Nettleton Raiders looking to notch eighth straight win

On the back side of tonight's game at Forrest City, the Nettleton Raiders are looking at a pair of huge impact games to close out the regular conference season schedule.

The Raiders, looking for their eighth consecutive victory tonight, will take on the Mustangs tonight at Sam Smith Stadium. Forrest City (2-5 overall and 1-3 in the conference) will host Wynne nest week and close out the regular season at Brookland.

Past tonight's game at Forrest City, Nettleton's final two games, Valley View and Wynne, will determine whether they claim the 5A-East title and where they will sit in the state playoff bracket.

The Raiders (7-0 overall and 4-0 conference) can't overlook tonight's assignment at Forrest City.

Nettleton coach Steven Hampton expects his team to focus on the task at hand, given its performance when facing other possible distractions.

Nettleton was dominant in their homecoming, game against Greene County Tech winning 547. The Raiders removed their starters early on a night when they led 41-0 at halftime.

Forrest City picked up their first conference win of the season last week, holding off Paragould 20-14 in a double overtime affair at Paragould.

Nettleton running back Koby Bradley ran for 147 yards and three touchdowns on just seven carries against Greene County Tech and is closing on 1,000 yards for the season sitting at 889 entering tonight’s game. He has scored 10 touchdowns and is averaging more than eight yards per carry.

Raider's quarterback Cameron Scarlett ran for 110 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries and completed 3-of4 passes for 92 yards and another score. Scarlett has accounted for 1,580 yards of total offense and 21 touchdowns, 13 passing and eight rushing.

Forrest City, over the past four games, have used as many as four different quarterbacks, in one game, and more than likely will do the same tonight against Nettleton.

Jaden Brown leads the Raiders in receiving with 20 catches for 403 yards and four touchdowns. Kenwarren McShan has 14 receptions for 245 yards and five touchdowns.

Defensively, Blake Brown has 74 tackles. Jordan Pigram leads the defensive front with 15 tackles for loss, while Javontae Wallace and Kam Phillips have nine each.

Forrest City stopped an eightgame losing streak in 5A-East competition with last week’s 2014 victory in double overtime at Paragould.

The Mustangs were outscored 118-20 in conference losses to GCT, Valley View and Batesville this seaso.

In non-conference play, the Mustangs defeated Helena-West Helena Central 32-14 after losing to Star City (35-0) and Little Rock Mills (40-8).

“We can't give them anything cheap," Hampton said of his Raiders in tonight's game. "We have to make them earn everything, and then really offensively we need to make sure we control the line of scrimmage, which we feel like that’s our strength on offense. Hopefully we can go out and do that.”

•••••

The Forrest City Junior Mustangs continued their surge Thursday, winning for the third straight week, a 34-28 victory over Nettleton on the final play of the game.

The Junior Mustangs improve to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the conference.

Roshawd Washington hauled in a 48-yard touchdown pass to snap a tie game and Jarvis Palmer added a 60-yard touchdown reception which tied the game at 28-28.

The Junior Mustangs will play at Wynne next week.

••••• Meanwhile, just to the west, the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots, still searching for their first win of the season, will host Corning tonight at Patriot Field.

The Patriots, 0-6 for the season, which includes a pair of forfeits, with a win over Corning tonight could escape finishing the season in the cellar.

The Palestine-Wheatley Junior Patriots improved to 4-3 overall this week, defeating Corning 38-8 in a game played Tuesday.

In that game, Anthony Pendleton scored four touchdowns and Eric Jimmerson scored once. Gavin Crawford added a two point conversion as did Pendleton and Grant Ball.