Now?

Well, the rain has somewhat went away.

It's still kind of still kind of coming down.

But at least we can play football.

The lightning is gone here at War Memorial Stadium.

And it's time for the eight man championship game between Spring Hill and Rector.

Live from War Memorial Stadium, our Jayhawk along with Bobby Swofford and Bobby boy we've got a good one tonight an eight man action.

And real quick, we'll get to the rules here in a minute.

A little bit different of a game.

It's still football.

I mean, for anybody watching, the field is condensed a little bit, but they've got some great players on both sides.

We'll start with Springhill first and they've got an electric running back that is just a do it all guy.

He's he's a guy that's amassed over 1300 yards talking about T.J. tipped him an eight man football.

You don't throw it nearly as much as you do an 11 man in the larger classification.

But you're exactly right, 1300 yards, 20 touchdowns.

And one thing you're not going to see tonight is the kicking game.

He's got ten two point conversion.

So when he gets the ball in the end zone here, most of time follows it up with the double dip.

Yeah.

And then on the other side of the ball, you've got the rector cougars who are nine and oh on the year and they do everything with their quarterback.

Drew Henderson.

Yeah.

They don't necessarily throw it a ton.

2000 yards rushing in, 35 touchdowns for number one.

Drew Henderson who got a lot of experience in this game last year, he scored four touchdowns in the state championship game a year ago.

But when they do decide to throw pretty effective 24, 27, passing 450 yards in six touchdowns.

Well, this is a rector team as you talked about that is no stranger to the finals.

Last year they lost to Izard County 3626.

They beat Izard County in the semifinal games this year.

And that's the only game that they've trailed all year.

Was in that game the very first drive of the ballgame.

They they were trailing Izard County.

But let's look at that road to the finals real fast for both these two teams.

And I tell you what, Bobby, this is a much smaller eight man's a little bit smaller, but we'll first start with Spring Hill.

They beat Brinkley 3222 and then moving up the bracket they took on Augusta, won that game 42 to 6.

And then last week or excuse me this week it's now rector.

But on the opposite side for Rector, this is the team that they've just demolished everybody on throughout the bracket.

Yeah, and that wasn't a typo.

You see Augusta one one nothing over strong because that was a forfeit victory And that's what started this thing where you see Rector, they get that win over at Woodlawn and they take on Izard County in the semifinals and that was a big game for the Cougars.

They needed that victory to get to this point.

And so they kind of got over that mental hurdle.

Now they're hoping to finish it off and win their first championship in school history.

Well, we're just about set and ready to go.

Rector won the opening coin toss they elected to defer.

Now, let's go back to those rules real quick that we were talking about with eight man football.

So you see where they wrecked the team in blue right now is rector.

Here's the eight man rules there.

There's this the third year of being sanctioned with the triple A, it's only a 40 wide field.

So here's what I was talking about.

See where Rector standing right now on the field?

We're just below the 50 yard line.

The the out of bounds line is at the bottom of the numbers on the near side.

So they've condensed the field there.

It's almost like arena football, but you're going 100 yards.

Yeah, it's still 40, it's 40 yards wide.

So there were lines out there when we started work.

Yes.

The rain has washed away the paint here or Memorial Stadium, but you can see they've placed orange cones or orange discs at the bottom of the numbers to kind of indicate where the out of bounds is.

You think, oh, why are you doing that in a state championship game?

A lot of schools use that because their high school field is a 100 yard field are in and a 53 yard wide field.

And so they put the cones down so you don't have to paint and it's always extra cost.

And so that's one thing to pay attention to because you're going to see the teams, it looks like they're standing on the field, the players on the sideline, but that's actually out of bounds.

Remember, the bottom of the numbers is what the officials are looking for now.

We're just about set and ready to go for this eight man championship game.

Today's weather forecast for this one, it is a cold night.

It's been a cold, rainy day pretty much all day long, but it's going to be about 47 degrees thunderstorms and we're going to have off and on showers throughout the night tonight.

As you can see right there.

We're already at the 8:00 and it's raining, but a light rain here at one Memorial Stadium.

So the kick off is an onside kick that is taken by Springhill at the 49 yard line.

That's where they're going to have it first and ten.

That's the first kick.

Right now.

It's like ball security.

It's been raining all day.

The field is not nearly as well as it was just a little bit ago.

But how do you handle the football now?

You handle the onside kick to start things off.

And now we're gonna take a look at the Springhill team nine and three on the season with coach Gregg Smith.

We're going to see what kind of offensive attack they can put together.

Most people think that they're probably the underdog in this contest starting fast is going to be key for the Bears.

Well, this is a Springhill team that is averaging 28 points a game.

They are giving up only 12 points a game.

And they come out of that window set as they're going to just hand it off.

He'll work the left side and that's the running back.

T.J. Tipton, who is able to take it on the left side, is able to pick up about four yards.

How do you handle the wet conditions is a whole lot more than just handling the football.

How do you tackle in these wet conditions?

That was the first play of the game.

Give it about ten plays.

Every player on the sideline is going to be soaked.

Well, how do you how do you grab the jersey?

How do you get the ball carrier on the ball?

And you remember when we did the hit at 7:00, it looked like a pod out there.

I mean, it was water was standing on the field.

This field is drained, extremely nice here at War Memorial Stadium.

Tipton's going to take another handoff and he's off to the races out, pass the 30 still on his feet, rumbling, stumbling and walking into the end zone for the first touchdown of the ballgame.

T.J. Tipton takes it in for Spring Hill and they get the scoring going early in this 147 yard rumble right up the middle and it's just a trap.

Play right up the middle.

They hand it to him, he breaks the tackle and they all he is is one on one with the defensive back and well Spring Hill will take that matchup every time the stiff arm he's into the end zone in exactly how Spring Hill wanted to start this contest T.J. Tipton is a big kid.

If you look at him, they don't have heights and whites on the roster, but he's pushing every bit of two bills and just a strong kid as he rolled his way into the end zone roll for the two point conversion again, Tipton's converted on ten of these this season just underway here in the first quarter.

Spring Hill's on the board first.

They're going to give it to Tipton.

Now it's an end around on the left side and coming up with it for Spring Hill.

It was Zane Melton who's able to take it in for the two point conversion.

And just like that 1127 left here in the first quarter and Spring Hill leads it eight to nothing, so they fake it to Tipton right up the middle, kind of a gadget play, just a little reverse.

And that's a fifth converted two point conversion of the year for Minson in Spring Hill.

Maybe they're the underdog.

The three seed from the South conference, they strike first, they've got an eight nothing lead.

But as we found out a couple of years ago, it was 66 to 60 in overtime or double overtime lead in this contest means nothing, means absolutely nothing.

And you're looking right here.

Look at the kicker for spring Hill.

Got the blue that is actually the triple play logo that is in the middle of the field that he's got the blue on him and that is Carson Moore the kicker for spring Hill as he slid across that blue ink.

And once again, the triple play logo is also washable.

And so that's why you're seeing some of that ink come off.

A little touch that up before tomorrow's game.

And here's the kick off, another onside kick that's going to be fallen on at the 49 yard line.

And so that's where Richter's going to have it first and ten for their first possession of the ballgame.

So, I mean, a track meet is really the only way you can call an eight man football game.

If you haven't watched this style of football before.

It is up and down.

And don't throw the football a ton either side.

It's just run, run, run.

It's just that hammer against the anvil and see which one breaks first.

Now, this is a very productive rector.

Cougar offense.

This is a team averaging 45 points a game.

And one thing about Rector is Drew Henderson, the quarterback.

He did not even take over this offense until week three of the football season.

Since that time that he has taken over, this team has averaged 52 points, a game that they've been racking up the yards, racking up the points You're talking about an offense that averages nearly 400 yards per contest, nearly 50 points per contest.

I mean, they can score they can score in bunches as well.

A equipment malfunction.

So now we're all ready to play rector with the football.

Drew Henderson, the quarterback, the quarterback that does everything for this offense.

He's going to fumble on the first snap and it's under pressure.

He'll take a big loss.

And that Spring Hill defense comes in and swarms for a massive loss to start the first play for Rector.

The aforementioned kicker Carson Moore, one of the first guys in there.

It's his 27th stop of the season and is handling the wet football that go on Richter's way on the first snap from offense.

What's crazy is that Ashton Scott, the backup quarterback for Richter, he's actually committed to play football at Lyon College, but he's good.

He's committed himself to playing more defense now that he's not the quarterback for this regular team.

Another bad snap and the rector's going backwards as Henderson is going to get bottled up and dropped just outside the 25 yard line.

Another big loss for Rector.

Yeah, Caden Avery couldn't handle the snap.

Henderson couldn't handle on the first one.

You're going the absolute wrong direction.

After that, you recover the onside kick.

You get the ball at your own 49 yard line and you're going the wrong direction.

They've lost 21 yards on the last two plays.

I'll say this, Bobby, We started the ball game and it was not raining all that hard, but the rain is really coming down now here at War Memorial Stadium.

So now you've got a third down and 30 from the 28 yard line.

Henderson calls for down the shotgun.

They're going to hand it off to their running back.

Avery, Avery, right side.

He'll be taken down, does not get near enough.

And so that's going to bring up a fourth down as they take it out, pass the 35 to the 36 yard line.

The only attempt at 27 passes this season has RECTOR So you're not exactly going to open up the playbook at this point?

I think you've got to, you know, take your chances with the punt here on fourth and 24th and 21 and and try to play the field position game so the punting unit is on for Rector Bad Snap and it's going to be it's going to be picked up and good go for it's good score that time Once again it was Tipton who was able to pick it up and roll into the end zone for his second touchdown of the ball game.

And Bobby, I will say this, that the the weather has got to be playing a factor on snapping this football.

Yeah there's no question about it.

Rector is really struggling handling the wet football The snap wasn't great but it also could have been handled There should have been handled.

It tipped and picks it up and Johnny on the spot.

It's 14 nothing, just two and a half minutes into this contest and Spring Hill looking to add to that lead So it's now 14 to nothing Spring Hill and they've had one offensive possession so far and they're going to attempt a two point conversion, 933 to play here in the first quarter as Jackson Smith going to hand it off and that time it was was a tip and again, I believe so he took it in for the second two point conversion of the ballgame.

It's 16 to nothing.

Spring Hill leads with 933 left here in the first quarter.

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When you want to experience the delicious taste of Wendy's hamburgers, squares, the beef, well, 933 to play here in the first quarter and Spring Hill leads at 16 to nothing over.

Rector Spring Hill comes in nine and three on the year as the kickoff is going to sail past the 20 and be picked up at the 18.

Bringing it up now pass to 20 and he'll be stopped right there as bring it up for Rector it was Caden.

Avery and Avery will take it to the 26 yard line and that's where Rector will have it first and ten with 925 left here in the first quarter.

And Bobby, you are now we're talking in the break little shocked at spring.

Hill's got all the momentum here in the early going to this one.

Yeah Rector's got to settle in three of their four plays including the punt mishandled SNAP and that's why they've got -25 yards.

They're going the wrong direction.

They just have to settle in, you know, get one clean snap, get one clean offensive play, get ahead of the chains and start to settle in as the snap.

It'll be taken by Henderson.

And it just doesn't have a whole lot of room.

We did fall forward, though, and was able to get about five yards out of play to bring up a second down.

You don't think of three players taking up that much space, but they're just so much open field where it looks like it's a no gain, but it's a five yard pickup because more times than not, of course, there's different ways of playing eight man football.

