It is interesting to note that Palestine-Wheatley and Earle were the only two 3AA Conference teams to secure season-opening victories last week.
That makes tonight's game between the two teams extremely important.
Palestine-Wheatley completely dominated Des Arc 38-0 while Earle had to sweat out a 16-14 win over lowly Elaine.
The rest of the 3AA teams lost.
Earle comes to Palestine-Wheatley tonight to start conference play and that makes tonight's game the biggest on the league schedule for the two teams -- at least this early in the season.
The Patriots were picked as the No. 2 team in the conference this season behind front-runner, Hughes, while the Bulldogs were tabbed as the league's third-best team and have been called a "much improved team" coming into this season.
The Bulldogs registered a win over the Patriots last season.
Last Friday, against Des Arc, the Patriots chewed up closer to 700 total yards of offense with running backs Rashun Barnes and Brad Barton taking the biggest chunks -- combining for 373 rushing yards.
Much of that yardage coming on the individual efforts of both backs running behind a Patriot offensive line that started three sophomores and at times, fell short in the blocking efforts.
The Patriot offensive line will have to play better tonight. The Bulldogs have a little more talent on the field than Des Arc had.
Tonight's winner will be in the 3AA Conference driver's seat. It is the home opener for the Patriots. Kick off is set for 7:30 p.m.
A year ago, Hughes hung 59 points on the scoreboard in a rather lop-sided 3AA Conference win over Walnut Ridge.
Tonight could be more of the same.
In the Walnut Ridge opener a week ago, the Bobcats defense gave up 40 points against Hoxie -- picked to finish no better than fifth in the 2AAA Conference, on the heels of a 3-7 season a year ago.
The Bobcats plan this season was to improve on last year's sixth place conference finish.
Too bad the Bobcats draw the conference's preseason favorite, Hughes, as their first official conference test.
Even though Hughes fell to Barton 38-6 a week ago, these Blue Devils are as explosive as they were in 2002 when, for most of the season, they led the state in scoring average per game.
Walnut Ridge lost their projected starting quarterback Brett Shrable who transferred during the summer to Hoxie and tailback Jeb Davis tore his ACL playing American Legion baseball.
Davis rushed for 1,004 yards as the starting tailback and was one of the top defensive players in the secondary.
The Blue Devils lost some offensive punch to graduation but return Ayodele Ogunsakin and Andre Walker to go along with some very talented juniors and sophomores.
Neither team has much depth, but then the Hughes players are always conditioned to stay on the field a lot of minutes.
Hughes goes into tonight's contest heavily favored -- no less than 23 points and it couldbe much worse.
The Bobcats would like nothing better than to get an early foot in the league's front door by scoring a home win over the Blue Devils.
Kick off is set for 7:30 p.m.
Even though Forrest City lost to Wynne in last Friday's opener, there were several bright spots for the Mustangs.
The offensive line played hard and dominated most of the game. Senior tailback Tae Chism showed why he is lining up in the backfield instead of under center this season.
From 20-to-20, the Mustangs hand their way with Wynne. Once inside the 20, the storyline changed.
"We didn't take care of business inside the red zone," said Forrest City Coach Donnie Willis. "We have to find some scoring."
Marianna, Forrest City's opponent tonight, had similar problems against West Helena in last Friday's opener, losing to the Cougars 21-0. The same Cougar team that lost 13-0 to Forrest City in a preseason scrimmage game.
By all indications that, and the fact that the Mustangs have won three straight against the Trojans, would equate into a rather lop-sided victory for the Mustangs.
If Willis' team can find a way to put some points on the board.
In Marianna's favor, the Trojan defense played very well, led by seniors Samuel Woods, Jeremy Gates and Lesharjuan Smith. Marianna's ground game was fueled by marcus Brown (16 carries for 75 yards) and Woods (16 carries for 49 yards).
Demarcus Sinclair led the Mustangs in rushing with 74 yards on 10 carries, but it was sophomore quarterback Marcus Fair, who came in during the fourth quarter that ignited the Mustangs' only scoring drive.
Neither the Mustangs or the Trojans did much through the air. Forrest City completed only 4-of-9 attempts while Marianna completed only one pass.
Kick off is set for 7:30 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Junior Mustangs did very little that worked against Wynne's junior high Thursday night.
"It was a coaches' nightmare," said Junior Mustang Coach Rich Trail, following a 28-0 loss to the Junior Jackets at Sam Smith Stadium. "We tried different things and nothing worked. We had a good week of practice. But we came out against a big old Wynne junior high team. I don't think I've ever played two bigger nonconference games than we did this year -- against Marianna last week and this week against Wynne. Wynne had the whole package. We stood toe-to-toe with them and played hard until the very end."
After a scoreless first quarter, Wynne scored on the first play of the second when Lee Harris scored from two-yards out and Terrance Garrett tacked on the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.
Wynne made it 16-0 at the half using Terrance Boykin's 35-yard run with 30 seconds to play.
Boykin's TD run was set up when the Junior Jackets converted a fourth down using a fake punt.
After holding Wynne on a fourth down attempt early in the third quarter, Forrest City fumbled the ball in the backfield and Wynne recovered in the endzone for a touchdown and a 22-0 lead.
The Junior Jackets added a late touchdown in the fourth to make it 28-0.
Forrest City had a chance to avoid the shutout late in the game but starting quarterback Stephon Weaver's long pass was in and out of the hands of Justin Ross close to the goal line.
Trail said while they wanted to win these two games, they were basically warm ups for the conference which starts next week.
Trail said his team felt confident coming in especially after making some personnel changes along the offensive line. The changes didn't work out as Forrest City quarterbacks Weaver and Wilson Parker had precious little time to react after taking the snap.
"We caved in some on defense but we did some good things too," Trail said.
The Junior Mustangs (0-1-1) will open AAAAA-East Conference play next Thursday when they travel to Jonesboro MacArthur.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Gym 2000 and the Elaine Merchants are sitting on top of the Men's Fall Softball league after two playing dates.
Both teams are 2-0 for the year.
Thursday night, Elaine defeated Kimbrell Law Office 29-11 while Gym 2000 defeated Subway 32-20 in a game which saw the two teams combine to hit 14 home runs (Subway 8 and Gym 6). Subway hit four consecutive home runs in the second inning alone.
The two teams combined to score 52 runs on 62 base hits. Subway is 1-1 for the year.
Also Thursday, M&T Paving evened their mark at 1-1 with a 21-1 win over Shaw Construction and the Head Hunters downed Cladwell Discount Drug 21-6.
Shaw and Caldwell are both 0-2.
League play will continue Monday beginning at 6 p.m.
All games will be played at the Sports Complex on Field No. 3.
The Co-Ed Fall Softball League plays each Tuesday night at the complex.