By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Junior Varsity Mustangs continued their winning ways Monday night -- erasing a 14-0 deficit to take a 28-21 win over West Memphis.
The JV Mustangs are 4-0-1 for the year with one game to be played at Jonesboro.
"The kids went over and played hard," said Forrest City Coach Donnie Willis. "They fell behind 14-0 but stayed in there and battled their way back. I was proud of the way they played."
Willis said Monday's win was important after the let-down suffered against Cabot last Friday in the annual Hall of Fame Game.
"We didn't compete against Cabot," Willis said, "And we're a better team than the 36-0 whipping we took Friday night."
Willis said despite the best efforts of the 2003 Hall of Fame members who gave pregame pep talks to the Mustangs, the team just didn't answer the bell.
"We failed to meet the challenge that was in front of us and that is disappointing," Willis said.
Friday's loss to Cabot leaves the Mustangs at 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the AAAAA-East Conference with four league games to play.
"All four games are winnable games if we go out and play hard and play smart," Willis said. "We can still get into postseason if we can win out, but we have to win all four."
The Mustangs play at Blytheville Friday and then travel to Jacksonville on Oct. 24, before closing out the season with home games against Mountain Home and West Memphis.
"The bottom line is simple," Willis said. "We have to be ready to deliver a hit and we have to be ready to take that shot in the mouth. Something we did not do against Cabot."
The seventh and eighth-grade Mustang teams have an open date tonight and will finish the season next week when they play at Jonesboro MacArthur.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Friday night's 41-34 win over Hughes have the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots in a place the team has not been since the school reinstated football during the 1996 season.
The Patriots are off to a 5-1 start, their best start in eight seasons through the first six games.
The Patriots opened 4-2 in 1997 and 2001 and 3-3 in 1996 and 1998.
Friday's win also put Palestine-Wheatley in a three-way tie for first place in the 3AA Conference along with Cross County and Hughes. All three teams are 4-1 in the league.
In head-to-head competition, Palestine-Wheatley owns the win over Hughes but lost to Cross County.
Earle, Marked Tree, Salem and Turrell are all bundled up at 3-2, so the race for the top four sports in the conference and berths into the Class AA state playoffs, is still anybody's game with seven teams still very much alive and in the hunt.
The Patriots, who have been to the playoffs in five of the past seven seasons, would like to add another trip to that mark. This time, though, Palestine-Wheatley is looking to go into postseason as a No. 1 seed which would give the team home field advantage throughout the playoffs or as long as the postseason ride continues.
Even though the Patriots have made the postseason trip five times, the school is still looking for its first postseason victory.
Should the Patriots win the conference and lock down the top seed, they would host the No. 4 seed from the 6AA Conference in a first-round game. That opening-round opponent could be in the form of Carlisle, Hazen or Harding Academy, who defeated the Patriots a year ago in the first round of the playoffs.
P-W lost to Hazen in the first round of the 2001 playoffs.
Following the No. 1 seed scenario and a first-round victory, possible second-round matchups include Hector, Danville, Arkansas Baptist, Pea Ridge, Charleston or Lavaca.
Like the 3AA, the 1AA and 4AA leagues are crowded at the top four spots and with four weeks to go, the weeding out process will be interesting to watch.
Not only are the Patriots living the life as co-leaders in the conference, P-W also leads the league in scoring with 217 points and leads the league in defense, allowing only 60 points in six games.
The fifth annual Mid South Marathon and Half-Marathon will be held in Wynne on Saturday, Nov. 1.
The event is a Boston Marathon qualifying race and will begin at 8 a.m. It is also designated as the Arkansas Grand Prix Marathon State Championship.
Organizers expect close to 500 runners, walkers and wheel chair racers this year.
Once again this year, there will be themed aid stations along the racecourse.
Trophies will be awarded for first, second and third place finishers over all and all other divisions.
For more information about the race, contact David or Karen Reagler at 870-238-5528.
Reagler, a regular in the annual Mightymite triathlon, recently completed the 100-mile ultra-marathon held in Ouachita Mountains in Perry County west of Little Rock and finished the event in just under 29 hours.
Of the 99 runners who started the race, Reagler said only 71 runners finished the grueling course.
Gym 2000 improved to 10-0 Monday night in the Men's Fall Softball League, taking down M&T Paving 19-9.
Gym holds down first place in the league while the Elaine Merchants, at 9-1 are in second. M&T and Subway are tied for third at 6-4.
The league plays on Monday and Thursday nights at the Sports Complex.