But the traditional way is you just take out the two guards, you take out a receiver and you essentially play your normal offense, but you're starting to see they're just not as many bodies in the box.

And that's why the short game still pick up four or five second down and five with the ball to throw.

They're going to fumble it once again.

And Drew Henderson was able to get back on it.

He laid a big blow before he jumped on it.

If you watch this replay here in just a second, watch this.

So he he fumbled the ball and he said now nobody else is going to get to him a lay ahead and then jump back on.

Do it.

That was supposed to be a direct snap to the running back with the quarterback serving as the lead blocker and it just didn't secure the play and both players just kind of didn't know what to do.

But really lucky for Rector, they were able to jump on the loose ball and prevent another turnover.

So it's third down and 11.

Drew Henderson in the shotgun like keep it himself as Henderson will take it out pass the 30 and be very near a first down Got to be a thousand yards shy the first and that'll bring up fourth down really nice block there by 75 and blue Gage Thompson pulls around, picks himself a pancake and puts Rick through into fourth and manageable and is likely going to go for it here the short down well this is a big and you know you hate to say it early in the game but this is a big fourth down for rector as they're going to line in a bunch set and Henderson's going to easily get the first down as he crosses the 35 and takes it to the 37 yard line.

So they pick up the first down there.

RJ But one thing to pay attention to is how Henderson's handling the snap.

He's almost catching it with the body in the shoulder pad instead of catching with the hand straight like traditional.

I wonder how much the conditions are affecting him and if that continues to go on.

And also he starts to play a little slower because he has to reposition the football.

Clock rolls at 721 left here in the first quarter.

Out of the shotgun goes Henderson ball was rolled to him.

He'll pick it up and gets a nice running lane stays on his feet out past the 50 and he'll be taken down right there And the snap from the center, Bobby, is where the problem is as that time the ball rolled to him and he was able to pick it up and take it into Spring Hill Territories.

Haven't been able to get a clean exchange.

Sometimes it's been the centers snap, sometimes that hasn't been handled well in the backfield, but nice job by Henderson.

You can start to see why he's a 2000 yard rusher once he gets the ball past that initial wave of defenders, he's dangerous.

Henderson set the school rushing record this year as he beat out John Ford Hendrix for that old record and this time they're going to give it all to Caden.

Avery and Avery will pick up a few yards on the play to bring up second down.

What did he break that school rushing Mercury.

He's done it by more than 600 yards now and that's only nine games.

That's that's kind of the funny thing with eight man football there's a lot of by weeks that maybe don't can't schedule everybody that's maybe a team doesn't have enough players to field for the game so rector here in the championship game sitting at just nine and no while Spring Hill has played in 12 contests second down and seven for Rector is there in Spring Hill territory for the first time tonight Henderson's going to keep it himself straight up the middle.

He'll pick up a few yards on the play to bring up third down.

It's a big play from Levin Maguire coming off the edge, number four for Spring Hill.

That's a good look at him right there he comes down the line and able to track down Henderson from behind.

Spring Hill has only given up 12 points a game.

This defense has been really good for Spring Hill this year.

You know, Rector on the other hand they're giving up 12.

But this is an offense that is averaging 45 points a contest throughout this year.

And we're just halfway home here in this first quarter at 16.

Nothing deficit, probably nothing that director is too worried about at this point.

It's third down and four for Rector's Henderson going to keep it himself and he'll get bottled up at the line of scrimmage.

He stretches out to a 44 one yard gain but either way is can still stay for fourth down and three really nice job by the Spring Hill defensive front there they move the offensive line back they move that line of scrimmage back to the rector backfield didn't give Henderson any running lanes and that's brings up the fourth of three ball at the 40 yard line.

Another big bunch set as they're going to try to get a push with Henderson He'll take the snap straight up the middle and he is not going to get it.

As Spring Hill was ready, they stacked the box and it's a turnover on downs as Spring Hill they hold on fourth down.

It's a big stop from Spring Hill.

It almost looks like they knew what was coming.

They lined up, they ran that exact play earlier in this possession and they picked up the first down.

They lined up to two fullbacks essentially right behind the center on each cheek, and they just go straight ahead and the Spring Hill just stuffed up the front of the offensive line, get the turnover on downs and have a chance to add this already to score early.

So it's first down and ten now for Spring Hill at their own 40 yard line Jackson Smith the quarterback is going to hand it off this is the tipped in and tipped and has nowhere to go Got a yard on the play and it brings up second down and the defensive line now showing up from wrecker They know they need a big defensive stop here 72 in the middle for the Cougars gate Mosley the defensive tackle makes a big play.

You know, Spring Hill has never won a state championship.

And in fact, they played in the finals in 2020.

And that was at the time when the eight man championships were being played at home field.

So remember that.

And they actually lost that state championship game at their place in 2020.

There are a lot of those that seniors on this year's roster refreshment.

Some got some action in that game.

Some had to watch it from the sidelines.

The coach, Greg Smith, said it was valuable experience for his squad second down and nine goes back to Tipton and Tipton's going to fall forward for about a two yard gain.

Abram second down again, a third down again.

Mosley right there, makes another stop along with Jacob Moynihan And they combine to slow down.

Tipton So the first two possessions, they didn't really have an answer for that Spring Hill trap.

Now back to back plays.

They're shut down by Big 72.

So now you've got third down and seven with the ball at the 43 yard line.

You know, this is a Spring Hill team that they're no stranger to doing a little play action on you and they're a run first offense but they're not afraid to get a little play action set up the passing game as this time Jackson Smith going to look to throw throws downfield and we've got a penalty flag down is his intended target that time was Carson Hamilton and we'll see what the penalty flag is as it lays down at the 38 yard line.

You spoke that into existence as the little play action pass and well contact got there before the ball dear that should be defensive pass interference so they're going to get pass interference against Rector and so that'll be a fresh set of downs for Spring Hill and that time just undercut Hamilton as he was trying to go up for the pass.

You liked the aggressive play defensively, but you got to be disciplined, wait for the football to get there.

That pass was not going to be caught either way.

So it's a free first down for the bears.

So back in Rector Territory goes Spring Hill as it's first down and ten at the rector 42 yard line Jackson Smith the quarterback I'm going to be under centers he'll take it goes option play to the right side to get it in the hand the tip and he'll take it inside the 40 yard line and we do have no that's not a penalty flag that is actually the cone that I saw that was out of bounds.

I saw something on the field that looked like a yellow hankie and it was actually the orange cone that is down there from the sidelines.

And Rector forces the quick pitch there.

Grayson Bryant stays as key to his assignment, gets the quick pitch, and the defense rallies around to limit Tipton to just three.

So that that orange cone you see right there on your screen, that is the that's the out of bounds line that is going down.

We had a white painted line all the way down the field, but it got washed away or washed away by the rain earlier in the ballgame.

Here's a handoff to Tipton straight ahead as he takes it.

Pass the 35 down to the 34 yard line to bring up a third down and very manageable for Spring Hill.

You had Bobby the running game for Spring Hill.

His has been very dominant.

Tipton is as advertised.

A lot of times you'll see guys that have a thousand yards 1300 3000 yards and eight man and that's kind of common practice.

But this 216 carried 1003 in an 18 yard back is doing it all right now for Spring Hill He's the straw that stirs a drink there's no question about it gives it to him again.

He dives for the throw, picks up the first down.

I don't know if we've got a replay of right before the snap, but he explodes out of that low stance.

Almost looks like he's moving too quickly and he takes the handoff almost as soon as this touches this quarterback's hands and he's got that momentum, it's going to be tough to slow him down, especially in short yardage situations.

So its first down and ten with the ball to 30 yard line.

We're down to a minute, 50 left here in the first quarter Spring Hill with the football as they lead at 16 to nothing.

We're going to hand it to Tipton.

He'll go left side and it'll be taken, taken down after a three yard gain.

And really, if you're spring Hill, Bobby, you don't have to get in any type of hurry because you've got a 16 point lead and you just take time and waste away that clock as much as you can.

I was just thinking that exact same thing for Yards for Spring Hill is going to be a win.

Yeah, you'll take that every time.

As long as you've got possession with that two touchdown lead.

You want to shorten the game?

Rector's got an explosive offense.

At some point they're going to figure out the ball condition and start to move the football.

So you want to limit the opportunities that they have.

And the more important you got to try to add to that lead right here.

If you're Spring Hill hand at the Tipton he gets hit right at the line of scrimmage had nowhere to go.

There were three rector players right in the middle of it and they read that play from the jump.

Great job from Mooney hand Mosely Lamar Dalton Lamar 60 twos also in there to gang tackle Tipton and now this is the situation we're talking about you want to be at second and six or you don't want to be is now third and 6/3 and seven for Spring Hill.

Now you're behind the chains for an offense that's only attempted 70 passes ground games working, but you never want to put yourself in these long situations.

So it's third down and seven from the 27 Jackson Smith Now he's got penalty flags as there was a false start so now you go from a third and seven to a third and 12 exactly what you can't do if you're Spring Hill, the previous play and now the pre-snap penalty, those things will kill you, especially when you're a ground and pound team.

But they may not have to snap the football here.

They may be content with taking this 16 nothing lead into the break and maybe shocking everybody who's watching this contest as rector came in undefeated and really not even tested this season.

Well, coming into this ball game, Rector had only trailed one time it was in the semifinals after the first play, and they have trailed the entire first quarter of the state championship game as Spring Hill leads it, 16 to nothing.

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Well, I was looking at the first quarter numbers and I think if you would have asked anybody, you wouldn't have expected director to only have ten yards of total offense in the first quarter on 13 plays but they do and right now they're facing a spring Hill's taking a third down and 11 and they're able to throw it as they swing it out right side, try to get that first down and they get it nice pass play that time as they were able to hook up with Zane Minton on the outside to pick up.

Well, are they going to say he stepped out of bounds?

They're going to say I did get the first down at the 20 yard line.

Nice job by Minton uses a little hesitation to kind of slow the defender up is the team leading ninth catch this year at 123 yards coming into it, it looks like he was short the line.

The game there is so hard to tell.

Without the line you had to use the cone.

A It got away with a late hit there too, off the record, so it probably all cancels out.

How do you tell when a late hit, when it makes it tough on those officials to figure out where the late hit is?

It's tough enough on that.

The line's obvious.

So here's a keeper by Jackson Smith, and he has nowhere to go as he got back to the original line of scrimmage to bring up second down and ten.

That's a big stop there for wrecker.

This is how you get back into the contest if you're that cougars and in your defense, you've got to win on first down.

You've got to win at the point of attack.

And that's another great job.

I've called his name I feel like a dozen times every game, Mosley is dominating the interior of that Spring Hill offensive line, and that's where they've got to continue to build off that success, that success.

So it's second down and ten from the 20.

Jackson Smith is going to be under center this time He'll have a single back in the backfield Winston off that left side and a hand at the Tipton No going to go with a pitch play right side went with the option and it was Minton who's able to get the first down as he takes it down to the ten and it looked like everything was clogged up in the middle and all of a sudden the option is springs out to the outside.

A nice pitch there and then again at all juke there by Minton picks up a few extra yards and now it's first and goal for the Bears does a great job disguising the football keeping it on your hip and just pitch now to men everybody on the defense was sold that it was going up the middle.

I was sold it was up the middle and they were able to get the first down.

You know, when you run the trap so effectively, like Spring Hill has up to this point, that makes it when you pull it and that makes that option so much more effective.

It's first and goal from the ten yard line.

