Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

To Face Seminoles This Friday Night At Osceola; Winner Goes To Little Rock

Prescott is one victory away from meeting its 7AA foe again for the championship after last week's trimming of the Atkins Red Devils, 31-13.

Nashville won its game 49-14 against the Mena Bearcats. Both teams were 12-0 going into the game.

The Curley Wolves are now 11-2 with their only true blemish against Nashville October 4. The other loss, which coach Eddie Jackson has refused to recognize, was a forfeit against Class AAA Ashdown. As far as he is concerned, Prescott still won the game 27-12. The forfeit was handed down by Arkansas Activities Association to due to an ineligible Prescott player.

Last year Prescott and Nashville also met in for the championship in Little Rock. Then Prescott was number one and Nashville was second. This year those roles are reversed.

For Prescott to make it to the finals they will have to go through last year's Class AAA state championship winner -- Osceola -- which has dropped to Class AA.

With only four teams left in the play-offs Osceola is ranked third and Lonoke, Nashville's opponent this week, is ranked fourth after defeating another 7AA team, the De Queen Leopards.

The 7AA Conference was the only conference where all four teams won its first game. Two weeks ago Fordyce was eliminated and last week De Queen was taken out.

It's still the only conference that has sent two teams the same year to the finals. It looks like that could repeat this year. Nashville is almost certain to be there when it meets Lonoke, but Prescott has a tough road to travel Friday.

By Nashville winning the conference title, the Scrappers has played all its post season games at home. Prescott played its first, traveled to McGehee for its second, hosted Atkins Friday night and will now have to travel at least four and one-half hours to Osceola this week.

But the victory will be sweet just to meet Nashville again.

Rain fell last Thursday night and all day Friday. It quit just in time for the crowd to make it to the game, and a good crowd showed up.

The field was very soft, and very muddy near the sidelines. Fans could tell when Coach Jackson put the reserves in the fourth quarter: the numbers on their uniforms could be seen plainly.

Because of the wet field, there were seven turnovers in the game. Prescott lost the ball three times and Atkins lost it four.

With the Wolves winning the toss once more, they elected to defer until the second half and kicked off to Atkins. The Red Devils fumbled the ball on the first play with Carlos Vanhook recovering for Prescott and the ball only 18 yards away from the goal line.

The distance could have been a mile, though, as quarterback Al Johnston was sacked on third down, moving the ball back to the 25. His pass to Sam Marlow connected on the next play, but not enough for the first down, so the ball went back to the Devils.

Only one person, tailback Daniel McFarland, consistantly carried the ball for the Red Devils. On the third play the Devils had a first down. Then quarterback Brent Taylor attempted a pass.

The pass was tipped by C.D. Flemons and Vanhook grabbed it near the 25-yard line and ran it into the end zone for Prescott's first TD. The point after try by Rashad Johnson missed, but Prescott led 6-0 with 8:31 left in the first period.

The Red Devils were already being `Wolverized' by Prescott.

Atkins had to punt after the Prescott kick-off, and then the Wolves had to punt with the Red Devils getting the ball at their 27.

After making one first down the Devils had to punt. It appeared that the punt was partially blocked by a host of Prescott defenders as they hit Nathan Huffman, but the officials ruled they did not and penalized the Wolves 15 yards for roughing the kicker, giving a first down to Atkins.

On second and one from the Prescott 41, McFarland broke a tackle and went into the end zone for a touchdown. The kick by Romey Campbell was good and Atkins led 7-6 to end the quarter.

Prescott did not make a first down during the quarter. Only 9 yards were made rushing and 14 more were made through the air. In the meanwhile Atkins had rushed 50 yards and passed for 15 more. The Devils had made four first downs.

The Wolves made their first first with just over five minutes left in the second period. However, they wound up with four during the quarter to Atkins' two.

The Wovles rushed for 49 yards in the second quarter and Johnston passed for 27 more. The total offense for Atkins in the second period was 25 yards.

Prescott's second touchdown came with just under three minutes left in the half.

After exchanging a couple of punts apiece, the Wolves began the scoring drive at their 37.

Johnston kept the ball on an option on the first play and gained five yards. Marlow gained three more on the next play and then he rushed for nine on third down, getting the first down at the Atkins 45-yard line.

Marlow managed to get one more on the next play, and Heath Duke lost it on the next try, but on third down Johnston connected with Flemons at the 30. Flemons was finally stopped at the Atkins 18.

Marlow gained nine yards on the next play and from the nine, Vanhook went in for the touchdown. A two-point try failed as Johnston was stopped before he reached the goal line on an option play.

The second half has belonged to the Wolves most of the time, and last Friday was no exception, it just didn't come in the third period as usual.

The Curley Wolves took the kick-off in seven plays to the Atkins 23 before Marlow lost the grip on the slippery pigskin, with the Red Devils recovering it.

After working the ball downfield for a first down, Jared Yates caught Taylor in the backfield for his second sack of the night. The sack finally forced the Devils to punt to Prescott.

The Wolves worked back to the Atkins 45, where Johnston hit Flemons at the 37-yard line. Flemons gathered in the pass and went for the TD, which was nullified with an offensive pass interference against the Wolves. Prescott finally had to punt with Rashad Johnson shanking the wet ball.

Once more it was McFarland getting the ball, then a penalty moved it back to the Atkins 47. Taylor attempted a pass that was intercepted by Johnson this time near mid-field. Johnson ran it back for Prescott's third TD. Once more the 2-point try failed, but the Wolves led 18-7 with 35 seconds left in the quarter.

The final quarter began with Atkins punting back to Prescott and then Wolves taking over with only 42 yards to go for another score.

Vanhook rushed for 12 yards on the first carry, getting the first down at the 30.

A holding penalty nullified the next run by Marlow. The next effort was a pass for Johnson that went out of bounds near the 10. Then Tracy Stafford gained 1