LITTLE ROCK — Arkadelphia hasn’t started 4-0 since 1987, when the Badgers finished 14-0, captured the Class AAA state championship and were ranked No. 1 overall and No. 22 nationally in the final USA Today Super 25.
The 2012 Badgers can match the 1987 version, at least through the first four weeks, with a victory tonight at Nashville in the 7-4A opener.
Arkadelphia (3-0) is ranked No. 6 in Class 4A following last week’s 38-14 victory at Hot Springs.
Nashville (2-1) is No. 1 in Class 4A and has won 67 of 72 games with Billy Dawson as coach.
“Obviously our kids and our coaching staff, we know it’s going to be a big deal,” Arkadelphia Coach J.R. Eldridge said. “This game is a huge deal for us. But we’re not going to try and do anything special. We’re just going to try and continue to build on the momentum that we’ve created up to this point.”
Eldridge, 34, is in his second season at Arkadelphia after spending the previous four years at defensive coordinator at Ouachita Baptist, his alma mater.
The Badgers finished 4-7 last season as members of the 5ASouthwest.
Eldridge hired former Ouachita Baptist quarterback Eli Cranor as offensive coordinator in the offseason, and the Badgers have gone to a hurry-up, no-huddle attack.
Eldridge praised Cranor for installing a dynamic scheme that is producing 42.7 points per game.
“He’s a natural teacher,” Eldridge said. “He’s young and has got a lot of energy. I recruited him when I was at Ouachita and recruited him again to come run our offense.”
Junior quarterback Jakahari Howell rushed 28 times for 203 yards and 2 touchdowns last Friday against Hot Springs. Junior tailback Kris Oliver ran 23 times for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The Badgers finished with 514 total yards.
Eldridge, a 2001 Ouachita Baptist graduate and former linebacker at Fayetteville, said he expected Arkadelphia to be improved following a productive offseason.
“We felt like at the end of last year that two of our limiting factors were mental toughness and our strength and conditioning,” Eldridge said. “Those two things we addressed in the offseason.”
BENTONVILLE
Streaking program
Top-ranked Bentonville (3-0) extended several streaks with its 41-6 victory over Batesville (Miss.) South Panola last Friday night at home.
It marked Bentonville’s 28th consecutive regular-season victory, 16th consecutive nonconference victory and 16th consecutive victory at Tiger Stadium.
Bentonville Coach Barry Lunney called the performance against South Panola — a nine-time state champion since 1993 — among the most complete in his coaching career.
“For this early in the season, and the quality of the program we were facing, all three phases — offense, defense and kicking game — was about as good as we could play,” Lunney said.
The emphatic victory vaulted Bentonville from No. 53 to No. 24 in the RivalsHigh 100 national rankings and completed the school’s fifth consecutive perfect nonconference season.
Bentonville opened with victories over Kansas City (Mo.) Rockhurst (24-7) and Broken Arrow, Okla. (20-10), two other nationally prominent programs.
But Lunney said his team doesn’t have time to dwell on its accomplishments because 7A/6A-West play begins tonight at Springdale Har-Ber.
The Wildcats (1-2) are No. 4 overall and feature 330-pound junior nose guard Josh Frazier, whom Lunney said was a force in last week’s 10-7 victory over Fort Smith Southside.
Lunney said he’s stressed to his team for months that Har-Ber is simply an extension of Bentonville’s brutal stretch to open the season.
“I’ve always said the first four games, because Har-Ber is right there in the same category physically,” Lunney said.
BROOKLAND
Worth the wait
Only one active program in Arkansas can claim it has never lost a game and that is Class 4A Brookland, a suburban Jonesboro school that is playing its first varsity season this fall.
Brookland (2-0) beat Brinkley 42-12 at home Aug. 31 and Mountain View 22-12 on the road last week.
Sandwiched around the victories was a “no contest” against Piggott on Sept. 7, when only 13 seconds were played because of severe weather.
Bearcats Coach Kelly Mills attributed the perfect start to the school’s decision to delay varsity play until the 2012-2014 cycle.
