By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Junior Mustangs are hoping to bounce back into the victory column tonight when they travel to Jonesboro to play MacArthur.
The Junior Mustangs, 1-4 for the year, lost to Jonesboro Annie Camp 7-0 last week.
With the victory over Forrest City, Annie Camp improved to 5-0-1 and 2-0 in AAAAA-East.
Annie Camp's defense held Forrest City to 69 yards rushing and 103 total yards.
For Forrest City coach Rich Trail, Thursday's loss to Annie Camp came on the heels of his eighth-grade team's loss to West Memphis Wonder on Tuesday.
The eighth grade Mustangs fell to 2-3 on the year after giving up 24 points in the second half to Wonder, losing 24-6.
Forrest City's only touchdown was a Joey Bonds to Gerald Williams 60-yard touchdown pass and catch.
"Against Annie Camp, we played a good game but came up just a little bit short.
A week ago, MacArthur kept West Memphis East scoreless in the second half to take a 47-22 win.
Forrest City will have to contend with MacArthur quarterback Jacob Lee and running back Dominique Coleman, who scored on a 60-yard kickoff return last week.
Brandon Shelley scored on a 50-yard touchdown run for MacArthur and Lee converted the extra point to give MacArthur the 26-22 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, Lee scored on a 50-yard touchdown run.
MacArthur finished with 243 rushing yards on 18 carries on the game.
In other junior high action tonight, the Palestine-Wheatley Junior patriots will host the Hughes Junior Blue Devils at Wheatley.
*The seventh-grade Forrest City Colts improved to 3-1-1 for the year last week with a 22-14 win over West Memphis Wonder.
The seventh-graders did not play this week and will close out the season next Tuesday when they host Jonesboro MacArthur.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Cross County Mustangs ran their best meet of the year Tuesday at the Greene County Tech Invitational.
Kyle Houston finished sixth overall for the Mustang boys' team, posting a season-best time of 17:37.
Houston shaved more than two minutes off his previous best time.
Blake Davis was the next best Mustang finisher with a time of 20:07 while Thomas Broussard ran the course in 23:37. Both times were season-best efforts. Kyle Gaines and Dexter Lyles posted season-best times as well at the meet.
This is the first year that Mustang Coach Lewis Etheridge has fielded a full boys cross country squad.
Melanie Cook led the Lady Mustang team with a season-best time of 28:09 while Kayla Grantham finished the course in 29:06, also a season-best effort.
Alyssa Alderson, Leigh Anna Taylor, Jessica Flowers and Keri Shepherd all posted season-best times as well for Forrest City.
"We are definitely getting better," Etheridge said. Tuesday was the first time we have runs a course with hills and I thought we did very well."
The Mustang Cross Country teams will run again on Saturday, Oct. 23, at Hendrix College in Conway and on Tuesday, Oct. 26, at Harding University in Searcy.
The Greene County Tech Eagles won Tuesday's meet for their fourth win in six tries this season.
The Eagles, in their fifth season of running cross country, are ranked first in Class AAAA followed by No. 2 ranked Marion.
Forrest City will run at Marion on Oct. 30.
In Class AAAAA, Rogers is the No. 1 ranked boys team while Bryant sits on top of the girls' poll.
There are no AAAAA-East teams listed in the top five teams in either poll.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Forrest City is getting ready to rumble again -- for the eighth time.
Mustang Arena will host the annual Rumble on the Ridge Thanksgiving basketball tournament, Nov. 25-27, which will once again feature eight of the south's best high school boys' teams including the two of the nation's top players.
This field for the eighth Rumble features the host team Forrest City Mustangs and returning for a second straight year, Denham Springs, La., who lost in last year's championship game to Pulaski Academy from Little Rock.
Tournament first-timers are Lanier High School from Jackson, Miss.; Buffalo Island Central from Monette, Ark.; Bolivar High School from Bolivar, Tenn.; Richwood High School from Monroe, La.; Poplar Bluff High School from Poplar Bluff, Mo. and Reserve Christian High School from Reserve, La.
Tyler Hansbrough from Poplar Bluff and Tasmin Mitchell from Denham Springs, ranked one and two in the nation's prep polls, will go head-to-head on Thanksgiving Day when Poplar Bluff and Denham Springs will play the 8 p.m. first-round game.
Forrest City will battle Lanier at 6:30 on Thursday while Bolivar will meet Reserve Christian at 3:30 p.m. and Richwood will play BIC at 5 p.m.
The 2004 Forrest City Athletic Hall of Fame members were inducted during halftime of the Forrest City-Searcy Hall of Fame Game played Oct. 1. The new inductees represented three distinct eras of Forrest City athletics -- Lincoln High School, Forrest City High School before 1970 and Forrest City High School after 1970.
The 2004 members are: Rayfield Black, Akira Brown, Cato Brooks, Rev. Pernell Brown, Ed Henderson, Pat Mitchell, Cliff Garrison, Bill Baxter, Clifton Blanchett, Donna Steward, Michael Gray and John Childress.
Akira Brown and Rev. Pernell Brown were accepting the posthumous honor for Verlond Brown and Steward was accepting the posthumous honor for Thurman Vanzant. Childress was unable to attend the Hall of Fame banquet due to illness.
Mitchell, Blanchett and Gray represented the 1977 Forrest City Mustang mile relay team which was being inducted into the Hall as a single entry. The nine new inductees bring the total number of Hall of Fame members to 61 since the Hall was started in 2000.