LITTLE ROCK — Zann Jones and his Shiloh Christian teammates basked in the glow of winning the program’s unprecedented third consecutive state championship 61-40 against Pulaski Academy on Friday night in War Memorial Stadium.
But Jones could not help but think ahead to the future, when the sign on the home pressbox in Champions Stadium that honors the school’s title winning years is updated.
“It’s going to be nice, you know, to see this up there,” Jones said. “It’s going to be there forever.”
It was the team’s No. 1 goal all season long, to pull off a feat that had eluded the state’s most successful football program over the past decade. But it did not come without a fight from Pulaski Academy.
The Bruins led Shiloh (14-1) three times in the game before the Saints seized control. Pulaski Academy (13-2) gave Shiloh it’s toughest game since the second game of the season when Euless (Texas) Trinity handed the Saints their only loss.
“We talked about it before the game that they were a good team and they were going to make some plays,” Jones said. “We just had to stay calm. We just all looked at each other and said ‘we can get through this.’”
Senior quarterback Kiehl Frazier, who won his record-setting third straight state finals Most Valuable Player award, led the charge. Frazier accounted for seven touchdowns in the game, including three touchdown passes to Jones. Frazier and Jones also came away with two huge defensive plays with Jones stripping the ball away to force a fumble after a long Bruins pass, and Frazier going high to intercept a Pulaski Academy pass near the end zone.
Jones’ three touchdown receptions gave him 57 for his career, breaking the state record of 55, held by two players.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet,” Jones said of his record. “It’ll probably hit me later on.”
One player who found Friday’s win especially gratifying was senior Garrett Harper. The two-way starter was forced to watch last year’s championship game from the sideline with an elbow injury. But Harper bounced back this year to become the first Shiloh player since 1997 to rush for more than 1,000 yards. On Friday, his tough runs accounted for 154 yards on 21 carries and Shiloh’s first touchdown.
“This is awesome,” said Harper as he adjusted his championship cap. “This is so much better than sitting on the sideline last year.”
Shiloh’s defense was seriously tested for the first time since the loss to Trinity. But the unit came up with big plays that forced turnovers. Senior Ryan Hyde had 4.5 sacks en route to earning Defensive MVP honors, and Jacob Coffman, Colt Thomas, Troy Goss, Samuel Harvill and a host of others all had big plays.
“Our defense played really well,” Shiloh coach Josh Floyd said. “I know (Pulaski Academy) scored 40 points, but defensively we made key plays when we had to.”
Pulaski Academy’s unorthodox special teams play led to a couple of mistakes by the Saints, including the game’s opening on-side kick.
“(The on-side kicks) were hard to prepare for,” Harper said. “If you do enough of those, you’re bound to get some.”
But by and large the on-side kicks were no factor and in fact gave Shiloh short fields to work with several times. The Bruins no-punt plan also backfired and led directly to four Saints touchdowns, including fourth down sacks by Goss and Chase Richards that led to a pair of easy scores.
A group of 16 seniors played their final game for Shiloh on Friday, walking off the field as the most successful class ever at the school.
“Winning three in a row is pretty satisfying for these seniors,” said Floyd, who’s now won four state championships in the past five years. “This is an unbelievable accomplishment to win three in a row. Every time they ended the year, they were champions. That’s tough to do.”