Jackson Smith It was pitch play left side and going nowhere is Minton this time he'll lose yards on the play as they'll take it back to the 13 yard line and Carter Hill was not surprised about that misdirection play does a great job of keeping his contain keeps the outside leverage drops him for a loss of three so it brings up second down and goal now from the 13 yard line 16 to nothing Springhill director as wondered 10 minutes to play here in the first half, Springfield is continuing to churn up time.

Smith going to fake the handoff keeps it himself has a running lane and gets it inside the five down to the four and boy they get a really touchdown saving tackle that time by Rector is coming in was Charlie Bearden who was able to get that tackle and if he doesn't get him by the ankles he goes in for the touchdown.

It's a big, big play right here.

You got to know that this automatically fall down territory if you're Spring Hill, you want to punch it puts it push that lead to three possessions The record's got to come up with back to back plays here because falling down more than 16 could be a decent set.

It was Charlie Beard and it was actually Dalton Lamar who came up to make that stop.

But either way it's third down and goal from the four yard line you're going to hand it to Tipton.

No, Jaxon Smith is going to keep it and he'll go straight up the middle and get it down to the two got.

Lamar has been everywhere.

62 and Blue came into this contest second on the team with 50 tackles four and a half sacks but he has been all over the field making play after play for this wreck defense.

But now it's fourth and goal from looks like just inside the two critical critical play for rector coming up 828 and counting fourth down and goal from the two and now we've got a penalty flag that's going to come out from our head official Yeah it's going to be too many men in the huddle or illegal substitution against Spring Hill.

B.J.

Robinson is our head official tonight as we're going to try to get all the correct players.

Spring Hill's going to get all the correct players when, by the way, we forgot to mention who are officiating crew was tonight BJ Robinson as a referee.

Umpires Mario Portman linesmen is Jimmy Johnson line judge Nick Tanner and back judge is Bobby Johnson.

So it's fourth down and goal Jackson Smith going to look to throw has a man the end zone and overthrows him.

He was wide open as that time tried to hook up with Carson Hamilton and it's going to be a turnover on downs as Rector avoided a big, big possible you know extension of the lead they if he doesn't overthrow him by by just a foot that's a touchdown the Jackson Smith was kind of stuck.

Do I run this too?

I throw the receiver was wide open there's no question about that.

But there is also no blue jersey between him and the pylon.

And so maybe a little bit of, I guess, indecisiveness, if you will, if you're the quarterback as the throw just off the mark and it's turnover on downs inside the box.

Well, we will take a break with a No.

Six left here in the second quarter as you're watching the Centennial Bank state football Championships in Arkansas, PBS Sports for every moment, for every memory, from that first car to your first home to your first child and all the highs and lows that tomorrow, my break for everything that matters most to you and your family.

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The rain is really it's still raining, but it's a light drizzle going on at War Memorial and Rector's going to have the football.

They trailed 16 to nothing, so maybe they can get a nice handle on the football on this drive as for Rector Henderson is going to run it straight up the middle and get it out.

Pass the ten yard line and minimum.

Rector has got to pick up a couple of first downs to try to flip field position.

Great job by their defense to force the turnover and downs inside the ten yard line.

But now you've got to be able to chew up a little clock, try to flip this field at minimum.

But of course, you wanted to in this drive in the end zone.

So it brings up a second down for four rector, second down and seven from the 11 and take the shotgun snap.

And that time it was Caden, Avery who took the direct snap and was able to pick up a couple of yards on the play to bring up third down.

And that's the second or third time we've seen that direct SNAP or the quarterback.

Henderson serves as the lead blocker Avery capable himself 753 yards five touchdowns on the season also leads the team in receiving with ten catches for over 200 more yards.

So it's third down and five down with the ball at the 13 yard line, Anderson fakes the handoff, going to throw, throws it downfield.

Hunter throws his intended target.

He took a big hit in the backfield and it's going to bring up a fourth down with the hit that Drew Henderson took in the backfield.

It was one on one and he did.

I think he took the worse end of it fast and Scott was open on the corner, out the tight end kind of leaking out there.

But the pass was under thrown and you mentioned the defense bearing down on him and now it's fourth and five inside your own 15 and no decision to be made here for Rector.

They drop back to punt and Spring Hill is going to quickly send a man back and they're going to send Reece Tarver back there.

Tarver is going to let it go.

It'll take a rector roll into Spring Hill territory down to the 45 yard line, give him an extra ten, maybe 12 yards in field position by not fielding that kick.

But I agree with it.

What it was what is the football is going to beat tonight in the conditions.

Why take extra risk of handling the football?

Go ahead.

Left out and hit and roll.

You're still going to have great field position.

Take at your own 45.

Are you a little bit shocked how good this Spring Hill defense has shut down Richter here in the first half?

I am.

I mean, a lot of what Rutgers done has been self-inflicted by not handling the snap.

But you have to give a lot of credit to that, too.

That's defensive front for Spring Hill because they're handling the quarterback run game of Henderson.

They haven't allowed any big plays only 16 yards up to this point for Richter.

But you talk about the longest run of this contest, six, seven yards.

Yeah that's that's a winning formula Here is Tipton with the football as he'll drag a man and take it to the 49 yard line the four yard pickup bring up second down and six more movement clock is rolling at 613 and counting here in the eight man championship game tipped in over 70 yards already of course 47 of that came back on the touchdown scamper You see the man that size and the scamper it's more of a rumble as they rumble on a stumble because he hits you, you're going to feel it and fake the hand off.

The pitch goes right side.

That's into the hands of their wide receiver slash running back.

And that is Zane Minton.

Once again, he'll take it to the 50 yard line to bring up third down.

And nice job by Henderson getting out there on the pitch, man going left and right.

Going east and west is not going to be a recipe for success if you're Springhill director defense to show they've got the speed to keep up running it right at them.

So north and south end zone, the end zone is going to be where Springhill is going to have their most success.

Of course, that fullback trap has a lot to do with that too.

Third down and five from the 50 Jackson Smith under center.

And he's going to take the ball himself take it, pass the 45 and Bobby, that might be the longest I've seen a quarterback hold on to the ball.

He rolled Tipton all the way into the sea gap before he finally pulled it out and ran with him himself.

As they kind of reminisce of the old school Nebraska, what midline option you use ride, right?

You read that defensive and you read the tackle.

He find out you pull at the last minute able to fight for that extra yardage picks up six and more importantly a first down so it's first and ten as they're in rector territory now at the 44 yard line clock continuing to roll at 430 and counting now Smith keep it himself and he'll get a ball a yard on the play I think he was wanting to roll a little bit deeper that time Bobby but the lane got shut off and so he had to cut it back upfield.

Grayson Bryant the defensive end there for Erector set the edge and forced in the cut up before you what he wanted to allow time for the rest of that defense to kind of close so again five.

Bryant they're not going to get credited with the tackle but he was the one that made the play under 4 minutes to play here in the first half is Spring Hill leads at 16 to nothing.

Now looks like we might have an injury down on the field.

Got him off on that Spring Hill sideline.

Now here comes Jackson Smith and now we've got whistles and a timeout charge to Spring Hill with cramps Second down play clock is about to run out there to get the play call in from the sideline in time with and begin as they continues to churn up the time of possession in this contest.

We'll look at what Spring Hill's been able to do.

It's just drive after drive after drive and these two teams just haven't been able to take the same number of stats, 111 yards and just 16 for the time of possession.

It's so one sided talk, more than 13 minutes compared to just eight.

Well, our all star player of the game is Mitchell Hicks from Brinkley High School.

He's a quarterback and defensive back.

He's a senior this year and plans to ten an HBCU and complete a degree and so he is our all star.

Arkansas PBS sports player of the game and it's Mitchell Hicks from Brinkley high School.

Well Bobbie I will say this that the if your game plan was to come in and and control clock like you were talking about with that time of possession Spring Hill is been on that.

They have done the game plan to a tee in this one and the defense has done exactly what they've done all year and that's really limit the offense to the other team and the and rector has not gotten it past the 50 yard line but one time in this contest is here's Menton as he'll go far side and he has nowhere to go and he'll lose yardage on the play and they try to toss out there just too slow developing the play And again the rector defense is there Johnny on the spot actually almost did a nice job of hanging on to the football is as they almost lost the handle on it getting loses five yards and now it's third and long and puts the bears way behind the chains at the 49 yard line clock rolling at 303 left here in the first half Jackson Smith fakes a handoff going to throw under pressure ball comes out hits on the turf who's going to come up with it?

It's going to be Spring Hill.

Who came up with it?

Just Jackson Smith was trying to just dump it off to somebody and I believe the ball got deflected, knocked away.

And as he's being spun, no, he actually threw it and it got hit at the same time as trying to flip that back to his running back tipped and just a ill advised play, a dangerous play there by the sophomore quarterback.

And lucky to get that one back because that was almost the huge break and momentum swing that Rector really needs.

You can see the idea.

He can see his running back.

Tipton's right there.

Just flip it to him, maybe keep the play alive.

That's something that he's going to learn when he gets a little more experience.

The sophomore has got to learn to eat that one.

That could have been a huge disaster.

So now you've got fourth down and extremely long as the ball is all the way back into Spring Hill territory at the 38 yard line.

Tony Newton for Spring Hill and back deep Rodgers going to put a man all the way at the 29 His away is a low line drive he's going to roll to the 28 be picked up right there from Rector and be able to save some yardage as they get it out pass the 35 to the 37 yard line and that's where rector's going to have it first and ten to try their second drive here in the second half.

Just 215 left on the clock.

They've got to find a way to put something together in a hurry.

If you're rector, a score right before the half would kind of ease some of those, I guess, stretch marks, if you will, for those fans, because they're not feeling too comfortable with themselves right now.

Down 16 first and ten for Rector is going to take a running play straight up the middle nice running play that time by their quarterback Drew Henderson and he'll be able to pick up five yards to bring up a second down, see if Rector decides to pick up the pace just a little bit as now we're inside the two minute mark here in the second quarter on second down and five under to play.

Anderson's going to work out of the shotgun and a hand it off works back left side as he has it in the hands of Caden.

Avery and Avery gets the first down and takes it to the 49 yard line.

Great job by Avery too to get past the marker and makes another man.

Miss picks up a couple of extra yards and now the rector off it's good maybe start to get a little momentum going working quickly now we've got whistles and let's see a flag.

Did you Bobby?

Oh, I heard the whistle.

Rector tried to catch the Spring Hill defense and a substitution.

They hurried to the line.

I wonder if they everyone got set to see what the call is.

The officials are talking to the Rector coaching staff.

I think they're talking about was it the clock or the car was in a minute.

36.

I'm not real sure what the offense is doing.

The same with the stoppages there, but we're ready to roll.

Well, get everything going again as well.

Snap the ball and Henderson has nowhere to go.

He'll lose a yard on the play and then up second down and 11 A nice job by Alex area Sugar sophomore linebacker number 20 of the rest of the Spring Hill defense kind of converges on him this haven't been able to get anything going as rector takes time out You got to like the way and you mentioned a minute ago about the defensive front for Spring Hill they're just getting them they're get more of a push right now to get to the quarterback.

Yeah a lot of hats around the football here.

They're not necessarily winning at the point of attack.

They're not losing.

And sometimes that's just good enough as a defense to kind of pull things up as all that an offense and defensive line, allow your linebackers, allow your safety space to get up there.

Of course, you want to move that line of scrimmage back.

That's sometimes a stalemate.

