Goodbye Wynne, hello Poplar Bluff, Mo.
Even though the Forrest City Mustangs have a "new-look" season-opening opponent tonight in Poplar Bluff, the caliber of competition the Mules will bring to Sam Smith is still just as high as it has been in the past with Wynne as the opening game.
Poplar Bluff is coming off an 8-1 overall 2003 season and are carrying five district titles since 1984.
The Mustangs finished 5-5 overall a year ago and are starting the 2004 season minus 24 graduated seniors which decimated the offensive and defensive lines.
Poplar Bluff coach Mike Dormady is in his third season and begins the 2004 year minus several key departures, including most of the offensive line.
Forrest City will start six juniors and five seniors on offense, which will be led by junior QB Marcus Fair. On defense, look for five juniors, five seniors and one sophomore.
The Mules return third-year senior QB Mark Gum, who threw for 1,883 yards and 17 touchdowns a year ago, completing 98-of-184 passes. Lining up behind Gum is returning senior running back, Todd Tinsley, who ran for 1,082 yards a year ago.
Poplar Bluff has strength in senior leadership, special teams and balanced offense, but potential problems with only five juniors on the roster.
Forrest City has an unproven secondary, which could be the difference early. The Mustang offensive line will have to provide the spark with Matt Vaccaro, Willie Berry, Jimmy Bean and Darry Banks leading the way.
Terrance Ware will have to be the leader in the backfield.
Usually, a successful prep football season lends itself to breeding future successful years.
The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots, under head coach Terry Farmer, have been very successful, reaching the Class AA state playoffs in each of the four previous seasons.
A year ago, the Patriots made it all the way to the quarterfinals and finished 11-2, the best-ever record for a Patriot football team.
How do Farmer and the Patriots improve in 2004? By getting to the "Rock," -- Little Rock, that is, for the AA state championship game in December.
The Patriots will open the campaign to get to the Rock tonight by hosting Carlisle, a team that made the playoffs a year ago, but couldn't get past Hughes in the opening round.
Carlisle, 6-4 a year ago, returns 12 seniors to a 24-man roster. The Patriots return 15 battle-tested seniors to a 23-man team, ranked in the AA preseason top 10.
Both teams will send senior quarterbacks into tonight's opener -- Heath Hawkins for Carlisle and Fred Leak for Palestine-Wheatley. Hawkins passed for more than 700 yards as a junior and tossed 11 touchdown passes. Leak had over 800 passing yards in 2003.
Both teams have a strong running game. Fullback T.J. Powell returns to lead Carlisle while the Patriots have a mighty "one-two" punch with seniors Brad Barton and Rashun Barnes, who combined for more than 3,000 of the close to 4,000 rushing yards put up in 2003. That mark led the entire state. Throw in a defense led by lineman Derrick Cooper and the balance of power shifts to the Patriots.
When Barton was moved into the 6AA Conference this season, Hughes was forced to find a new non-conference opening opponent.
For the past several seasons, Hughes and Barton have opened against each other. Now, conference mates, both had to look elsewhere for tonight's opening game.
Barton drew DeWitt while Hughes had to go a little farther -- all the way to Hot Springs and beyond to set up tonight's road trip to Jessieville.
It will be the first meeting between the two schools since the 2002 season, when Hughes defeated Jessieville in the Class AA state playoffs.
Hughes is coming off a 10-3 season a year ago and a trip through the state playoffs all the way to the quarterfinals.
This time around could be a little different for each team.
Jessieville enters the season ranked 13th in Class AA and is the preseason favorite to win the 5AA. The Lions finished 10-2 a year ago. Hughes is the fourth-place pick in the 6AA this time around and are in the rebuilding process.
Both teams use "smoke and mirrors" on offense. The Lions run from the Wing T while Hughes runs from the no-quarterback Single Wing.
