Tigers turn to Little for leadership

CHARLESTON — When Reese Merechka suffered an injury against Ozark in a nonconference game a month ago, Hunter Little looked around and didn’t hardly know anybody left on the field for the Charleston Tigers.

“When Reese went out a couple of weeks ago, I looked around and we had four seniors on both sides of the ball,” Little said. “It was crazy, but we get it done.”

Little is one of nine seniors and just one of four returning starters on offense and defense from last year’s Class 3A state championship team.

“We’ve got a lot of sophomores starting,” Little said. “We graduated a ton of talent. They’ve just got to keep their heads up. They get down real easy on themselves. You keep their heads up, and we’re good.”

Little, a linebacker and offensive tackle, has provided leadership to a large sophomore class that is providing contributions at several positions.

“It feels good, just trying to get these young sophomores into the right track and get used to winning,” Little said. “We got off to a slow start, but once we got into conference we’ve just got to keep rolling and keep our heads up.”

Charleston lost three straight nonconference games to Elkins, Ozark and Nashville — three Class 4A teams that are a combined 18-3 so far this season.

The Tigers (4-3, 4-0) have reeled off four wins in a row in the 3A-1 to set up the showdown against neighboring rival Booneville (5-2, 4-0) at home on Friday night.

In addition to replacing a plethora of talent that graduated, the Tigers have had to make another adjustment with starting quarterback Carter Little, Hunter’s cousin, going down with an injury against Mansfield. Senior Eli Huck has taken over the reins of the offense, but he has experience at the position as the backup last year. This season, Huck started at receiver and at linebacker.

Last Friday in Charleston’s 34-13 win at Hackett, the Tigers pounded out 305 yards on the ground, which Hunter Little didn’t mind at all.

“Put your nose down and keep working,” Little said. “We went from pass and run, pass and run to run, run, run. That’s pretty much all there was to it, just run, run, run.”

Little is also a leader in school at Charleston. He and fellow senior Brycen Kindrix were chosen to represent Charleston High School at Arkansas Boys State in Little Rock in the spring.

“Boys State was a great time, learning about the history of Boys State and learning about the government system,” Little said. “It was an interesting time. We had a mock draft in our counties. It was a great time. I learned a lot.”

OZARK Ready, too

The Ozark Hillbillies host the biggest game of the season in the 4A-1 on Friday, welcoming undefeated Elkins to Hillbilly Stadium.

“It’s going to be a good one,” Ozark Coach Jeremie Burns said. “They’re really talented on both sides of the ball. They won the conference last year, so we have a lot to play for on Friday night.”

Ozark (6-1, 4-0) and Elkins (7-0, 4-0) also finished atop the conference last year, and this one has marked on the schedule since the summer.

Elkins is led by senior quarterback Dizzy Dean, a move-in last year from Greenwood, along with brother Stone Dean, and running back Da’Shawn Chairs. Dizzy Dean and Chairs provide perhaps the best 1-2 punch in Class 4A.

“They’ve got all those weapons on offense,” Burns said. “Defensively, they rotate a bunch of guys. They’re two-deep on defense. They’re really fast and up front they’re real physical. It will be a real challenge for our line and backs to block and give us time to read on running plays and to throw the football as well.”

Ozark has faced highpowered offenses guided by talented quarterbacks each of the past two weeks, beating Lincoln and quarterback Drew Moore 44-7 two weeks ago and Gentry and quarterback Talan Williams, a move-in from Shiloh Christian 42-20 on Friday.

“We had a little bit of a slow start on Friday,” Burns said. “We had a fumble on the first play of the game, but we picked it up before halftime.”

Dean has almost as many touchdown passes (24) as he has incomplete passes (28) this year in completing 79.9 percent of his passes for 1,607 yards.

“They’re real good route runners and he makes real good decisions,” Burns said. “He’s going to find the open hole no matter where it’s at. Between Chairs and being able to throw the ball, we’ve got a big decision on what we try to take away. It’s a matter of take your poison.”

Dean also has big-game experience. At Greenwood as a sophomore, Dean started due to injury in the first conference game of the year against Little Rock Parkview and threw three touchdown passes in a loss. He also came in during the second quarter of the Class 6A state championship game against El Dorado due to an injury and guided the Bulldogs on a touchdown drive, scoring on a 2-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE Back on track

The Mavericks are back on track after a brutal three-game stretch to open 7A-West play.

Southside racked up 347 yards of offense on just 33 plays and rolled to a 42-12 win at Rogers Heritage on Friday.

“That was a good one after three weeks of No. 1, 2 and 3,” Southside Coach Kim Dameron said.

The Mavericks (4-3, 1-3) opened conference play with losses to Rogers, Bentonville and Fayetteville but still have hopes of a home playoff game to open the playoffs.

“During this whole threeweek stretch, my message to the team was that we needed to come out of it at worst a better football team than what we were going in and at best 3-0,” Dameron said. “We felt like we could compete with all of them.”

Southside now faces two crucial games at home, first against Springdale Har-Ber (2-5, 2-2) on Friday and then against Bentonville West (52, 3-1).

“We’re all about the process,” Dameron said. “We’re all about every week we do the best we can do to be the best version of ourselves and be the best we can be. If we do that, the wins and losses will take care of themselves.”

LAMAR Grinding in the 4A-4

The Warriors remain tough in one of the deepest conferences in the state, the nine-team 4A-4.

“It’s tough,” Lamar Coach Josh Jones said. “One through six or seven is really tough. There’s no one in the conference that is as good as the top five or six teams in the state, but everybody else is pretty good.”

Currently, six teams are tied for first place in the loss column with two losses each.

Lamar rushed for 228 yards and junior quarterback Caleb Green added 48 passing yards and a touchdown in a 32-20 win over Pottsville.

The Warriors (5-2, 3-2) had to rally from early 14-0 deficit.

“It was a good solid effort,” Jones said. “We did have one turnover. We gave up 14 points early. We drove the field, stalled and missed a field goal. They went down and scored, and kicked off to us and we fumbled on the second play of the drive. They had a short field and went up, 14-0. They didn’t score again until seven seconds left in the game.”

Three teams tied for the top spot last year with Lamar, Bauxite and Pottsville all going 6-2. This year, the conference is even more balanced.

Lamar hosts Little Rock Hall (2-5, 1-4) tonight.

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