CLASS 7A FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS: Right Time To Peak
ASHCRAFT, CONWAY PRIMED FOR FIRST PLAYOFFS SINCE 2006
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
LITTLE ROCK — Clint Ashcraft is making progress at Conway, even if it doesn’t seem like it at times.
The best example of that progress will happen Friday when the Wampus Cats travel to Fayetteville for a first-round Class 7A playoff matchup. The postseason appearance will be Conway’s fi rst since 2006, and it comes in Ashcraft’s first year as coach after leaving Siloam Springs last season.
Conway (4-6) had its playoff berth locked up entering its fi nal regular-season game. However, after totaling just five wins in 2007-08, Ashcraft wasn’t sure how the Wampus Cats would respond.
“These seniors have never been to the playoffs,” Ashcraft said. “They don’t even realize it’s a pretty big deal.”
The result was a 35-28 win over Little Rock Catholic on Friday, a win that gave Conway the No. 5 seed from the 7A-Central Conference. It was the Wampus Cats’ second win in three games, a far cry from a season-opening 42-0 loss to Bentonville.
“I think our kids have gained some confidence,” Ashcraft said. “I think they’ve bought into what our coaches have been trying to preach here, and it’s starting to show a little bit.
“I feel like early our kids went out hoping something would happen in our favor rather than expecting something. We’ve got to go outthere and expect to win every time out there, no matter who it is.”
Next up for the Wampus Cats is Friday’s game against the Purple’Dogs (5-4-1), whose coach, Daryl Patton, is well aware of both Conway’s improvement and Ashcraft’s history of success.
The two coaches fi rst met when Ashcraft was at Watson Chapel and Patton at Bryant, and Patton has kept up with Ashcraft as he made the move to Siloam - fi rst as an assistant under then-coach Billy Dawson and then later as the head coach when Dawson left.
“I’m a real big fan (of Ashcraft),” Patton said. “He did an unbelievable job (at Siloam), probably better than (Dawson). Billy started (the success), but Clint came in and made the playo◊s for three, four years. That says a lot about his coaching ability.”
Conway’s renewed success this season has come in large part to senior quarterback Xavier Acklin (5-foot-9, 180 pounds).
Acklin has thrown and rushed for more than 1,000 yards.
“No one person brings (Acklin) down,” Patton said. “He’s the king of backyard football. He’ll go back, they’ll flush him out and he’ll start, stop, dive andjuke. Three guys will miss him, and he’ll go 70 yards. He’s a gamebreaker.”
Fayetteville, the No. 4 seed from the 7A-West Conference, enters Friday’s game coming off a 49-20 loss at Rogers Heritage.
It’s a game Patton is eager to put behind him, and he’s well aware of Conway’simprovement this season.
“You can just see they are getting better every week,” Patton said. “If we had played in Week 3 or Week 4, I’d feel good about the matchup. Right now, they’ve won two of three and you can tell they feel good.
“They’re starting tobelieve, starting to see their hard work pay o◊. They’re a very scary first-round game.”
Sports, Pages 6 on 11/11/2009
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