May be good enough for your linebackers.

Well, they are definitely getting a great push by that defense and we want to thank air Care for being a valuable sponsor for all these Arkansas PBS broadcast and tell you what, Bobby, we will thank them throughout the broadcast.

But air to and many of the other ones that are helping that we will see throughout these championships.

That's the reason why we're able to bring all these championships to folks across the state of Arkansas.

Here's Henderson walking back left side.

He'll pick up a couple of yards in the play to bring up the second half to bring up his third down.

Now, Richter not hitting those big plays that they're so accustomed to to see.

You talk about a quarterback who averages nearly ten yards a carry and there's just it's been tough sledding throughout longest carry of the game for Richter up to this point 16 yards are averaging 1.5 yards per attempt and some of the fumbles have a lot to do with that third down pass play comes as they'll swing it left side.

The Caden, Avery and Avery is able to get a good chunk of yards as they'll keep the clock going.

But he's short of the first down by four yards to bring up fourth down.

Erica's trying to do a little misdirection in a throwback screen.

One McGuire reads it perfectly for the Bears defense, able to limit that to a short gain.

And now for his fourth down, he can see the clock still continues to move, though.

And now they're going to take a timeout and talk this one over as it's fourth down and four with 22 seconds left here in the first half.

Spring Hill leading at 16 to nothing.

What Bobby, you think about we talked about all the championship games that are coming up throughout the week.

Yeah.

Boy there is a we've got some great matchups including from this one here in the eight man to the 6 to 8 games.

I think the two eight games would be awesome between these points at County and Bigelow and then you got the six eight game seven a game in the five eight game they're going to we've got some really good matchups this weekend whether you like small school football or the largest of the large.

We've got it for you all weekend long.

We have a lot of new champions.

We've only got one team who has a chance to repeat this Little Rock Parkview.

They've got a few teams that were in the finals last year maybe looking for redemption.

But for the five champions this weekend, we know are going to be new compared to last.

And don't forget, if you're watching, there's also semifinal games being played tomorrow night as the three and four are still trying to figure out who's going to play here at Memorial Stadium.

So those games will be going on.

We'll give you updates tomorrow night on how slow semifinal games are going.

And now we've got another whistle and a timeout, this time charged to Spring Hill as they needed more time to talk about what was going to be done on this fourth down.

So Richter now out of timeout Spring Hill has one left of course if you're Spring Hill you just don't want to get beat deep with Richter having zero timeouts in just 22 seconds left here in the half keep everything in front of you because the clock's on your side, but the lack of explosive plays.

So it's fourth and four yards.

And so there is a I mean, this is big for Spring Hill because of the fact that if if you get this and you post a shutout at halftime, it's big time.

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So it's 4004 C will play Rector draws up right here is Drew Henderson's going to work on the shotgun faked the handoff and around now they're going to look to throw again deep pass down the middle field has a man wide open and he's going to be down at the one yard line that time coming up with the reception for Rector.

I believe it was chance Lopez who came up with the reception clock is going to be stopped momentarily with 14 seconds left.

They're going to roll it now.

Rector Drew's Henderson going to take it into the end zone.

No signals yet and they're going to say touchdown, but none of the officials put their hands in the air.

Here it is.

Here goes.

And they get the call for a touchdown.

They get on the ball, of course, as soon as they set the change or set the marker and they mark, get ready for play.

That clock was going to run.

There was 14 seconds left when the previous play was blown dead.

So a nice shot.

But here's a look at the deep pass.

And Lopez gets behind the defense Conte the secondary looking into the backfield on the trick play and that goes for a big win and a huge momentum swing for Rector going into the half.

So they're going to put the ball in the middle.

They put the ball an issue on the far hash.

And so now they're going to reposition the football into the middle of the field.

9 seconds remaining here in the first half, Anderson.

Oh, to throw again marks to the left side, they're going to run with it dives for the end zone.

Touchdown, two points.

Good scheme.

Feels very, very different than it did about 15 seconds ago or.

Yeah, it does and give it up director because the pass that time to chance Lopez the sophomore by the way and you saw that replay where he bobbled the ball and almost didn't catch it and he was able to pull it in and take it down to the one that was a big pitch and catch that time for rector Ashton.

Scott's threw it on the trick, play it at the old double pass for the reverse pass, and they needed something.

They needed a shot in the arm because even with that big 44 yard play, they've only got 79 yards of offense.

So they needed something to go their way and getting that right before the half, even though they're still down a touchdown and a two point conversion.

So a very different feel in this stadium.

Well, let's not forget, Rector, they won the coin toss and elected to the first and now that they scored, they're going to have the ball to start the second half.

A chance for the old double dip to arrive before the half get the ball.

And again, they could they could go from down 16.

Nothing to this one being tied in hurry.

Here is the squib kick that is going to roll out of bounds.

And so and keep 9 seconds on the clock and Spring Hill's going to have a couple a play to try to get in the end zone.

I can't can't put this one and a half just yet with the kick out of bounds going to be really good field position for Spring Hill All right.

Let's see if they want to try to take a shot down the field or be content with the eight point advantage going into the intermission.

So it'll be first and ten.

They're going to mark the ball down at the 37 yard line and can't type formation for Spring Hill.

And it's going to take a knee and take it to the locker room.

So we've ended one half of play where the Spring Hill bears they lead rector by a score of 16 eight in the eight man state championship game.

Stick around for halftime we've got a great halftime show for you as you're watching the Centennial Bank State football Championships on Arkansas, PBS Sports.

The Electric cooperatives of Arkansas over 2500 team members across 17 local electric distribution co-ops, powering homes, farms and industries somewhere across Arkansas.

We are the electric cooperatives of Arkansas Power and people.

1958 was a year of change in America.

The Hope Diamond was donated to the Smithsonian Museum.

The microchip was invented.

NASA was created by President Dwight Eisenhower.

And in Arkansas, deep in the recesses of War Memorial Stadium, a group of prominent Little Rock businessmen founded the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

The original mission of the Hall of Fame was simple enough to recognize and induct individual and teams that have brought honor to the state of Arkansas.

And we do provide scholarships for student athletes.

It's a great place for young people to get inspired to come here themselves, to walk through and to read these stories and think someday that can be me.

We indicated our first class in 1959.

We have over 500 inductees basketball players, football players, baseball players, archery and sharpshooter trapshooting runners, golfers, horse racing, car racing.

It's a great cross-section of what sports is.

For more than 60 years, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame worked to honor those most accomplished athletes who call the natural state home Arkansas for its Hall of Fame selection process is simple, but a little complicated.

You can go online and nominate your favorite sports hero.

If that person goes into a master database, a selection committee comes up with those 50 people on the voting list for each category that is mailed out to the dues paying members.

You pick your top five votes, come back.

The top two vote getters in the regular categories automatically get in.

The top vote getter from the senior category automatically get sent, and then the board votes on the remaining inductees.

And then you wait for a call when you get the call, it's a big deal.

You know, when I was inducted to the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame or however when I got received the call, I feel like I've reached something.

Being from a small town, rural area, which Arkansas has a lot of that way.

And when you get picked for something that's prestigious, it has a huge impact on your life.

Seemed to me it was the cap, my athletic career.

I just seemed like all the hard work have paid off for me.

All the people you meet, all the connections you make, they welcome you.

It was remarkable to me the night that I came to be inducted because the former inductees, they want you to feel like, Hey, you're part of us.

Now.

Clearly, sports in Arkansas isn't all fun and games.

Sports is a common ground that brings everybody together and we compete.

We want to see good battle, but we want to shake hands afterwards.

And there's a mutual respect for everyone that play.

Athletics teaches you discipline.

It teaches you teamwork, it prepares you for life.

It got me a full scholarship at the University of Central Arkansas.

Eventually, the Hall of Fame had grown to need a new home, and by early 2007, construction was complete on the almost 14,000 square foot Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Museum, located in what is now Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock.

All the communities in the state have an opportunity to make sure their heroes remember.

And they do that walk through this whole thing, see a helmet from some small community here, a smaller college maybe than the Razorbacks or jerseys, pictures, statistics, all kinds of memorable, like a picture of Scottie Pippen standing next to a polar bear.

For some reason, it's just like creating the milestones of the people who started and who laid the foundation.

Their favorite thing is always the bears back there in the car, the Martin Martin car.

But they actually get to see how sports in Arkansas started for everybody as they were growing up, had their favorite sports heroes.

We preserved those sports heroes for the different generations.

They can look here and say, Wow, this person overcame this.

They came from maybe an impoverished background or maybe a beginning that wasn't necessarily headed toward sports, but ended up there someday.

We have a great sports legacy here.

It's a great representation of what this state is about, hardworking people who endured, who achieved.

And so to have that legacy as a in a permanent place here, hope people embrace that, hope they come here and enjoy it.

Look at the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame as motivation and say, hey, one day that's going to be me.

Now you know the history.

You can be a part of the future of the Arkansas you know, it's called The City with a Smile, whether it's a Friday night football game or it's a family in need, it's going through a hard or is the community going through a tornado?

The people that we can rally around each other, we have a serious situation.

A new tornado warning on the city.

A win win here mean you need to be your tornado safe spot right now.

There's a I grew up here, graduated from here in 2000.

A lot of memories here when high school.

There's a lot of tradition here.

I've been here my entire life.

All my family's went here.

It's been rebuilt.

The school year was going really normally.

I was actually in the middle of, like, classes and stuff, not expecting anything to change.

You know, we were excited because it kind of felt like it was the first year post-COVID, my senior year, I went for college football.

I was in off season football.

I was playing soccer too, and we were really excited.

Things were going along all the way up to the March 31st, and the last thing in the world in our mind was have a tornado destroy our school and our kids yet again, not having a normal year.

That radar is showing you the hook echo that just now went through when that is a debris ball just to the east of when one of my maintenance guys called it.

He said, you got to get down here.

These are the schools go.

You know, the tragedies happen.

You know, in the storms here, we we can't we had our moment of, you know, just breaking down.

We can't stay in that moment.

What do we do to help our community?

I got a call from one of my buddies and he told me the turf was in his front yard from the football field right out there here, that the tornado hit the field and there is no football.

And I'm thinking, okay, what's the next what's the next step like?

What are we going to do?

We were right out here on that field and there's debris everywhere.

There's tile.

First time we really got to meet with the team.

They got bulldozers behind or bulldozing their school.

You know, the kids look on their eyes.

It's like, what kind of nightmare?

If I woke up to it was a it was a surreal feeling, something I'll never forget we have to find a way to make sure our kids don't lose anything.

They don't lose prom.

They don't lose graduation.

Obviously, with the field being nothing gravel, we went to a church field for spring football practice because we didn't have turf.

We've been out on the grass.

We just kind of made the most of what we had and we could have easily sat back and just said, Man, what do we do?

But that's a testament to our leadership.

It's a testament to our teachers, our students, to put in the extra work it took to get us to that point.

Once the temporary campus got done, it was an easier transition.

It was more of like a normal school feeling.

They did a great job getting our facilities back.

I was in pads.

It was it was an amazing feeling to, you know, turf from the difference from turf to grass.

It was it was a amazing feeling.

I always, you know, live through the kids and well, they were teared up.

You know, it was it was it was a big, big deal for sure.

Looking in their stance in wind.

Clearly all of that together right here, State University.

It was they very come together.

They it's an awesome community we live in here.

Well we're playing pretty good.

So many fans packed out every game.

