Arkansas high school football notebook: Farmington knocks off Shiloh Christian
Never count a J.R. Eldridge-led team out. The veteran football coach won back-to-back state championships at Arkadelphia in 2017 and 2018, then nearly led North Little Rock to a state title in 2020.
But one of his more impressive regular-season wins came Friday night as the head coach at Farmington, where the Cardinals trailed by 18 at halftime, only to come back and defeat powerhouse Shiloh Christian, 31-28. The undefeated Saints had won 40 straight conference games and are one of the favorites to win the 5A state championship this season.
“It was, obviously, a big game for our program, so it was huge for us to do that,” Eldridge said. “We were really in the same situation last year, playing against them. It was 30-30 with eight minutes left in the game, and they just finished that game off.”
The Saints scored 21 late points against the Cardinals in 2022, en route to a 51-30 victory that essentially clinched the 5A-West title.
“But this year, Luke Elsik and our quarterback Ayden Lester kept us going, and our defense was able to get some big stops,” said Eldrige, who watched his Cardinals sweep the Saints this week, including wins in the 8th-and 9th-grade games.
After scoring 10 points on their first two possession Friday night, the Cardinals stalled and allowed the Saints to grab a seemingly commanding 28-10 lead after two quarters. Shiloh scored touchdowns on its first three possessions.
Eldridge’s message at halftime was simple.
“In the first half, we just weren’t working together, offensive and defensively,” he said. “In the second half we really started working well together and it ended up working out really good for us. I’m proud of our kids, proud of our coaching staff and it’s definitely a big win for us.
“Basically, I just told our guys that if we work together in the second half things will be a little bit different. We’ve got to make sure we take advantage of every opportunity we have, and we were able to do that. Just having a belief and executing, then playing as hard as you can. That was really my message.”
In 2018, Eldridge’s Arkadelphia team was the first in state history to start a season 0-5 and finish with a state championship, knocking off four No. 1 seeds in consecutive weeks. This season, after losing starting quarterback Cameron Van Zant in the season opener, Farmington began this year 2-3. The Cardinals have now won three straight and currently sit tied atop of the conference standings with Shiloh and Alma, who will face off in two weeks.
Lester, just a sophomore, was slated as the starter at safety this season, before replacing Van Zant, and settling into the quarterback role nicely.
“Man, he’s been huge for us and really done a great job of taking a leadership role,” Eldridge said. “But really, just showing up every day and going to work, getting better every week. He’s really engaged and gets after it in practice every single day.”
After cutting the lead to 28-23 in the fourth quarter Friday night, Farmington converted a late 4th-and-12 play in its own territory with just over two minutes to play. The drive continued, before Elsik raced to the corner of the end zone with a 3-yard TD run with just 40 seconds remaining. After a successful 2-point conversion, Farmington picked off the Saints’ final Hail Mary pass to end it.
--Steve Andrews
Heber Springs playing for 4A-2 title against all odds
It was up in the air on whether Van Paschal would coach his 33rd season, but just four months removed from accepting the job at Heber Springs, he has led the resilient Panthers to a tie for first place in the 4A-2 following a 29-28 victory over Stuttgart that came down to the final minute.
Senior Xander Lindley has contributed at multiple positions on both sides of the ball, but took over under center after junior starting quarterback Liam Buffalo went down with an injury last week. Parker Brown scored on a run with 1:10 remaining in the game as Paschal opted to go for two and the lead. The senior streaked straight to the end zone and Lindley connected with him for the conversion as the Panther defense did the rest after specialist Gideon Tate made a game-saving tackle at midfield on the ensuing kickoff.
“It was a total team effort,” Paschal said. “The defense just would not give up.”
Brown finished with over 100 yards on the ground with two scores, which was just another night for him under the lights.
“Really, people need to be looking at Parker,” Paschal said. “When you do not have success, you do not always see numbers from the past, but he can catch punts, has great hands and is just a special kid.”
The Panthers (5-2, 4-0) started the season 0-2 and were outscored by a combined 91-39 but have since won five consecutive games which matched the total number of victories for the program during the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Paschal - the state's current winningest active head coach with 246 wins - was excited, but honest, regarding his first week on the job. He mentioned that there was a lot of work to do over the summer to get the team acclimated to his signature flexbone offense after switching from the spread. While the team has continued to get better on the field each week, they have also gained an entirely new mindset.
“I wish that I had a picture of what I saw when I first met with the kids,” Paschal said. “I had them sitting in lockers and there were 22 of them and all eyes were looking at the floor, nobody looking at me and from what I saw it was just a beatdown. A lack of thought that they could be anything.”
Known for his deep faith, Paschal and his wife relied on prayer that a select number of players would suit up for the 2023 Panthers.
“God likes the number 40, so we just started praying for 40 players,” Paschal said. “We are right at 40 the last I counted and of course some of those kids are hurt, but they still are on the team. The bottom line is God has blessed what we are doing.”