Brookland had been scheduled to begin varsity competition in 2010, but Mills said he convinced the school to wait two years in order to boost participation.
There were only 17 players on the junior varsity team in 2010, he said.
Mills said he has 36 players (grades 10-12) on this year’s team, including 10 seniors.
Brookland also won its final four JV games last season to finish 4-4.
“You would like to say this is exactly how we thought it would happen,” Mills said. “But we’re pleasantly surprised. Waiting that extra two years, I think, really benefited us.”
Mills said approximately 2,500 fans attended the program’s first game against Brinkley and another large crowd is expected tonight at Bearcat Field for the 3-4A opener against Gosnell.
“First conference game in school history,” Mills said. “I’d hope we’d have a big crowd.”
A former wide receiver/ linebacker at Watson Chapel, Mills graduated from Arkansas State in 2000 and was an assistant at Rivercrest in 2000-2008 before starting Brookland’s program.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK
One more year
North Little Rock will not play in a new on-campus stadium next year, but instead remain in North Little Rock Stadium. The venue was scheduled to be razed in December, but North Little Rock Athletic Director Kevin Danaher said district officials decided to begin construction on academic facilities first, as part of a new high school that will be built on the existing site. Originally, the stadium was to be built first. “They just kind of reversed it,” Danaher said. Danaher said the academic facilities will still wrap around the new stadium, which will run north and south. North Little Rock Stadium, built more than 60 years ago, runs east and west. Danaher said he believes North Little Rock should be in its new stadium in 2014.
CENTRAL ARK. CHRISTIAN
Rained out
Central Arkansas Christian has only played a little more than six quarters this fall because of severe weather. “It’s frustrating,” Mustangs Coach Tommy Shoemaker said. CAC’s Sept. 7 game at Little Rock McClellan was called with 11:39 left in the third quarter because of lightning.
Last Friday night’s home game with Little Rock Christian was canceled because of torrential rain during that afternoon.
Shoemaker said water was knee deep around the inside of the track that surrounds the field.
Logistic problems prevented the game from being played at Little Rock Christian, Shoemaker said.
There was talk of playing the game Saturday, but Shoemaker said that plan was scrapped, in part, because of the threat of more severe weather.
Shoemaker said senior Chase Dowell would continue to start at quarterback in the absence of junior Jack Thomas, who suffered a shoulder injury in the season opener against Stuttgart.
CARLISLE
Bison after Bo
Carlisle Coach Scott Waymire said junior running back/linebacker Bo Weddle will undergo surgery today to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee suffered against Mountain Pine on Sept. 7.
Weddle was a member of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Super Sophomore team after rushing 197 times for 1,697 yards and 21 touchdowns, helping the Bison reach the Class 2A state championship game.
Waymire said Weddle attended Carlisle’s game last week at Osceola and plans to watch tonight’s 6-2A opener against Palestine-Wheatley.
“He said he may have to be in a wheelchair, but he’s going to be there Friday night,” Waymire said. “That’s Bo for you.”
In Carlisle’s first game without Weddle, the Bison (2-0) beat Class 3A Osceola 22-18.
Salt Bowl glance
WHAT Benton vs. Bryant WHEN 7:30 p.m. Friday (gates open at 6 p.m.) WHERE War Memorial Stadium, Little Rock ADVANCE TICKETS $10, includes a commemorative T-shirt ADVANCE TICKET OUTLETS Big Red stores in central Arkansas TICKETS AT THE GATE $8 OVERALL SERIES RECORD Benton leads 24-14-1 SALT BOWL RECORD Bryant leads 9-2-1 LAST YEAR Bryant 21, Benton 14 ATTENDANCE SINCE 2006 2006 (22,146); 2007 (est. 23,000); 2008 (est. 3,000); 2009 (26,316); 2010 (20,206); 2011 (23,587) state high school record NOTE Bryant is the home team this year. Its fans are asked to enter and sit on the west side.
Sports, Pages 25 on 09/21/2012