And it's just not that they show up when there's loss, when there's when there's grief, they show up for everything.

That's what they in white.

All Mr.

Doors, our superintendent, then brought him in.

You know, you think that someone that played in the NFL and big star quarterback he didn't come off like that at all.

You could tell he was getting ready.

He was ready to get to work.

And he was excited to be the head football coach.

He just comes in and he introduces himself and he immediately flashes this huge smile and corrects a joke and it's his laugh.

He always had this laugh.

It was a working relationship, but then it turned into he was literally my best friend.

Well, you knew who he was when he got here, but he didn't want that.

He wanted to just be Ryan.

What he brought was a big heart for kids, a huge personality, just a simple, humble man is what I saw.

He won't get back to kids and get back to the sport that he loved.

But my dad always said being was the first football player that he met.

When he came to the house he ran.

It was right across the street from Ben's house.

He knew that being was going to be special.

He said, Man, I love that kid.

Please join me in a moment of silence.

As we remember Benjamin Britten here to accept all of this.

His mother, I woke up that morning with some text messages and calls, and a couple of those calls were from Coach Mallett.

When Ben passed away.

That's when I really found out how close they were because of how bad it wrecked him.

It changed him.

I really, really did.

I care for him a lot like my son, basically.

It's just it's tough when you lose a kid like that and know that he was going to go off and do great things and that when that would hit me hard.

It's just sad seeing Coach Mallett react way he did even on the field and hugged everybody in the field, start crying and told us all that he loved us.

We all use each other to kind of piggyback on try to look to each other for comfort.

Everybody was there for each other.

Mallett being the name that he was, you know, fake media or whatever, posts and stuff.

When we text a group chat, you know, it was this real.

I was like, There's no way.

So I called him.

I was like, There's no way it's true.

Let me call him.

And he'd pick up.

I was like, Wow, this is real.

I was in shock.

I just talked to him for about an hour and a half before I just melted to the ground.

The feelings and the emotions were so raw.

You can't hardly describe it unless you're in that moment.

To be honest, it didn't seem that it could possibly be real.

Our district had lost students.

We had lost a coach that our kids adored.

It was more than what we could handle as a district, as a whole community.

I think they came together to help football players out.

They had counselors from every school, even elementary schools there, Knowing that they were there for us, helped out a lot.

It's just the outpouring of affection and and love that they show in this community for years.

It was awesome.

It was about what you expect from while they were there, just the outpouring of love that was built in not just our community, but surrounding communities in the state, just the love that was shown to us.

It's healing.

And we as a community can get through this.

We've gone through all these things and every day we are moving forward.

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Well, the second half just about sitting, ready to go.

Both teams making their way on to the playing surface to get their final warm ups.

As we get set for the second half action where Spring Hill leads 16 to 8 over Rector.

Let's go and take a look at those first half highlights.

And you know what?

Bobby is here in the first half, it was all Spring Hill in the first and look at T.J. tipped and boy, he got a 47 yard run to start the scoring for Spring Hill and then again got it once again.

Well here's that two point conversion.

But they got it going again with a 24 yard run by Tipton and really got everything going.

It was turnovers early for Springer for Rector and Springfield is capitalized at the start of the game Rector was they brilliant that's it really overwhelmed by the moment they were overwhelmed by mother Nature they couldn't get a hold on the football.

You saw the botched snap on the punt that was returned by Tipton for a touchdown.

It's 16 to nothing before a lot of fans had even dried off the seats.

And so but now right before the half over, there's the touchdown run by Henderson.

The trick play that got him down the field, that's what led to the touchdown.

That play right there gave life to the to the home team that gave life to the fans the closest out of the stadium to us.

And that's why it's only a touchdown game as we're getting ready to start the second half.

And so we'll see how if this is a rector team that has been throughout the first year because I mean, coming into this game, I said it earlier in the first half, they only trailed one time the entire season and that was in the semifinal game.

And they have trailed this entire game and were pretty much shut out for the entire first half.

So it'll be interesting to see what kind of life this Rector team has here in the second half, and they'll get the ball to start the half as they deferred after winning the coin toss the score right before the half.

I don't I don't know if I can say how important and how large that looms because you mentioned they had trailed for the time of one possession, one drive all season long, and they were behind that for the first 35 seconds of this contest after the big yard trap play for a touchdown.

How do they handle it?

Got to going to the locker room, get warm, get dried off a little bit.

The rain has subsided quite a bit.

It may still be coming down just a little bit.

But how do they handle this, this opening drive, the second half, as if they can this they can mount a drive, put it in the end zone and forget the two point conversion.

If they can get within two, the confidence level is going to shoot up on that sideline.

The fans behind them are going to get even louder.

And the undefeated team, the number one seed coming it, the favorite coming of this championship game, is going to have all the momentum.

And now how to Spring Hill handle how that little bit of adversity.

Bobby, let's give us some stats from that first on total offense for both these two teams.

Yeah, it's all about T.J. Tipton for Spring Hill, I mean, 73 yards on the ground.

When he led the charge, it wasn't nearly as much offense as you.

I mean, we were talking about we really thought this was going to be a track meet between these two eight man squads.

A couple of years ago, the championship game was 66 to 60 last year.

There is a of points, but this year both teams just a 161 yards combined 92 for Spring Hill rector of course lost 21 yards on that first possession because of back to back fumbles they've been trying to dig out of that hole just haven't seen those big explosive plays you expect we'll see if the second half changes that though.

Well Spring Hill going to be kicking off to start the second half as we're just about set and ready to go for second half eight man action as the kick kickoff is going to sail over the head of the return man And that is Caden Avery for Rector's.

He'll bring it up the left side, gives a nice stiff arm ball comes out and Spring Hill is going to come up with it.

They get the turnover to start the second half turnovers in the first half for Rector and here to start the second half his turnovers once again that is going to be Spring Hill football.

A little bit of a discussion to see if the the player who recovered it had stepped out of bounds.

First they say no.

So Spring Hill talked about how important RJ that first drive was going to be for Rector.

It doesn't even get started.

As Spring Hill forces the turnover on special teams and now they get a short field a chance to add to their lead.

Well, you go back to talking about how big that score was before the half, and it doesn't matter now that you turn the ball over here in the second half.

Yeah.

So so Spring Hill never really got a possession to answer after that long touchdown as they took a knee on the one play that they ran after the touchdown.

Now they've got great field position, a chance to get the offense going and you got to believe that the heavy dose of TJ Tipton right here because they want to continue to start to work that clock like they did in the first half.

Rain is still coming down here at War Memorial Stadium, not near as heavy as what we've seen throughout this ball game as Spring Hill, they're going to hand it off to Tipton and the ball came out.

Who's going to come up with it?

Tipton got hit early and knocked the ball out and they're going to say it's going to be rector.

Football just didn't secure the edge on that far side, the right side of the offense.

You can see it right here does comes in untouched does number 17 I believe that's Ashton Scott who threw the trick play earlier Rector the sun comes on free unblocked off the edge, forces the fumble and rector avoids the disaster that was the fumble on the kickoff To start the second half, Ashton, who we talked about going to Lyon College to play college ball next year as we've got whistles and penalty flags and it's going to be offsides against Spring Hill.

So a free five yards for Rector as they're going to have their first possession here in the second half.

And the defensive end on the left side there for Springfield is lined up in the neutral zone at the high school level.

It's automatically blown dead as soon as they snap to football.

He's in the neutral zone.

You blow it there, two free, five yards, first down and five now for Rector as the ball's going to be at the 45 yard line, they're going to fake the handoff.

Henderson keeps that left side and he'll have a running line, gets five about five yards and he takes it out to the 50 yard line.

That is going to be very near a first down as they are going to say.

It's a they're going to say first down.

Yeah, tough sledding there for Henderson.

He could not get anything going really in the first half to six yards on 15 carries for a player averaging almost ten yards a pop 2000 yards rushing coming into it.

That's a tough five yards there for a first down first and ten at the 50 yard line.

Henderson going to work from a shotgun takes the snap he'll be hit immediately right at the line of scrimmage And Bobby you mentioned this in the first half Henderson he he mishandled the ball off the shotgun snap multiple times there in the first half.

And you see when he goes to get that shotgun snap, he almost takes it all the way into the belly rather than catch him just with his hands.

And we saw that early in the first half, he was taking it almost off the chest plate.

And so kind of defending he's not catching it with the hands, which allows the defense more time because he's got it before he can take off running.

He's got to secure it, put it away, get the three points of pressure on it.

The defense's chance to convert second and ten looking to throw goes left side, has a man first down as he'll take it inside the 35 that time hooking up with his wide receiver It's Ashton Scott that's the route that's been open all day for wrecker They don't throw at a ton they only through 27 passes into this contest with that corner out coming from Scott has been open every time they've seen him out on a pattern that time finally Henderson able to hit him in stride and a big gain sets him up inside the 35 first and ten from the 35 yard line down to 1020 to play here in the third quarter.

Spring Hill leading 16 to 8 passing yards.

Rector with 49 to 12 for Spring Hill.

Now ball's on the turf again and Henderson's able to pick up, but it's going to be a big loss on the play the sixth time that Rector's put the ball in the ground.

This contest and you, I mean we're to attribute it to the weather, but they both have to play in it and Henderson is just having a hard time holding onto the football.

That was that was a snap that was just too far to the right of Henderson.

He couldn't corral it and they lose five yards and now they're behind the chains again.

Second down now for rectors.

The ball's going to be at the 41 yard line with that four fumbles for rector in this game Spring Hill with one.

Now we've got whistles.

The officials are going to get together and it's like they're going to look at the equipment for the quarterback.

Henderson and everything's good.

So we'll reset things.

Second down and 16 with the ball to 41 looking to throw again Henderson goes downfield and trying to find Scott and he's in and out of his hands to bring up a third down now great defensive play there by Levon McGuire, the junior for Spring Hill makes contact with Scott right when the football gets there forces the incompletion really nice job defensively so third down and 16 stops the clock at 9 minutes and 19 seconds and look at the third down conversion Bobby is rector today oh for five on third down.

Yeah there's these are those money plays but a lot of times it's just like this instance it's been third and long.

They haven't had the luxury of going 31 to third and 15.

You're not going to convert that many times.

Wide receivers on the right side is Henderson is going to take it himself, works it back left, takes a hard hit inside the original sticks as he gets it down to the 38 yard line, but still about eight yards from the first down.

A lot of window dressing there for a quarterback draw.

You see, look, it looks like you've got quad receivers to the right of the formation.

And Henderson takes the quarterback draw just to the left, picks up about a half of that third yardage and now it's fourth and seven, maybe fourth and a short eight.

But a big play coming up for the Rector offense.

Drew Henderson takes the shotgun snap going to look to throw Henderson looks right now comes back.

Wow Going to be under pressure has nowhere to go got to run with it He's out Pass the throw.

He'll be taken out.

We've got multiple penalty flags down back behind the line of scrimmage.

He's going to have enough for the first down after penalties.

Don't bring him back.

Holding against Rector.

Yeah it's going to be holding on the near side and so that's going to back up rector even farther the first non pre-snap penalty we've had today.

Now we had an offsides earlier in the ballgame, pre-snap Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Non pre-snap penalty.

Yeah you're right.

That's why we haven't had a lot of penalties though.

Yeah.

It's been a clean game so that that's crucial.

That's critical there for wrecker.

They pick up the first down bounce coming back because of a hole now they've got to put it away you know get a foot in to it it's going to hit down the ten and take a spring hill bounce and it will be down at the 15 yard line.

