Troy seeks leg up in ‘crazy’ 5A-South

A lot will be decided in a little time in Class 5A-South.

The conference title remains up for grabs entering week 9, and so do the league’s four playoff spots.

“With two weeks left in the season nobody is guaranteed a playoff spot — nobody,” Hot Springs coach Chris Vereen said. “That’s crazy.”

The blurry picture will become only partly clearer tonight, when two of three firstplace teams — preseason favorite Camden Fairview and Hot Springs, both 4-1 — clash at Reese Memorial Stadium. The South’s other 4-1 squad, Watson Chapel, plays 3-2 Lakeside tonight at home, and 3-2 White Hall travels to 1-4 Hope.

The league’s title and playoff berths will come down to next week’s games with Hot Springs playing at Lakeside, Watson Chapel at Fairview and winless De Queen at White Hall.

“It ought to be interesting,” Vereen said.

The 4-4 Trojans’ coach was interested, and perhaps a bit amused, by a comment attributed to Fairview’s Mike Cox by Hootens.com that the 6-2 Cardinals have “flown under the radar.”

“They haven’t been flying under our radar, I’ll tell you that,” Vereen said. “Camden doesn’t fly under anybody’s radar.”

But vulnerability showed in Fairview’s stunning 29-0 loss to Magnolia in week 6. The Cardinals since have righted their course, easing past De Queen 39-10 before obliterating Hope 56-0 last week.

Vereen credits the offensive revival to senior Byron Keaton beginning to share time at quarterback with junior Logan Reed. Keaton specializes on keeping, doing so for a 13-yard average.

“He’s a tremendous runner. When he’s in there they’re go-

ing to run the ball,” Vereen said.

Reed is 94 for 142 (66 percent) passing for 1,416 yards and nine touchdowns.

“If they need something (quickly), they put Reed in at quarterback,” Vereen said.

He doesn’t see the tandem quarterbacks — junior Kimonte Wilson also takes snaps in a Wildcat set — as a preparations problem.

“I think it helps you prepare,” Vereen said. “When Keaton comes in you know you’ve got to stop the run. When the Reed kid is in it’s the other way around.”

Another Fairview weapon is senior Cornelius Page, a receiver last year now playing in the backfield. Vereen compares Page to the Trojans’ versatile Cleo Floyd.

“He’s a kid just like Cleo. They feel like he’s a kid that needs to touch the ball 15 times, and they just weren’t doing that with him at receiver,” Vereen said.

A productive running game and defense highlighted Hot Springs’ 4-0 South start, but allowing big plays put the Trojans in a 22-7 hole in last week’s 34-29 loss to White Hall. The Trojans rallied ahead 29-28 before Courtney Anderson’s 39-yard touchdown run with 2:36 to play.

“We gave up the big play, which we had not been doing,” Vereen said.

“At times we played very, every well (defensively) last week, but we gave up three plays of fifty yards. That was the difference. We can’t go out there and allow two or three plays of fifty yards.”

Floyd led the offense, rushing for 195 yards and 50- and seven-yard touchdowns. Quarterback Anthony Goffigan and fullback Bryan Rosburg also ran for scores, Hot Springs’ ground game totaling 389 yards.

Vereen seeks similar success against Fairview.

“This is the most important game we’ve had all year to have ball control. The more we keep it out of their hands the better chance we have to win,” he said.

“They’ve got some big guys up front (defensively), but probably their strength is they’ve got a lot of speed,” Vereen said. “That might limit our big plays, but that might not be a big thing, We want to control the ball.”

While a win last week would have put Hot Springs in the playoffs for the first time since 2007, Vereen noted his team would still need to beat Fairview to win the conference title.

“All the goals we set before the season are still on the table,” he said. “The bottom line is we control our own destiny. We’ve just got to take care of business. The only thing for sure is we’ve got two ball games left and we’ve got to win one of them.”