By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Alltel/Hooten's Kickoff Classic drew close to 23,000 high school football fans Monday for a tripleheader played at Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium.
Pulaski Academy, ranked second in Class AAA, downed Benton 47-31; Springdale, the state's No. 2 team, beat up Warren 41-14, who entered the game ranked No. 1 in Class AAA and unranked Bryant defeated unranked Shiloh Christian 34-14.
Tonight, Fort Smith Southside, the state's top ranked team will take on fifth-ranked El Dorado and No. 8 Conway will battle sixth-ranked Cabot in the first Conway Classic to be played at Estes Stadium on the UCA campus.
The doubleheader event begins at 4:30 p.m.
On Friday, the rest of the state's high school teams open the 2002 season.
Locally, Forrest City will make the short trek to Wynne to take on the Yellowjackets, the defending Class AAAA state champs and the No. 2 ranked team in Class AAAA, in their season opener.
Forrest City's last victory over Wynne came in the first game of the 1997 season when then-junior Daniel Poole took the opening kickoff and returned it 85 yards for the quick Mustang score, which eventually led to a 26-14 Forrest City win at Sam Smith.
Since then, the 'Jackets have posted three straight wins: 13-7 in '98; 42-13 in '99 and 42-20 in 2000. The two teams did not play last year when the Yellowjackets opted to participate in the Alltel/Hooten's Kickoff Classic.
Last Friday night, the 'Jackets took part in the Arkansas high School Showcase jamboree, held at ASU's Indian Stadium and lost in a scrimmage to Searcy 10-8.
The Mustangs defeated West Helena and Brinkley in scrimmage games played last week.
While the Mustangs will be doing business at Wynne, the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots will open their 2002 campaign at home by hosting the Des Arc Eagles.
The two teams have not met since the 1999 season when the Eagles bested the Patriots 26-21.
Neither team is ranked in preseason but Des Arc is picked to finish fifth in the 6AA Conference while the Patriots are expected to finish fourth in the 3AA.
Des Arc is coming off a 9-3 season in 2001 while Palestine-Wheatley finished 7-3.
And finally, the Hughes Blue Devils, ranked ninth in Class AA's preseason polls, will take on Barton, a team they have defeated two times in the past four season openers.
Hughes returns a veteran squad this season and is the preseason favorite to win the 3AA Conference title.
Barton is picked to finish third in the 6AA, behind Harding Academy and Augusta.
Lucas Trucking won the 10-under championship of the All-American Traveler Labor Day Bash youth baseball tournament, played last weekend at the Sports Complex Lucas finished unbeaten in the tourney and downed the Forrest City Braves 13-0 in the final game.Lucas team members are: Josh Davis, Bruce Heard, Nathan Derrick, Lance Hughes, John Jones, Anthony Guyton, Raheem Wynne, Louis Driver, Henry Henderson, Jim Bailey, Derrick Buchanan, Dominique Madden and Darius Banks. The coaches are Jim Bailey, Steve Roberts and Larry Derrick.