And that's where Spring Hill will have it first and ten with 817 to play.

Spring Hill League Director, 69 as you're watching the Centennial Bank State football Championships on Arkansas.

Well, excuse me, hold everything.

We've got a penalty flat out.

It's going to be a hold against Spring Hill.

Hold everything before we send it to break.

The penalty flag was is down at the 41 yard line.

You don't see that very often, do you?

Pop the hole on the defense on a punt.

It was there in the return.

Oh, no, no, no.

So it's going to bring up fourth down and a replay of the down.

So this is going to be instead of fourth and 17 now fourth and seven.

And you got to believe that the rector offense is going to come back out there.

But they haven't moved the the sticks now.

They're now gone.

Now the officials are going to move the ball as that'll put the ball down at the 38 yard line.

So you've got a fourth down and eight.

And here comes the rector offense Henderson in the shotgun Don't take the snap No look to throw again Throws the corner out left side.

It's going to be intercepted now he's going to drop saves them about 30 yards of field.

I've got to say it actually works out for him trying to go back to that corner out the Scott he was behind the defense with the pass was under thrown couldn't get it out there and Springhill comes up with the big fourth down stop so they got the turnover on downs now will take the break with 757 to play here in the third quarter Spring Hill leads at 16 eight.

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Tipton's going to take the handoff for Springhill and have nowhere to go as he'll get back to the line of scrimmage and so that'll bring up a second and ten back rolls at 741 left here in the third quarter.

Springhill leading rector 16 eight in his eight man championship game, R.J. Honka along with Bobby Swafford championship weekend all weekend long two games tomorrow starting at noon and then on Saturday as well, starting at noon.

Going to have a lot of football.

You like high school football.

Keep it right here on Arkansas PBS Sports and I hand it to Tipton once again.

Tipton, He'll take it out, pass the 35 to 36 yard line to bring up third down gone to two more of the power I formation has Springhill here in the second half and you're doing a nice job of of controlling that line of scrimmage really since that but the first possession second possession of the game Springhill hasn't been able to muster much offense 92 yards in the contest 47 came on one play so the rector defense has done their job but of course the one long rushing touchdown in the special teams score as why the Bears have a lead here.

We're about halfway home in this third quarter, so let's turn down a seven officially from the 36 yard line.

Look to throw Smith across the middle of the field as he was trying to hook up with his intended wide receiver and just had nowhere to go that time.

And it was trying to hook up with Tipton.

And so that brings up fourth down and seven.

Yeah, just had Happy Feet you know wanted to throw it earlier.

Just couldn't get the tight end going down the middle of the field three and out.

Not exactly what you want to do If you're Springhill you turn the football over give it right back director Well and Jackson Smith has not been the most efficient passer I mean didn't do it enough but it was only a 40% passer coming in the door.

You as Tipton's going to put a foot into it, gets a nice punt away.

That'll be taken down at the 24 yard line.

Avery's going to bring it up and he'll be dropped down shy of the 35 down to 34 yard line.

Moore Well, I tell you what, if you've never seen an eight man game, it's a lot of guys playing both ways, playing multiple positions on, you know, yeah, you don't have a lot of guys on the sidelines.

And I said this today.

I'm one of the three seven the players that you got to commend the coaches and the triple play and others that really invested in eight man football for these small towns that you know football was going to go away completely if eight man didn't take place and for four coaches to get together and say, hey, this is what we want to do.

It's been it's been a really good thing is here's Henderson with a big run out past the 50 best run of the night for he'll take it in the spring he'll territory by far the biggest run of the night picks up 21 their longest prior to that was just 16 yards and that's what this wrecked their offense relies on as big plays from the quarterback Drew Henderson that time he finally breaks the tackle runs to another arm tackle and into Spring Hill territory.

That's kind of what you're talking about.

This is what exactly it's about, you know, schools and communities that maybe now have large enough to play 11 man football.

They struggle with numbers, but you can play an eight man game with 13 or 14 guys on your roster.

And that's exactly what a lot of these schools are doing.

And at least want more kids to play the game of football.

Your shotgun to Henderson's they're going to give it to Avery.

Avery walks it back the left side and he's got running lanes and he's going to walk it into the end zone.

Kaden Avery takes it from 44 yards out for the touchdown.

Great job by Avery to recognize the flow of the defense cuts back against the grain.

It was nothing between him and paydirt once he turns the quarter and had plenty of speed to burn as he puts it in the end zone.

And now rector a two point conversion away from time this contest Kaden avery nice cutback lane and was able to see paydirt and now the two point conversion is about to take place Henderson's going to be on the shotgun wing backs it off that right side one receiver in the formation Henderson going to keep himself go straight ahead and the ball came out who's going to come up with it And Spring Hill looks like they came up with it.

The two point conversion is no good.

Nobody's given any signal from the officials.

The and so we're assuming that they didn't did it because nobody has made a signal on touchdown or no touchdown or two point conversions.

Good or no good.

Now they're going to say it's good.

So we've got a tie ballgame with 538 to play here in the third quarter.

Here's in Henderson was able to just run into the end zone lost it at the very last minute and to two players right there to recover all of that long discussion was there was even a white jersey within the yard of the football.

But either way, we are all tied up just like we drew it up.

Well, and Bobby is as the game's tied, you almost have a game because now the rain is coming down heavy, just like when we started this game.

I mean, it is monsoon rains that are coming down here at war Memorial Stadium down May Regional health system is proud to support Spotlight and celebrate Arkansas student athletes and Arkansas PBS Sports Scores 1921 Conway Regional Health System is provided complete care services for the growing communities of North Central Arkansas.

For more information, visit Comer Regional North is my you know it was raining pretty hard during the the pre game but this might be one of the hardest rains that we've seen since this game has started as it is really coming down now.

Right your players are coming off the field.

They're going to come back to the sideline for a moment and a quick review of the two point conversion.

The call stands trial was good, kind of felt bad.

So during the pre-game festivities, if you have never been to hear a woman run stadium, the players clear the field.

And so the dance team, the cheerleaders, the band can do all that stuff in Spring Hill, cheerleaders were up there doing the routine and literally somebody took the bottom of the ocean just like cut a hole in it.

And all of a sudden it fell on Moore Memorial Stadium, and they ran to the locker.

They just said, you know what?

We're done with this routine.

We're going we're going back to the tent on the sideline.

Yeah, I know.

I mean, it is coming down now, you know, And hey, I talked to some some guys on the way in the what were they going to fold the game or cancel the game because the rain now you can play the rain you can't blame the lightning As the onside kick was recovered and that time recovering.

The onside kick for Spring Hill was Mason Moore who was able to jump on it.

But no, I mean, you can play in rain all day.

It's just when that lightning starts to come, that's when you have to take caution.

This is when you're thankful for that artificial turf.

Yes, it would be a slop fest.

But I will say this, Bobby, When you and I played, there were grass fields there.

Nothing better, though, whenever it was a muddy, muddy mess.

And you're just running and slide and especially as an offensive lineman like and that's where you're wrong because you're down there on the ground drowning in mud.

You like you it pretty boys on the outside.

Look at the whole parade.

Spread through your white shoes down there, slopping with the pigs.

Those spring hill's got it first and ten from the 30 yard line as Tipton's going to take it and he'll bring it out to the 34 yard line, pick up three yards on the play to bring up second down back is the the power run game right up the middle for tipped.

It works early in that first quarter.

Has it done a whole lot since then and I continue to be impressed by the way that Dalton Lamar is playing but offensive lineman for Richter, I mean, he is he is around the football at all times for this cougar defense that nine tackles the most in the contest second down in seven under 5 minutes to play here in the third quarter handed the tipped and he has nowhere to go he absolutely just bottled up the line of scrimmage and now that's coming out third down It mostly right there his fifth stop of the contest.

So the two defensive tackles for Rick, they're carrying the load for the defense Mosely and Lamar, they're doing a job on the Spring Hill rushing attack attack.

So clock rolling at 426 left here in the third tie ballgame, 1616 Jackson Smith thought about throwing and now he's going to run has running lanes out pass the 50 stays on his feet inside the 30 yard line the defense broke down he had running lines for days and he flips the field as he takes Springhill down record territory.

We haven't talked about the running ability of the Springhill quarterback much.

He came into the contest second on the team with 584 yards on the ground a pair of touchdowns.

He's got ten two point conversions the quarterback does a job on that one broke down early Rector broke through the pass protection he goes up that home sideline huge gain and the bears are now within striking distance.

Oh it's a fresh set of downs as they're going to put the ball at the 27 yard line.

It's first and ten for Springhill.

Faulk has stopped at 4 minutes and 9 seconds.

Now the officials are going to blow it into play as everybody got the chains set as Smith will be under center and a handed the tipped in straight ahead.

You get past the 25 down to the 24 yard line, three yard pickup tipped him a little slow to get up there.

He's taken a beating and comes up in just a little bit.

But it's just constantly been that hammer against the anvil, beaten against that rector.

Defense, 16, carries now 83 yards for T.J. Tipton.

He's going to check himself out of the contest, second down and seven as they are taking every bit of time off that play clock is we're down to 9 seconds on play clock handed off.

Once again, it's about a yard on the play and that'll bring up third down.

Now after Tipton was a tip Tipton I believe it was actually a different running back the time for Spring Hill as it was Alex Riga who ran at that time just like we saw with Tipton, though I understand why you thought it was him because he came out of his stance so quickly.

Yeah, Looks like he's there.

It's a false start, but once we time it up, that snap perfectly.

So it's now third down and five from the 22 yard line and now we've got whistles and a timeout charged to Spring Hill with 2 minutes and 27 seconds left here in the third it's 16 to 16 Yeah play clock was starting to run down there for Spring Hill don't want to risk it at 35 he's given up five yards a nice job by Greg Smith to go ahead and give it a timeout So Southern Loft is a Browns supporter of Arkansas PBS Sports and our Arkansas student athletes located at 3155 North College Avenue, Suite 102 and Fayetteville Southern Loft, a different kind of furniture store.

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With 227 left here in the third, you've got a third down and five for Spring Hill.

And, you know, it seems to me, Bobby, the really the much the second and third quarter, they've shut them down.

He's not been able to run, but they found their most success when they've allowed for Jackson Smith to get outside the pocket run a little bit.

Yeah you're exactly right.

I mean that's what this offense is really built on is Tipton Those body blows.

If this was a boxing match, this kind of wears you out with his blow after blow.

Nelson They get you sucking down on that short inside run.

And also, that's when they pop it to the outside and break the big one.

So Spring Hill is going to break the heart on this third down and five.

So you take it.

So they've got a 47 yard run in a 39 yard run.

You take those two away, Spring Hill's done nothing, but obviously you can't do that.

Smith Going to look to throw those across the middle of the field throws it behind his intended target that time trying to hook up with his wide receiver as Miami I believe, force Spring Hill.

He was trying to hook up with Reece Tarver.

Was it was it Blaine Tuttle?

No, it was too.

It was Reese Tarver this late across the middle.

And that's the second time we've now seen Jackson Smith try to throw the ball late across the middle.

And then lucky that one wasn't picked off the defensive back is that they're in position this couldn't make the play and now it's fourth and five for Spring Hill the obvious four down territory So you've got fourth down and five as Jackson Smith is going to be under center fakes the pitch going to look to throw it he'll be just sacked in the backfield and it'll be a turnover on downs for spring and rector They save a score by Spring Hill a big stop there by the defense and Rector who has all the momentum in this contest.

