Rivalry renewed

Rivalry renewed

Blue Devils look to right the ship in Marion

WM School District The feeling they let one get away swept through the Blue Devil locker room in the few days following last week's 17-12 loss at home to Little Rock Central.

One play defined the loss.

Just as it looked like West Memphis would take a 7-3 lead that would eventually last until halftime, the Central Tigers scooped up a Blue Devil fumble at the Tiger 5 and ran it back 95 yards for a 14-point swing.

'There wasn't anybody happy about it,' said West Memphis head coach Billy Elmore. 'It's not the end of the world, but the thing that you hate is we don't feel like we executed as well as we should have.'

Not only do the Blue Devils get a golden opportunity to reverse the feeling, but they will do it in a 6AEast Conference game, a contest that will hold much more meaning than the non-conference loss to Central.

The Blue Devils travel four miles down the road to Marion Friday night to take on the Patriots in the annual Crittenden County shootout.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

One other story line that came out of last week's game against the Tigers was Elmore playing three quarterbacks. Junior Amaurius Stinnett started, and after a quarter of ineffectiveness, was replaced by junior Michael Troxler, who played the rest of the way with the exception of one series manned by senior David Kohl.

Stinnett, however, came into the game 'a little banged up,' according to Elmore.

'(Stinnett) wasn't 100 percent health-wise, but he also knows he didn't play as well as he wanted to,' said Elmore. 'He's our No. 1 guy and we think he'll be 100 percent this week and I think he'll play much better.'

The Blue Devils (2-1) have won all 12 meetings with Marion, including every season since the series became a conference game in 2006.

The Pats (1-2) feature one of the top running backs in East Arkansas in senior Tom Young, a 1,000-yard rusher in 2015. The twotime all-state selection with 4.5 speed scored seven touchdowns a year ago.

He'll be a marked man by the Blue Devil defense, which has shut down the run all three games thus far.

'There's no doubt (Young) is a good running back,' Elmore stated. 'If you can make (Marion) one-dimensional that'll make them easier to defend, but I don't know if you can eliminate (Young). But if we can slow him down a little bit it'll help matters.'

Elmore said the task at hand isn't so much handling the emotion that normally goes with playing Marion. It's more about righting the ship.

'In practice I haven't heard much about Marion,' he added. 'I think our players just want to address the topics from (the Central game). It's more about a faceless opponent for us. We just want to be the best team we can be.'

Offensively, the Blue Devils will face an odd defensive front. The Patriots, according to Elmore, could load up the box and they'll more than likely try to force West Memphis to throw.

'We know that's the scouting report on us,' said Elmore. 'I get it. We haven't proven we can throw yet, but I think we will. I think we'll have success running and throwing.'

By Billy Woods