Arkansas high school football 8-man state final: Rector hoping to bring trophy home this year
The first slate of the 2023 Arkansas football state championships kick off this week at War Memorial Stadium.
Getting it started on Thursday evening as one of five games in three days will be the 8-man sanctioned final between the Spring Hill Bears (9-3) and Rector Cougars (9-0).
The Cougars make their return trip to Little Rock after finishing as runners-up last season. They started the game strong, getting out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead, but Izard County Consolidated responded with 20 unanswered points and Rector was not able to recover.
While thankful for another opportunity, preparation remains the same this time around.
"At the end of the day, it is a football game," Rector head coach Dave Hendrix said. "We try not to make it any bigger than it is. I know it would be foolish for me to say that this is not bigger than the rest of them, it is, but we just have to worry about doing what we do."
Rector running back Carter Hill (Photo by Eric Vicarro)
Leading an experienced senior class is quarterback Drew Henderson, who rushed for a game-high 163 yards and four touchdowns in last year's championship game.
Henderson, who took over under center in Week 3 of last season, has been unstoppable in 2023. With one game left to play in his career, Henderson currently sits at 2,071 rushing yards - the previous school record for a single season was 1,468 - and 35 touchdowns. He is also an underrated passer as six of his 20 completions this season have resulted in touchdowns.
"Drew is a smart, hard-nosed young man and all of his teammates believe in him," Hendrix said. "People also overlook sometimes that he has several passing touchdowns. He can throw it."
Along with everything he does offensively, Henderson has also logged 40 tackles, including three for loss, recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass on defense.
In total, Rector's offense averages 45.6 points and 451 yards per contest, 398 of that on the ground. Senior Kaden Avery, who also leads the Cougar defense with two interceptions and has 51 stops, has been the other primary offensive contributor, currently with 964 total yards and 9 touchdowns that includes a 75-yard kickoff return.
Spring Hill's defense that allows 18 points per game will have its hands full, but on the same note is one of the more battle-tested teams in the 8-man ranks. This year's schedule included the likes of Subiaco Academy, Genoa Central, Brinkley (twice), Mountain Pine and Strong - whom the Bears initially expected to play in the semifinals, but the Bulldogs forfeited that contest.
Defensively, the Bears have two triple-digit tacklers in junior Alex Arriaga, who has logged 132.5 tackles, including 20.5 for loss, while classmate Tucker Vickers has 104 tackles with a team-leading nine pass deflections. Sophomore Reese Tarver has nabbed the most interceptions with four.
The Bears are in the finals for the first time as a sanctioned member, but did play in the club state championship game during the 2020 season where they fell 62-34 to Mountain Pine.
Like Rector, Spring Hill has an experienced roster, and this year's seniors were freshmen watching from the stands the last time the Bears played in a game of any state championship magnitude. As special as that was, it is slightly different from three years ago.
"There are a lot of memories for them," Bears head coach Greg Smith said. "That (2020 championship) game was hosted on our field so it felt like just another game even though we tried to do everything we could to make it like a state title game.
"But that War Memorial feel and the journey of this week, all of the pageantry that goes on with this type of game, it is all new to them. I hope for us that they have the feeling of we have been there and done that as far as a big game."
While Rector boasts possibly the most dominant ground attack in 8-man football, the Bears have also thrived in that department with over 3,258 yards as a team for an average of 296.2 yards per contest.
Senior T.J. Tipton is the featured back and despite battling injuries has compiled 1,318 yards and 20 touchdowns, while Zane Minton (767 yards, 9 touchdowns) and Jaxon Smith (584 yards, 2 touchdowns) also get a bulk of the carries.
Spring Hill lost an 18-14 defensive battle against Strong on Oct. 20 and, on paper, that kind of game is not out of the realm of possibility against another great defensive squad in Rector.
The Cougars are allowing 12.2 points per game, but the first-team defense has only surrendered 9.8 each time out as well as holding opponents to just 168 yards, including 63 on the ground.
Senior Jacob Mooneyhan leads Rector in tackles (66), while classmate Ashton Scott, a Lyon College commit, is tied with Mooneyhan for the team lead in sacks (8.5) and junior Dalton Lamar has 50 stops with 4.5 sacks.
-- Kyle Sutherland