They've scored 16 unanswered points to tie this ballgame up and now they've got a chance to take the lead for the first time in the game.

The clock stopped at 2 minutes and 16 seconds is going to come out with four wide receivers in the formation.

Henderson going to keep it himself works the back right side running with the football past the 40 yard line picks up the first down and much more as he's going to take it down to the 42 yard line and the momentum is clearly on the side of the rector Cougars.

They score right before the half.

They tie things up and now they get a big defensive and now they're on the move once again.

The first down and ten ball at the 42 Henderson going to run with it again Another big running lane gets another first down takes it in the Springhill territory is he'll be inside the 45 yard line down to the 42 yard line so that was a prime example of what a bad snap actually can be a good thing because it throws off the timing of the defense because it's automatic, instinctive, like, okay, ball's on the ground, go get it.

And you don't focus on the player who's able to pick it up there.

Henderson comes out the backside with it.

Another big gain now into Spring Hill territory, first down and ten ball the 30 to officials say the 43 yard line Boy Rector's had so much success after spreading out the offense letting Henderson have those running lanes for white in the formation again they're going to hand it off this time it's two Avery Avery walks it around the 30 and he'll go out of bounds.

Yeah.

And Bobby there going from really bunched it up at the line of scrimmage to where they're spreading it out and really spreading this defense out to where they can't just key on the defender the running back war on Henderson we talked about with Hill they soften you up with those body blows to fullback inside.

Well that's kind of what Rector does they do that with the quarterback over and over again and all of a sudden they get something to the outside.

You're not expecting.

And that's why Avery picks up the big game.

And now the bad snap.

It's going to go all the way back to the 45.

Henderson stays on his feet, but it's going to be a big loss that time.

Another bad snap by rector and that's going to back him up just, you know, two yards forward or two steps forward, two steps back now for this wreck.

Their offense, the seventh time number, seven time they've put the football on the turf, they've only lost two of those.

But the negative plays have really started to add up.

And now they're way behind the change you're looking at.

Second and 23 coming up.

So second down and 23 down to 37 seconds left here in the third, Anderson's going to have four.

When the formation of Avery comes in motion, they're going to pitch it to him, left side, going to get bottled up and knocked down.

He's going to lose yardage.

Great job of rallying to the football.

You Spring Hill's 64 Joe Phillips, the second man out there it was ten Carson more.

The first man turns him back in and then Phillips cleans it up as the final play of the third quarter.

Well, we have wrapped up three quarters in this eight man championship game.

We've got a tie ballgame 16, 16 between Spring Hill and Rector's.

You're watching the Centennial Bank State football Championships on Arkansas, PBS Sports.

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Let's take a look at some of these highlights so far in this game.

Look at Tipton Run.

Boy.

He was running early and often here in the first half of this ballgame as he got the first two scores, the ball game.

But there's Henderson.

He was able to get in in the end zone to get the first score for Rector and it has just been a back and forth really.

It was all Spring Hill in the first half and Rector has come to life here in the second half is right there you see it's just Avery running wild in the first half.

He has had a really, really good first half as Spring Hill.

They have not are not at 16 apiece as we start the fourth quarter of play.

And it's anybody's game as we start the fourth quarter, this eight man state championship game, obviously Watford on Jayhawk, you've got a third down and 26 from the 46 yard line for Rector they go for white in the formation they handed to Avery on the end around Avery works the back right side gets a pass the 40 and he'll pick up about six seven yards on the play but it brings up a fourth down now.

Yeah this is a tough spot here for Rector You're kind of in no man's land.

You're inside the 40.

So you take a punt, maybe off the table, but also you've got a chance to pin Spring Hill deep back.

I mean, it's fourth and 17, so this is the chance of success.

It's pretty low right now.

So.

So maybe you think about punting even though you are inside the 40 to try to flip the field position and give this Spring Hill offense a full field.

The goal because they've really struggled since Tipton broke the big run.

I've had just look down the field and they have now started putting footballs in black plastic trash bags to try to save from the rain.

Here's a big pass play across the middle and it's intercepted at the 15 yard line coming the other way.

And Spring Hill got the turnover and coming up with the Spurs with the interception.

It was Carson Hamilton who came up with it.

And Bobby, in the grand scheme of things, it's like a big punt, but a nice turnover by Carson Hamilton that time a great play on the football because the receiver actually had pretty decent position.

But as soon as he's coming over, Hamilton makes the play and a huge interception to get the turnover and give the bears the football back so it'll be first and ten for spring Hill as they'll have it down at the they're going to mark is that they could call it a blindside block on their return.

I didn't see the penalty so they're going to march this one all the way back.

So the punt actually works out pretty well.

I know it's not going to look great on the stat sheet for the record tomorrow, but this one puts it all the way back to the 12 yard line.

It kind of works out like the punt I was talking about.

Yeah, you're exactly right, because now Spring Hill has to they've got to go the length of the football field to get a touchdown with 1141 left here in the ball game.

It's first in Denver.

Springhill They're going to put the ball down at the 13 yard line So you know what, Bobby?

When we looked at this game on paper coming to this one, you thought it was going to be quite lopsided between these two teams.

And it's been everything.

But as Spring Hill has played lights out, both teams have played lights out in this state championship game as they hand it off to tip in straight up the middle.

And they have a lot to work with.

Get a couple of yards on the play.

It's been really impressive the way that both these defenses have taken the field and really dominated this contest with the exception of a handful of plays that have broken loose.

The defensive front said this own this football game and and that's why we were sitting here in a tie contest with 12 minutes to play well.

And you know, some people will look at this say well the rain played a lot of a lot into this and and that might be true but they're both having to play in it.

And the fact that you've got a 1616 game that that says a lot about both these defenses in this one.

So Spring Hill on and on this second down now we've got whistles and penalty flags week now with the steady rain continuing to fall ball security is going to be so much more important, even though than it was in the first three quarters, because every possession, every play, every inch of grass out there on the playing surface is going to matter.

Right now, that turf is is very saturated tonight, as they have.

They have been playing in the swamp here War Memorial Stadium.

So it's second down and 12 with the ball at the 11 yard line Smith going to look to throw had a man he was wide open it was Blaine Tuttle who came on the waggle route across the middle of the field.

There was nobody but him out there.

And the ball got overthrown.

Well, has had him has made a couple throws.

And you mentioned how the throwing is is not the strong suit of either Springhill or Rector.

It's 40% completion percentage on the season for the Bears.

And, you know, third and long is not advantageous for either one of these squads.

But these defenses continue to put both of these offenses behind the chains.

So it's third down and 12 now from the 11 yard line.

Jackson Smith Now we've got to call a timeout and we charge to Springhill with 10 minutes and 29 seconds left here in the first half and we've got a tie ballgame 1616 at that could also be big later in the contest.

RJ That's just one timeout left now for Springhill.

And we you know, we've seen both these two teams use their timeouts throughout the half.

But what say what Bobby this is is the big third down for Springhill Join us at the Little Rock Zoo for our third annual Wild and our theme once in a lifetime, November 16th through January 7th and runs from 5 to 9 p.m. each night this year with three themed areas over 40 new lanterns.

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So it's third down and 12 as Jackson Smith is going to take his steps up in the pocket, going to throw downfield under throws.

His man is going to be incomplete now we've got penalty flags who are going to call it on this could really go either way but there's a lot of hand fighting.

A ball was extremely under thrown and I thought that and this may actually go against Spring Hill because the defensive player had position and has every right to the football as much as the offense does say pass interference and indicate which way that now the free pass interference against rector boy that is a big time penalty Bobby this is third and long you think you're going get the football back with great field position have a chance at an interception but a 5050 call goes against you and now you've got to you got to recuperate.

You can't you can't dwell on that bad call or that bad call against you, I should say.

Let's saying it's a bad call, but you've got to be able to bounce back and regroup and try to force another turnover or get the ball back for you off into the park.

So it's first and ten with the ball now at the 26 yard line.

Jackson Smith going to work out the shotgun this time fakes the pitch can look to throw He's under pressure he'll be dropped as the football and the ball came It came all the way over to the near hash mark and luckily there was a Springhill player sitting right there on top of it.

Carson Moore is the only player in the stands in the stadium that I know.

That ball came out.

Yeah.

And it shot out so fast.

He was the only one standing there.

And I don't think this is supposed to be over here.

The heads up play there by Moore.

But again, it's a second and long situation for Springhill.

139 yards of offense have gone to the passing game a little more than probably anticipated here in the second half.

And it really hasn't come out too well.

Just one of five passing and Springhill Smith handed off left side that goes to the big man as tipped him, takes it out pass the 25 to the 26, gets back to the original marker.

So now it's third down and 1091 yards now for T.J. Tipton So creeping up on the 100 yard mark, that's the most in the game for either side, a third down and ten with the ball at the 26 man's going to come in motion, Smith's going to fake it to throw it down the middle of the field has a man down at the 4550 and director territory of course and Hamilton who comes up with the reception and takes it in the Richter territory.

A great job by Smith.

It's the hand in the pocket and an excellent adjustment by the receiver to to kind of come back to the under thrown ball Carson Hamilton makes the play and as you just mentioned RJ gets down in the record territory the biggest gain in the passing game for the bears mark rolling at 840 starting see that that pass interference penalty loom big right now here in the fourth quarter first down and ten with the ball director 41 yard line Smith who's going to be under center as they'll hand it to Tipton Tipton we get a pass of 40 and inside to the 38 yard line, almost daring you to run up the football.

Right?

Pre-snap.

Here's a huge hole.

It's almost guard to guard nobody over the center, over the inside shoulder of either guard for this wreck their defense, but yet they collapse so well on T.J. Tipton right there and hold it to a gain of three.

So it's second down and seven now.

Now we've got whistles and penalty flags.

There was a false start on Spring Hill football.

That stops the clock.

It's 7 minutes and 42 seconds left here in the ballgame.

Stop me if you've heard this before.

It's another second and long.

Not a lot of those time.

Yes.

Oh, Troy Mitchell does all of our stats, but I'd like to know how many of those we've had throughout the ball game.

Second and long, third and long for two run heavy teams.

That's that's not usually a recipe for success.

And that's why we've got ourselves in a 1616 tying in an eight man sport that's usually pretty high scoring option Play goes right side we've got whistles and another false start on direction eighth penalty of the game on Spring Hill for 55 yards three penalties against rector for 40 of course 15 of that came on this drive with the pass interference call so it's second down and 17 with the ball at the 48 yard line now clock is rolling it's 708 left here in the ball game extra the pitch going to look to throw that Smith he has nowhere to go and loses more yardage lost another yard to bring up third down now and now the ball's at the 49 yard line try a rollout pass there for Smith is nobody open a great job by the rector second there and that's a coverage sack the big boys up front coverage on the 628 left here in the game you've got a third down and 18 with the ball at the 49 yard line.

Before we get too far into this, I got to give a huge shout out to the fans who have stuck it out to this house and the weather is nasty yeah, Spring Hill on record, communities showing their support.

Now we've got whistles and a timeout charge to Spring Hill for last time They're out here so why they take a break We will as well 603 left here in the game 1616 zero scores.

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They're heavier than what they just were.

But we just talked about how hard it was.

It's now heavier, but we've still got football to play as a fake.

Now, Jack Smith's going to look to throw.

He throws it down field and it's incomplete.

Is he trying to hook up with wide receivers?

Good job hanging in there and trying to throw off balance.

