High school football report

— Star City linebacker improving

Zack Towers, Star City’s seriously injured senior linebacker, is being weaned from a respirator, his older brother, Ty, posted on his Twitter page early Wednesday afternoon.

Towers remained in serious condition late Wednesday afternoon at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, where he has been has been hospitalized since Nov. 4 because of a head injury.

But in an update Wednesday, Ty Towers wrote that “Zack has been taken off respirator. He will stay off a few hours then put back on. He’s breathing on his own. Praise God!”

Ty Towers is a quarterback at Ouachita Baptist University.

Zack Towers left Star City’s Nov. 1 regular-season finale against Crossett with a head injury and underwent brain surgery that night at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff.

Star City was eliminated from the first round of the Class 4A playoffs Friday night at home by Heber Springs, 33-7.

POCAHONTAS

Williams undecided

Longtime Pocahontas Coach Dave Williams said he will decide by February whether he’ll return in 2013 or retire.

Williams, 69, has coached the Redskins since 1981 and has more than 200 career victories.

“I may come back; I may not come back,” Williams said. “I just don’t know.”

Williams said he’s in good health, but wants to give school administration plenty of time to choose a successor if he decides to retire.

A Van Buren native, Williams also coached Carlisle in 1978-1980.

Williams is the father ofFort Smith Southside Coach Jeff Williams, who led the Rebels to the Class 7A state championship in 2006.

MALVERN

Leopards bounce back

Malvern’s perfect record, and the 7-4A championship, slipped away with losses to Nashville (52-21) and Arkadelphia (39-34) to close the regular season.

A victory in either game would have given the Leopards a share of their firstconference championship since 1997.

Malvern (8-2) snapped its two-game losing streak with Friday night’s 45-7 victory over Gosnell in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs.

“We had a good week of practice and that was important,” Malvern Coach John Fogleman said Wednesday afternoon. “So far, so good this week.”

Malvern, which is ranked No. 5 in Class 4A, is atWarren in a second-round game Friday night.

The Lumberjacks (8-3) are riding an eight-game winning streak.

Fogleman said Warren’s skill players, including sophomore tailback Kilay Cox, sophomore wide receiver Darveon Brown and junior wide receiver Von Eric Gonder, mirror those at Nashville and Arkadelphia.

Cox has carried 211 times for 1,420 yards and 19 touchdowns this season.

Brown has rushed for 3 touchdowns, thrown a touchdown pass and caught 37 passes for 620 yards and 8 touchdowns. Gonder has 43 receptions for 878 yards and 7 touchdowns.

“The running back and receivers are good,” Fogleman said. “Of course, that’s what they’ve been putting out the last few years.”

Fogleman said senior quarterback Austin Warford, a three-year starter, surpassed 1,000 rushing yards this season against Gosnell. Warford is also approaching 2,000 yards passing this season, the coach said.

“I doubt there’s a lot of those around,” Fogleman said.

DID YOU KNOW?

In his past 23 games (13 last season as a senior at Strong and 10 this fall at Louisiana Tech), freshman running back Kenneth Dixon has rushed 485 times for 4,205 yards and 63touchdowns.

Dixon, the 2011 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette co-Offensive Player of the Year, set three NCAA records in Saturday’s 62-55 victory overTexas State.

His 25 total touchdowns (24 rushing and one receiving), 24 rushing touchdowns and 150 points scored are all NCAA records for a freshman.

Dixon has rushed 170 times for 1,052 yards to rank 26th nationally among Football Bowl Subdivision players, and No. 1 among freshmen.

As a senior last fall at Strong, Dixon set a singleseason state rushing record with 3,153 yards and 39 touchdowns on 315 carries.

He rushed 28 times for 348 yards and 5 touchdowns in a 45-20 victory over Carlisle in the Class 2A state championship game.

“We knew he was a special player after watching him in the semifinals against Junction City,” Carlisle Coach Scott Waymire said. “What an unbelievable year he’s had. A lot of schools missed the boat on that guy.”

Pulaski Academy senior tight end Hunter Henry set a career high for receiving yards (257) and equaled his career high for receiving touchdowns (3) in Friday night’s 62-21 victory over Vilonia in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs.

Henry, who has orally committed to Arkansas, has caught at least one touchdown pass in 22 consecutive games he’s played.

Jonesboro senior tailback Martin Stafford needs 87 rushing yards Friday night against Lake Hamilton to break his single-season school rushing record (1,818) set last year. Stafford also needs 49 rushing yards to reach 4,000 in his career.

PRAIRIE GROVE Tigers stopping teams in their tracks

In what may be the quickest playoff game played Friday night, Pottsville (10-1) is at Prairie Grove (10-0), which is ranked No. 6 in Class 4A.

“Running the ball a bunch, you would think we would be done first,” Prairie Grove Coach Danny Abshier said.

Both teams lean heavily on the run and are solid defensively.

Pottsville is allowing only 14.8 points per game.

Prairie Grove’s defensive numbers are off the charts.

The Tigers have seven shutouts - their defense hasn’t allowed a point in eight games - and yield just 151.4 total yards per game.

Prairie Grove’s defense hasn’t allowed a point since Sept. 28.

The Tigers will be tested by an offense that averages 375.9 total yards per game, including 296 rushing, out of acompacted Dead-T look.

Pottsville junior quarterback Michael Perry, a three-year starter, has rushed 152 times for 1,188 yards and 13 touchdowns this fall.

Senior Corey Campbell and senior Tyler Weaver have 684 and 667 rushing yards, respectively.

“The athleticism that Pottsville brings is just fantastic,” Abshier said.

“Throughout the backfield, any one of them can gothe distance at any given moment - just give them a crease. They’re all scooted up there, so you better scoot up there, too.

If you don’t, you’re going to be tackling them 10 yards deeper on the play.”

Prairie Grove is enjoying its best season since finishing 10-1 under Abshier in 2001.

Pottsville finished 11-1-1 last fall and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Class 4A playoffs.

Sports, Pages 26 on 11/15/2012

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