven DeArmon’s carries increased after Lacy’s injury.
That being said, Shelton said he feels like DeArmon will be the best athlete on the field over the next few weeks, and he’s a threat to score every time he touches the ball.
“You can’t replace Caleb with one guy,” he said. “We’ve been having Steven DeArmon, his carries have gone up. Abram Davis, we moved him to fullback this last week, and he had a really good game for us. Just trying to move the ball around a little bit and trying not to be a one-back team.”
Although Fountain Lake struggled in the loss at Arkadelphia last week, Davis carried the ball 20 times for 97 yards.
DeArmon stalled a bit against the Badgers, only registering 30 yards on 11 rushes after the senior decimated Nashville for 226 yards and five touchdowns on 22 carries the week prior.
On defense, the Cobras look to force the Miners into a lot more runs than passes.
“They run the Spread,” Shelton said. “Right now we want them to run the football. We’re going to kind of put some extra defensive backs in the game to try to slow their quarterback down as far as throwing the football and hopefully encourage them to run the ball. We feel like we’re better than them up front, and we can stop the run with a couple of less guys up front.”
Fountain Lake holds a chance for a big-time playoff push that all starts with this homecoming matchup against Bauxite.
“The atmosphere, we get a really good crowd,” Shelton said. “We get a lot of former players coming back and coming to watch us. The community comes out in a pretty good amount. We’re hoping the rain will stay away and not detour people from coming. The guys just really love to play in front of large crowds like anybody does.”
Kickoff from Allen Tillery Field is set for 7 p.m.