Players to watch include Marcus Washington, Kerrick Scofield, Cory Scarbrough, Eric Fesperman and Jerry Jackson for Hughes as well as Jessieville quarterback Shawn Bates, wingbacks Andy Ault, C.J. Duncan and running backs Jeremy Castleberry and Ronnie Moeller.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The effort was there even though the final score may not have reflected it.
The Forrest City Junior Mustangs found the going tough from start to finish Thursday losing their season opener to Marianna 16-6 in front of one of the biggest junior high home game crowds in recent memory.
"Overall, I thought the kids played hard and they never quit," said Junior Mustang Coach Rich Trail. "We made a lot of mistakes that we did not make last week in the jamboree at Osceola. We just need to go back and work harder on not making those same mistakes."
For a while Trail thought he was trapped in a time warp. Last year the Junior Mustangs led 14-0 at the half before Marianna rallied to tie the game at 14-14.
"I thought I was standing in the exact same spot watching the same exact game," Trail said.
Thursday night, Marianna opened a 16-0 halftime lead before Forrest City finally found the endzone early in the fourth quarter to avoid the shutout.
Jeffrey Vaughn's run to the Marianna two set up Leonard banks' touchdown with 7:14 to play in the game. The two-point try by Xavier Jones failed.
Derrick Hill scored both Marianna touchdowns -- from 10 yards out with 44 seconds to play in the first quarter and from two yards out with 1:39 to go in the first half. Kevin Turner added both two-point conversions for the Junior Trojans.
Marianna ended Forrest City's opening drive with an interception at the 3:08 mark. That led to the first score.
The Junior Mustangs had a chance to get on the board just before the half when Joe DeWitt hauled in a long pass near midfield but fumbled the football. Marianna recovered. Off-setting penalties nullified the play and the Junior Mustangs were turned away.
Jones helped set up Forrest City's score with a big run late in he third quarter.
"Now we need to look at the game film and see what changes we need to make," Trail said. "I don't think the changes will be major, just tweaking a few things here and there."
The Junior Mustangs will play at Wynne next week. The Junior Jackets opened the season Thursday by playing Jonesboro Annie Camp to a 6-6 tie.
The seventh and eighth-grade Forrest City Colts will open the year on Tuesday, Sept. 7, when they host West Memphis East.
*Clarendon used two first-half touchdowns to post a 14-0 win over the Palestine-Wheatley Junior Patriots Thursday night at Wheatley.
The Junior Patriots were inside the "red zone" several times but couldn't score.
"Overall, it wasn't a bad effort for just a little more than 10 hours of preseason practice time," said P-W coach Terry Clardy. "We're not that far away from a win."
In other games played Thursday, Valley View fell to Corning 28-21 in Valley View's first-ever varsity home football game.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Mustang golf team opened what will surely be the toughest season schedule ever Thursday at Forrest City Country Club.
Under new head coach Wally Rauth, the Mustangs will play an 11-game schedule against some of the best teams in the state.
Thursday, the Mustangs hosted a strong Nettleton team, losing 158-188.
Nettleton's Matt Hogan took medalist honors with a 36.
Forrest City was led by freshman Matthew Howton, who fired a 39 in his first match as a Mustang.
Doug Drake carded a 48 while Nehemiah Stephens was a stroke behind with a 49 for the Mustangs.
Zach Jones shot a 52 while Clint Keown finished with a 62.
"We will get better," Rauth said. "Right now, I am not concerned with one match. Right now, we are concerned with building the Forrest City golf program. We will probably take our lumps this season but we could pull an upset along the way. If I do my part a coach and the kids do their part on the course, we will be the team to beat in the future."
Katie Ramsey, Forrest City's lone female golfer, finished with a 53.
In junior varsity action, Forrest City was led by Stephen Holmes who finished with a 59. Weston Lewis shot a 60 and his brother, Dustin, finished with a 63.
The Mustangs will play at Cabot on Tuesday, Sept. 7 in a four-way match that includes Benton and Bryant. On Friday, sept. 10, the Mustangs will host West Helena.
