Blue Devils can lock up top playoff seed with win

Blue Devils can lock up top playoff seed with win

West Memphis looks to make it 9- 0 on the season against Pine Bluff tonight

WM School District The West Memphis Blue Devils are all dried out from their harrowing, but victorious experience in the Mud Bowl that was Jacksonville last Friday night.

On that night they could have gone by the moniker Wet Memphis Blue Devils (no typo).

Now, they are focused in on their most meaningful game of the season on this Friday night at Hamilton-Shultz Field against Pine Bluff.

A victory would secure the No. 1 seed from the 6A-East Conference for the Class 6A state playoffs. A win would also clinch at least a tie for the league championship.

'This (conference championship, No. 1 seed) is what we've been working toward for a long time,' West Memphis head coach Billy Elmore admitted.

'It's taken us Week 9 to get here. It's not a must-win game, but it's a big game as far as what we want to accomplish as a team.'

They'll be going up against a Zebra team that has lost its last three games and a team that is ravaged by injuries to key players.

Last week, the Zebras lost at home to Marion 28-20.

There are even more goals to accomplish before the regular season ends for West Memphis (8-0 overall, 5-0 in the conference).

The Blue Devils can finish undefeated, which would make this team only the fifth squad in school history to run the table in regular- season play.

Coming with the No. 1 seed from the East would be home-field advantage all the way through the semifinals, not to mention a first-round bye in the playoffs.

The Blue Devils got to this point by enduring an arduous trial with the weather last week in Jacksonville. The by-product of the 3-0 win, which was earned by junior placekicker Colin Clark's 24-yard field goal in overtime, is a victorious outcome soaked in adversity, which could pay dividends once the postseason gets here.

'It's almost like it wasn't real football,' Elmore said of the torrential down-pour at Jacksonville. 'In the fourth quarter we were telling ourselves just try to survive this thing. I think the good execution and trying to keep the game crisp…all that went out the window at halftime. It was just let's find a way to survive.

'The mental part of that we can hopefully carry over to the rest of the season. Chips were down and we had to make a couple plays, and we made a couple plays.'

Last season's conference champions, Pine Bluff (25-1, 2-3) are just looking to get things back on the rails.

'The reality is we've played some teams this year, namely Sylvan Hills and Jacksonville, where everybody in the world expected us to go in there and win big,' Elmore commented. 'And both of those teams have better records than Pine Bluff has right now. In the meantime, Pine Bluff is still Pine Bluff. They're still a quality program and their kids play hard. They've definitely got our respect with what they do. They haven't had the type of year that's become standard over there now, but that happens sometimes.

They've had some injuries, but I also know they're still Pine Bluff.'

It'll also be Senior Night for 34 Blue Devils and four managers.

'It's a big night to send them off,' said Elmore.

'But it won't be their last home game. It's a shame to see these guys graduating, but that's part of life, and they'll move on to their next chapter.'

By Billy Woods