The severe storm hitting Arkansas has caused the Arkansas Activities Association to postpone all games by one week. The football season will effectively be extended by a week to insure safe travel conditions exists for the teams and fans. The dates below have been adjusted accordingly.
This week is the 2013 championship week for classes 5A, 6A, and 7A in Arkansas high school football. The 3 lower classifications are playing semi-final rounds. The semi-final games will all be played at 7:00 pm on Friday, December 13. The championship games are played in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock at the times show below.
Previews
In 5A, Batesville is playing in its third straight state final game after getting very little respect during the regular season. Both Camden Fairview and Pulaski Academy held down the #1 ranking in 5A until week #13 of the season. The Pioneers will be taking on a Morrilton team that has steadily improved each week. These teams have 3 common opponents: Nettleton, Greenbrier, and Alma. Batesville and Morrilton both easily handled Nettleton and Greenbrier. Batesville defeated Alma last week in a tight 31-28 game while Morrilton lost to Alma early in the conference season, 22-14. All these factors tell us to expect a close championship game. We think that Batesville will carry home the hardware on the basis of the state championship experience of the last two years.
The 6A championship game features two teams that are not strangers to this spotlight. Pine Bluff returns to the finals after ending Greenwood's 50-game winning streak last week. The Zebras were one of those victims in the 2012 6A championship game and are looking for their first state title since 1995. El Dorado won 3 consecutive 6A championships in 2009 - 2011. These teams met in conference play with the Wildcats winning at home over Pine Bluff, 21-14. However, the Zebras turned the ball over 7 times in that game. Again, we expect a tight game and nerves shouldn't be a factor given the postseason experience of both teams. We look for Pine Bluff to take care of the ball better than they did in the previous game and win its first state title in 18 years.
The 7A championships has a match-up of the two teams we picked to win the title (Cabot - Russ; Bentonville - Adam). Bentonville is undefeated against teams from the state of Arkansas as its 2 losses were in non-conference games against teams from Oklahoma and Texas. It has been quite some time since a non-7A West Arkansas team has beaten these Tigers. Cabot has its power Dead-T offense rolling this year as the Panthers have imposed their will against every opponent this season. Cabot will test Bentonville physically and use a patient attack to move the ball. [NOTE: We describe Cabot's style of play in Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call. You can get the eBook for just $0.99 if you use coupon code XK88N at Smashwords.] All signs point to this game being an absolute slugfest - fans might want to bring the "big boy pants" to watch this one. Fans of the old style football with huddles and power running will enjoy this game on Friday evening.
- Cabot vs. Bentonville
- War Memorial Stadium
- December 13, 7:00 pm
- Pine Bluff vs. El Dorado
- War Memorial Stadium
- December 14, 6:30 pm
- Batesville vs. Morrilton
- War Memorial Stadium
- December 14, 12:00 pm
- Valley View @ Warren
- Booneville @ Dollarway
- Earle @ Charleston
- Smackover vs. Glen Rose
- Will be played at Benton Harmony Grove High School
- Bearden @ Des Arc
- Carlisle @ Junction City
- Will be played at El Dorado High School
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