Playoff pushes highlight 6A- East

Playoff pushes highlight 6A- East

Last Friday night’s West Memphis win over Jonesboro was more than just a big win that existed in a vacuum.

It was validation that the Blue Devils are trending in the right direction after three years of losing seasons and struggles on the gridiron.

Even this year, head-scratching losses to Little Rock Central and Searcy, marred by untimely turnovers gave Blue Devil fans everywhere a lot of pause.

That all changed on Friday night as West Memphis dealt Jonesboro its first loss in 2016, and took the inside track for a 6A-East conference title and a number 1 seed in the playoffs.

You may be asking yourself how a team could lose to a team like Searcy and then rally to beat Jonesboro less than a month later.

That answer is fairly simple: This is a very balanced conference from top-to-bottom where any of the top five schools in the league stand a great chance of winning against each other on any given Friday.

Gone are the days of the blended 7A/6A-East where everyone knew that North Little Rock, Little Rock Central and Cabot needed only to show up to claim wins against Searcy, Marion, West Memphis and Mountain Home.

Already this season, we’ve seen “upsets” of Searcy over West Memphis, Marion over Searcy, West Memphis over Jonesboro and depending how you feel about Jonesboro, the Golden Hurricanes’ big home win over Pine Bluff two weeks ago.

We’re four weeks in, and we’ve already had one big eyeraiser each week, aside from perhaps week 4 when the league favorites all played bottom-feeders while West Memphis beat Marion at Patriot Stadium 22-10.

Speaking to that league balance is a four-way tie that currently exists in the 6A-East, in which Marion, West Memphis, Jonesboro and Pine Bluff area are all involved in a flat-footed tie with one another at 3-1.

In my opinion, West Memphis has the best chance to run the table over these last three weeks to nab the top seed.

The Blue Devils have already beaten two of the pole-sitters (Marion in week 4 and Jonesboro last week) and they get to host Pine Bluff in week 9.

That’s nothing resembling a gimme, as the Zebras are still quite potent, but even if West Memphis slips, I’m not convinced that 5-2 can’t still win the league. The Blue Devils also have games against Jacksonville and Mountain Home, which are winnable.

Another feather in West Memphis’ cap is that their one loss was to Searcy, who doesn’t appear as though they’ll factor into the league race, which means that the tiebreaker against the Lions shouldn’t play a role.

That won’t be the case for Marion, for whom the playoffs may as well begin this week with a trip to Pine Bluff, before a week 10 showdown in Jonesboro sandwiched around a home date with Jacksonville.

The Pats own that loss to West Memphis, who figures to factor into the league title hunt all year. Even if Marion wins out, if West Memphis does the same, the Blue Devils will get the number 1 seed in the playoffs.

However, winning out will quite the tall order for Marion, though a 4-3 finish in the conference seems doable. That’s a significant mark as the Pats had won just 4 conference games from 2012-2015, an average of one per year.

However, Marion does control its own destiny to clinch at least a share of a league title, which has only been done one time in school history, coincidentally enough in the four-way tie of 2006.

Photo submitted

Lady Pats win district

Marion Junior High School won the 2016 junior high district volleyball championship by dropping Jonesboro MacArthur on Saturdy afternoon in three sets. It’s the second district crown in four seasons for Marion.

Photo submitted

Brewer Recognized

Sr. Master Dennis Brewer received his International Instructor’s Certificate from Chief Master Don Dalton, of Scotland. The course was one of three that took place in Plano, Tx. on August 12-14th. The course featured sparring, patterns and concepts of Instructing.

Chuck’’s Corrnerr

By Chuck Livingston

Photo by Chuck Livingston

Walker is Offensive Player of the Week

Marion junior quarterback Peyton Walker (11) rolls out against Mountain Home. Walker is this week’s Offensive Player of the Week after 16-for-26 for 203 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Photo by Chuck Livingston

Earle is Defensive Team of the Week

The Earle Bulldogs rolled up their second straight shutout on Friday night in a 61-0 blanking of Midland. For their efforts, Donerius Crowder (pictured) and the rest of the Earle defense have been named this week’s Defensive Team of the Week.