Heber Springs is deadlocked in first place with defending 4A-2 champion Harding Academy and the two will face off at First Security Stadium in Searcy on Friday for the league crown. The Wildcats have not lost a conference game since bumping up to Class 4A last season, currently on a 10-game win streak. Regardless of the outcome, the Panthers will at the very least get the No. 2 seed and host a playoff game, something they have not done since 2018.
The matchup is somewhat of a rehearsal for the postseason.
“I told the kids a while back that we think Harding is probably the No. 1 team in 4A,” Paschal said. “I think they are, and it is a measuring stick for us, but we are seeking a home playoff spot and hopefully once we come out of this game win, lose, or draw it gives us an idea of how we have to approach the playoffs.
“When you take a team that has not been around it or been there and does not really know, then everything is new. It has been teaching and training from day one and recognizing, growing from there so we are going to stay on that pattern and see what happens.”
–Kyle Sutherland | @k_sutherlandAR
Mills pulls out win over Robinson despite missing key pieces
For the past two weeks, Mills has had to live with the aftermath of a post-game brawl that cost them 12 players for their game Friday night at Joe T. Robinson.
While the Comets were without quarterback Achilles Ringo and defensive end Charleston Collins, the Comets (7-1, 5-1 5A-Central) came away with a 30-21 victory over Robinson, which gives them the tiebreaker over the Senators (6-2, 5-1) and Pine Bluff (7-2, 6-1) in race for the conference championship and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
Mills closes the season with Morrilton and Vilonia. Robinson plays at White Hall and Pine Bluff, which is idle next week.
“It’s been a tumultuous week with a lot of things that have been said,” Mills head coach Cortez Lee said. “We put it behind us. These are young men ,and you understand the life experiences they have and you try to pick them up and hope they learn from things they’ve did.”
Akyell Madison stepped in at quarterback and completed 10-of-15 passes for 135 yards, including a 55-yard touchdown pass to Chauncey Haynes that put the Comets ahead 24-21 with 9:59 left in the game. On the touchdown pass, Madison rolled out to his left, got away from pressure and threw the ball up to the Haynes, who made a leaping catch and made a couple defenders miss on his way to the end zone.
The touchdown was Haynes’ second of the game. He opened the game with a 50-yard interception return in the first quarter. For the game, Haynes caught 4 passes for 77 yards.
“Those were two exciting plays, especially when he made that great catch and the move was even more amazing,” Lee said.” He’s a young man making big strides in our program.”
Big plays were the story of the game as Ryan White ran back a fumble 50 yards for a touchdown with 8:31 left to set the final margin.
Turning three turnovers into touchdowns was the difference for the Comets.
“I knew it was going to be a big game. We needed a big-time play. That fumble recovery for a touchdown was huge,” said Lee.
While the Comets are in position to win the 5A-Central, the conference title might be elusive for the Senators, who won Class 4A state titles in 2019 and 2021 and reached the semifinals a year ago. Head coach Todd Eskola acknowledges that this is a season where the Senators are struggling. A task that has become harder with injuries forcing him to add five freshmen, including quarterback Reece Simpson, who is filling in while Quentin Murphy recovers from a concussion.
“Honestly, we’re not worried about it,” said Eskola. White Hall and Pine Bluff are good. This is a season we had to play a lot of young kids.
“We had six starters out. We had to play three freshmen to fill a lot of holes. It was going to be tough game. The young players played well, but we didn’t execute, and the turnovers killed us.
"We had to start a freshman quarterback. This is a young team. We knew this season was going to be tough. We’re going to go back to the drawing board and get better.”
--Jeff Halpern
Bentonville stays in 7A-West race after surviving Rogers
Great programs respond when they have to and the Tigers did that in a crucial conference showdown against Rogers in a Top 15 overall matchup.
Bentonville (5-3, 4-1) withstood a Rogers rally and escaped 28-21, putting them in a two-way tie with cross town rival Bentonville West a game behind Fayetteville for the 7A-West’s top seed.
The Tigers were Jekyll and Hyde in the beginning as they started 1-2 with the two losses by a combined six points. With the win over Rogers, they have now won four of their past five contests with the lone loss being to Fayetteville 42-21 last week.
While they will not use it as an excuse, starting quarterback Carter Nye left the Fayetteville game in the third quarter and in came sophomore Cole Slepecki, who got the start against the Mounties. Slepecki had a respectable performance, completing 6-of-11 for 120 yards and two touchdowns, both hauled in by Arkansas commit C.J. Brown finished with 89 yards on just three receptions. Christian Battles has been one of the more underrated backs in Class 7A this season and paced the ground attack with 128 yards and two scores.
Assuming Bentonville takes care of business at home in a favorable matchup at Springdale, the Week 10 matchup at Bentonville West will most likely be for the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds.
–Kyle Sutherland | @k_sutherlandAR
Photo by Steve Andrews
