Bigelow, EPC each seeking first title
There are plenty of similarities between the teams in today’s Class 2A state championship game.
Bigelow (13-0) and East Poinsett County (12-1) will each compete in their first state final, with homegrown coaches leading the way.
After years of quarterfinals and semifinals appearances — and some disappointing first round exits — the two programs have reached today’s final at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Following a 0-10 season in 2019, Bigelow has gone 32-4 over the past three seasons, winning four conference championships. But the playoff success hasn’t followed. In 2020, the Panthers fell to Des Arc in the semifinals. In 2021, it was Hazen in the quarterfinals. And last season, it was a first-round upset at the hands of Earle that ended Bigelow’s season.
“We’ve had great groups of kids the past four years,” said Bigelow Coach Luke Starks, a 2013 graduate of the school. “We’ve been blessed with a good group, lots of talent and senior classes that graduated.
“But we just haven’t been able to get over that hump for whatever reason. With the success that our guys have had in other sports, it has helped translate on the football field.”
In 2021, East Poinsett County lost in the state semifinals to Clarendon. In 2022, it was the same round, but this time to eventual champion Hazen.
“When these seniors were sophomores, we started the season 0-6,” said EPC Coach Brandon Powell, a 2001 grad- uate. “They kept working, kept fighting and we wound up going to the quarterfinals that year.
“We have built off of that while learning to be tough and fight through adversity. Now here they are as seniors breaking through and making the state championship game.”
EPC’s run to the semifinals last season was led largely by the record-setting season of running back Dennis Gaines. As a junior, he set a single-season state record with 3,232 rushing yards. Powell has reigned in the enormous workload Gaines saw a season ago, but the senior still has 1,832 yards and 30 touchdowns this season, rushing for 100 or more yards in all but one game.
“We have tried to stay more balanced this year,” Powell said. “[Gaines] just does not have to take on quite as much of a load as he did a year ago.”
Gaines has rushed for 470 yards and nine touchdowns in three playoff games thus far. He figures to be the focal point in Bigelow’s defensive strategy.
“There is a lot to say about him, but then there is so little to say — he’s extremely talented, very good and explosive,” Starks said. “He is not the biggest back, but definitely a handful to take down. … That’s what their offense circles around and goes by. So the key to the game is to slow him down as best as possible, but that is a tough thing to do.”
Bigelow will answer with senior Carter Alexander, a star at both running back and linebacker. The University of Central Arkansas baseball commit has rushed for 1,114 yards and 14 touchdowns. He’ll share the backfied with senior quarterback Rhett Neumeier, who has passed for 2,170 yards and 27 touchdowns.
While EPC has a slightly higher scoring offense, the difference between these two this season has been on the defensive side. Bigelow has allowed 14.2 points per game, the fourth-best average in Class 2A.
“Defensively, we try to fly to the ball that’s kind of our M.O.,” Starks said. “We got 11 hats trying to get to the ball as fast as they can.”