Booneville, Charleston ready for rematch

LITTLE ROCK — The lights will be brighter and the stage will be bigger for the rematch between Charleston and Booneville.

The two rivals will play for the Class 3A championship at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 6:30 p.m. after both teams won semifinal games on the road on Friday night.

Charleston (13-1) coasted past Rison, 27-0, while Booneville (12-2) defeated Melbourne, 41-36.

Six weeks ago, the two met for the 3A-1 conference championship at Booneville, and Charleston won, 42-14, but nine Booneville players including five defensive starters missed the game due to suspensions from an off-the-field incident the night before the game.

The two teams were reunited in the same conference this season after the annual two- year realignment by the Arkansas Activities Association with Booneville moving to the 3A-1 from the 3A-4.

Both teams lost nonconference games on the final Friday night of nonconference play to stout Class 4A opponents at home; Booneville, 44-14, to Harding Academy, which will play in the Class 4A championship game, and Charleston, 27-19, to Nashville, which lost in the Class 4A semifinals on Friday to Malvern.

On Friday, Charleston had just two possessions in the first half, for a grand total of 1 minute, 28 seconds and seven plays, but led 120. The Tigers had scored on their first two series of the second half and coasted to a 27-0 win at Rison.

Booneville led at Melbourne 41-30 on Cody Elliott’s 1-yard touchdown run with 3:30 left before Melbourne’s Trey Wren threw a touchdown pass with 1:05 left to cut Booneville’s lead to 41-36. Melbourne recovered an on- side kick but Booneville’s defense held.

On Saturday, Charleston will be playing in its eighth state championship game while Booneville will be playing in its 10th.