The Mustangs have scheduled matches against Blytheville, Jonesboro, West Memphis, Bald Knob and Paragould.
In other prep golf matches played Thursday, Nathan French shot a 37, and Jonesboro defeated West Memphis 161-174 in play-5, count-4 golf action at Meadowbrook Country Club in West Memphis.
Jonesboro (3-0) was led by Willie Little, who shot a 40, and John Williams and Klayton Seyler, who both shot a 42.
Jordan Payne led West Memphis with a 37.
In junior varsity play-5, count-3 action, Jonesboro also came out on top 133-161. Jake Henderson led the team with a 43, while Zach Luster and Ryan Trevathan scored a 44 and 46, respectively.
Jonesboro High School will go against Highland on Tuesday at Sage Meadows Golf Course.
*Matt Anders shot an even-par 35, and Corning finished with a 111 to beat Valley View, Harrisburg and Hoxie in play-5, count-3 golf match at Victory Lake Golf Course Friday.
John Clayton followed with a 37, while Jered Graddy and Zac Hoggard each tied for third with a 39 for Corning (4-8). Valley View, which scored a 135, was led by Zach O'Riley's match-low 31.
Taylor Mooney shot a 45 for Harrisburg, which finished third with 141, and Billy Mike Watson and Jonathon Lawrence each shot a 45 for last-place Hoxie.
Corning will take on host Valley View at Sage Meadows Golf Course on Tuesday.
The East Arkansas Youth Football Association will begin its third season of play Saturday with six teams involved in this year's schedule.
This year's schedule of games will be played each Saturday, on the baseball field located behind the Palestine-Wheatley HS gym in Palestine.
Admission to the games is $2 for adults and $1 for youths 12 and youth.
The league moved to Palestine this year after playing its league games in Forrest City for the past two years.
Three Forrest City teams will form the nucleus of the league along with a team from Caldwell, one team from Marianna and one team from Earle.
"I think this may be our best season yet," said Jackie Cunningham, who formed the league two years ago.
The Calvary Christian School Lady Eagles volleyball team defeated Millington's Faith Heritage Christian Academy Thursday night to even their season mark at 1-1.
Calvary took a 25-17 in the first game of the best-of-five match behind strong play from junior Meredith Borden, who served 13 of the team's 25 points.
Kriston Hogland helped out with four points, Katie Hornbeak had three and seniors Amber Hart and Hannah McMahand had two points each.
The lady Eagles got scoring from 11 different players to take game two 25-20 and then rallied from an 18-17 deficit in game three to score a 25-17 win.
Calvary got scoring from Ashley Austin, Cassie Alexander, Summer Hess, Brittany Herzog, Tyler Kimbrell, Megan Best, Hillary Hill, Lauren Devazier, Lindsey Poe, Amber Shackleford, Katie McNair and Mercedes Thomas.
Calvary defeated Faith Heritage in the best of three JV match as well to improve to 1-1 for the year.
Following the Labor Day holiday, the Lady Eagles will travel to Heritage Baptist in Memphis on Tuesday, Sept. 7. Matches begin at 6 p.m.
Calvary's next home game will be Monday, Sept. 20, when Faith Heritage returns to Forrest City.
*The Calvary elementary Eagles boys' soccer team fell to 0-2 for the year, losing to Macon Road Baptist on Tuesday, 9-4.
Macon Road scored early and often, building a comfortable lead.
Blake Lester, a Calvary fifth-grader, scored two points as did Micah Rinehart.
Other Eagle players seeing action included Seth Parker, Alan Pena, Colby Hight, Jacob Paddock, Jacob Sohn, Virlan Lee, Logan Rodgers, Logan Laird and Eddie Trim.
Following the Labor Day holiday, the Eagles return to action on Saturday, Sept. 11, when the host the Ridgefield Christian Warriors at 10 a.m.