Down the stretch they come

Down the stretch they come

The biggest, and perhaps best, development of the move away from the blended conferences that were employed over the past four years has been the return of parity to Class 6A Arkansas high school football.

In the days of the 7A/6AEast, chalk was very often king and upsets were exceedingly rare.

That’s not been the case this season. In my opinion, the only two weeks in which all four games have gone to schedule have been as follows: Week 4 All of the favorites won, as the West Memphis-Marion game was almost definitely the league’s featured contest. The Blue Devils won 2210, but the Pats led 10-6 until late in the third quarter.

So while the favorite ended up winning, the marquee game went down to the wire, which is all you can ask for in a big game.

Other scores that week saw Pine Bluff beat Little Rock Hall 52-6, Jonesboro over Mountain Home 6338 and Searcy over Jacksonville 27-12.

Week 8 All of the favorites won, but Marion nearly nipped Pine Bluff before losing 44-42.

However, the fact that it was a tight game almost proves my point about parity reigning supreme, but since the Zebras won, then it goes here.

Other finals saw West Memphis over Jacksonville 54-7, Jonesboro over Searcy 4518 and Mountain Home over Little Rock Hall 4012.

Just for fun, here are the upsets from the other weeks.

Week 5: Searcy over West Memphis 27-20 Week 6: Marion over Searcy 35-14 and Jonesboro over Pine Bluff 41-34 Week 7: West Memphis over Jonesboro 40-38 Week 9: Pine Bluff over

Chuck’’s Corrnerr

By Chuck Liiviingstton

West Memphis 30-29 Which brings us to week 10, and a schedule that features a potential thriller in Marion-Jonesboro on Thursday night as well as games between West Memphis-Mountain Home, Little Rock Hall-Searcy and Pine Bluff-Jacksonville.

The other best thing about Week 10? The playoff scenarios. Four teams are still alive for at least a share of the conference title, while three teams can still nab the number one seed in the state tournament, Marion being the exception.

However, the Pats still have plenty to play for.

Marion can finish as high as a number two seed if they beat Jonesboro and West Memphis loses at Mountain Home. Marion will be third if they simply defeat Jonesboro.

West Memphis will have plenty of motivation to beat the Bombers as a win assures them of no worse than the number two seed in the tournament, but could still nab the top seed with a win, and losses by Jonesboro and Pine Bluff.

That scenario would set up a four-way tie for first place in the 6A-East, and create chaos unseen since 2006.

Jonesboro has the most tiebreaker points at the moment, with 59. Marion is second with 52, despite their 4-2 record. Pine Bluff has 42 and West Memphis 40.

It’s been that type of year in the 6A-East.

The best part? It’s not even close to being over.

For fans of the local teams, the potential for as many as six home playoff games is in play.

After so many years of traveling to see Crittenden County football on the road, you can just go up the road to the game of your choice.