And either way, he's going to bring up a fourth down.

Might be the most time he's had to throw all day, all night long, but still not able to to get much behind that pass because of the the pressure bearing down on him.

And now you're going to get the football back more than halfway through this fourth quarter.

And one drive to win the title.

Oh, yeah.

I don't know if you can tell on TV, but it is pouring.

It is coming down right now as they're going to put a foot into it.

And it looks like a good Spring Hill roll inside the 15 and down to the six yard line.

And that's where it's going to die for Rector and Rector is going to have to take it.

I thought somebody may have touched it, but touched it up course of the 12 to the 15 yard line.

We'll see if they they re spot this because the ball should be ruled dead or repossessed.

Remarked back where it was first touched.

I don't know if the official saw that it was touch.

Isn't that near the 15 yard line?

That's nine yards of field position.

I mean, look right here.

So the officials are talking about it ten yards, the field position up to the 16.

So that's where the ball should come back out.

I mean, I don't know if he touched it, hit with his foot.

Oh did it.

I thought he jumped over.

There's a replay right here.

Leave on his left foot comes over.

What happened there.

Well, yes, it took it took an unnatural turn.

Well now they're going to respond it out at the 15 yard line.

They got that right.

That's good.

Good job by the officiating crew.

You see it right here.

He gets it with his left foot there.

Yeah, Illegal.

I spotted it.

Here's Henderson with a running lane.

Left side gets a pass.

One defender and he'll be taken down.

Pass the 25 to the 28 yard line.

Nice run for a first down right there for Henderson.

And so that'll bring the first set of downs as the clock rolls it under 535 remaining workhorse tonight Drew Henderson as we expected 23 carries for 90 yards as Henderson will be in the shotgun again.

And I hand it to Avery Avery works the back right side he'll be tripped up and taken down after a about a five yard gain to bring up second down.

Well, the thing if you're Spring Hill right now, I mean, you want him to run it, but you got to stop it because you want that car to roll without them getting just a ton of yardage each time.

And he's took it to that stop always trying to get one more possession.

Henderson going to keep it himself walks it right side, cuts it back up the middle and he'll be very near first down as they're going to stop the clock they are going to say it's a first down.

So what's going to be ever more important here?

RJ We've seen Rector put the ball in the ground seven times and a lot of that's been because of the center quarterback exchange and the shotgun has have to be clean here.

If you're rector to keep this drive going, you can't put yourself behind the chains like they've done so many times today.

So first and ten with the ball and the 38 yard line, Anderson, going to keep it himself has a running lane.

Left side gets a pass the 50 to the 35 and it'll be taken down at the 26 yard line.

That is a great job up front to open up the running lane, but even better job by Henderson to be patient in the hole and allow that to open up.

And he finds that lane and puts on the afterburners and now they're inside the throw.

So for and counting left in this one is rector's got it down at the 26 yard line.

Let's just worry if you're wrecked or you start to really slow things down.

You try to not only pick up yards, pick up first downs, but you want to score with about one second left.

You want to make sure that Springhill does not have enough time to answer easier said than done.

Though Spring Hills defense is still standing in the way.

Henderson going to take it himself as he'll be taken down at inside the 20 to the 23 yard line for second down is.

But here's the other thing though.

You don't want to kill Wilson.

It almost got punched out of him, but you don't want to take too much time because we've seen this spring Hill defense step up big down in this end of the field.

It's got to stay positive.

That's a good first down play if you're rector, if you're a home fan right now and you take three and four yards and keep the chain moving and more importantly, keep keep the clock running.

So they're working that play clock down already down to five, second down and seven.

They're going to hand it to Avery right side.

Avery goes off the edge and you get hit hard.

But he'll be taken down very near the first down.

They're going to say it is a first down there, moves the sticks inside.

3 minutes to play at the 16 so they can pick up another first down and this is where those three timeouts at Spring Hill burned because they were about to get a delay.

A game are so important now they cannot stop the clock and so they're really at the mercy of one.

Their defense but to this rector offense believe in the play clock down first down and ten ball to 16 yard line Henderson makes the snap he fumbles it ball's on the turf who comes up with it?

Henderson's got it.

Henderson's got the football.

I said Henderson is actually a really that came up with it for Spring Hill.

Henderson just lost the handle on it.

The option to read and nobody touched him.

There was no mishandled exchange.

He just lost the football.

And you got to believe the weather conditions had a lot to do with that.

But a tough break there for Drew Henderson in this rector offense.

But Spring Hills defense takes advantage of the eighth fumble of the contest by rector Alex Noriega.

Comes up with it for Spring Hill and it's first and ten for Spring Hill with 228 to play here in the fourth quarter.

Richter has all three timeouts remaining.

Spring Hill has none and they've got a hurry to get to the line though down to five on this play clock.

Smith just spiked the football.

It's kind of some miscommunication there.

So that's coming out of the change of possession.

Stop the clock on first down when the clock wasn't running, but kind of an interesting move.

Thank you.

I think that he was just a bit confused thinking that the clock was rolling.

So either way, it's second down and ten.

There they were.

They were.

You could tell they were discombobulated there.

RJ They didn't line up in time at almost look like he didn't receive the snap in time, but the play clock was thrown down.

I mean, it was down to one.

And now he's going to fumble and he'll get taken down the backfield.

Just didn't feel that snap cleanly.

And that's going to be an awful couple of plays so far for Spring Hill as we're down to 213 and counting left here in the fourth quarter.

That's a that's a loss of Ford back to the 15.

I'm surprised Richter's not taking the time out here on third down.

Try to say some of that clock because we've seen 13, 12, 13, 13 hasn't been converted too many times tonight.

And Spring Hill is going to let this one bleed all the way down.

Now we're down to 12.

And so they finally get to play COLLINS So they're going to have to rush the line again just to get the snap off by not handling the clock well here in this fourth quarter.

SMITH Going to take the snap under pressure steps up in the pocket.

He'll be taken down again.

The defensive pressure from Richter has been off the charts here in the fourth quarter.

Richter finally takes that time out, but there's no time to pass at all.

Jackson Smith trying to trying to throw the pass there, but this has no time.

And instead the rushes in the backfield as soon as Smith can get his eyes up on the receivers, the Cougars take a timeout.

With 133 left in this contest.

You expect they're going to get the football back after you would think a punt here with really good field position Mel Bobby the the missed after missed opportunity by Spring Hill has just been tough and they had the opportunity here in the fourth and just they've squandered away and now they've got a fourth down and long you can get live action photos from the game in my pbs.org slash photos for a free download.

She could have made a great championship keepsake and we have to give a huge shout out to Kai Caddy who's out there, whether in these elements to get you all these great shots.

We'll check them out.

A social media feed sent out a few of them throughout this contest.

So tip of the cap for the man who's soaked up there.

So it's fourth down and 16 and they're going to punt back deep for Richter.

It's going to be Drew Henderson.

It's going to be a short punt that's going to hit down at the 35, take a Spring Hill roll, pass the 40, and it will come to a conclusion down at the 4443 excuse me.

And where Rex is going to have it with a minute, 21 to 21 left to play in this one.

Not many times in life you get a chance to redeem yourself.

Andrew Henderson's getting exactly that.

He fumbles on the last possession and now he's got a chance with 81 seconds and two timeouts left to put Richter in the endzone and give the school their first state championship.

So Rector has Henderson's in the shotgun he'll keep it himself works at right size They will get about a yard on the play.

Oh clock's rolling a minute 12 and counting.

Rutgers got two timeouts remaining.

They're not like they're going to be inside a minute by the time they snap this on Anderson out of the shotgun and keep it himself, cuts it back left side, be taken down shy of the 30 yard line down or steam minute 35, but we're down to 36 and we're up a third down and three.

Now for Richter.

Take the time out.

See Henderson, Use the stutter step there.

You might almost like to see him this.

Lower the shoulder and try to get out of bounds to stop the clock.

Instead, they've got to burn their seconds timeouts here in the second.

Now a huge 33 coming up for the Cougars.

So you've got 45 seconds.

And here's the thing.

If you look at the passing game for both these two teams, Rutgers had the better passing game here in the rain today.

So if they've got to find a passing game, got to go get Scott.

Yeah, he got to go.

Scott is mean number 17 in blue has been open all night long.

It's just getting him the football has been the issue.

You know so it's third down and three Henderson out of the shotgun will take the snap keeps it himself has nowhere to go and he's bottled up in the backfield dropped at the 40 yard line run down by so the play clock is actually behind the game clock here so they don't have to run a play if they don't want to.

If you're rector, I blow this all the way down to one second.

Take a timeout.

They go ahead and take the time out here, which if they failed, fourth down attempt, could turn the football back over to Spring Hill.

I'd almost run that down to one second.

Throw Hillman Yeah, I mean, or the other option was to Toronto, a fourth down play.

If you get the first down, call the time out then yeah, you do.

But the also, if you don't get it, you risk the chance of turnover on downs.

I mean agree.

Yeah.

So but even if you turn it over on downs though Bobby I mean Spring Hill's got to go 57 yards in order to get the touchdown and they've just not been able to do you know real off those big plays on they've had one big play all night but I'll take this one up True.

Yeah.

Correct.

Yes, you're right.

Dynamite drop in there.

The broadcasting skills really paying off for me.

You know, by the way, if I was going to throw this out there for all you football fans out there, if you're watching the football game in the NFL tonight, the Dallas Cowboys just took the lead on the Seahawks.

That's always watch I did watching it this I know but I just saw it on the TV here in the press box Here is a pass play.

It's caught they're going to go hook and ladder and Avery's got it.

Now he stays on his feet trying to get that first down.

He's just bouncing off players, but he's going to come up shy.

The first down.

I like the idea.

I like the thought process.

I thought the ball hit the ground, though, and it must have been a great job of keeping his hands underneath it.

Really nice play on the outside.

I like the idea didn't wait long enough to pitching the football though you need that momentum of the defense coming back in and too many bodies and white jerseys right there they get the fourth down stop the great catch though so 14 seconds left here in the first half and spring Hill's on the sideline huddling up to talk about this one.

Bobby Brown again.

Well and you know, we've got to remind folks, this is only the first championship of of the week.

We've had delays with with the weather got 14 seconds still potential overtime here.

I mean, we've had a good one here in this first state championship game.

Well, the one thing we needed to do we didn't do, we needed to pace ourself for the week.

Yes.

Was letting it all go.

And we're going to be back tomorrow at noon to do a do the two eight game.

So it's first down and ten with the ball going to be at the 35 yard line.

Jackson Smith, the quarterback he'll work from under center as Smith going to pitch it left side puts in the hands of Hamilton Hamilton gets slung down before he gets the first down and then it's out of bounds, though he does get out of bounds on the far side of the field, so that stops the clock.

With 7 seconds remaining here in the game.

Second down, Smith going to look to throw steps up in the pocket looking looking has no one to throw to runs down field past the 40 and that's going to do it and you're going to get three football nothing better second time in three years where we'll get overtime in the eight man state championship game.

A couple of years ago, the final was 6660.

This time we're going into extra period at 16.

Well, we'll take a break.

When we come back, we will have the overtime here in the eight man championship game.

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Well, we're starting overtime 1616 between Springhill and Rec during the eight man State Championship football game.

Bobby Swofford on our Jayhawk.

As you know, these two teams said, hey, you know it's been raining.

We didn't we haven't gotten enough of this.

So we're going to we're going to around for another period and try to see who's going to become the champion of the eight man Football League here in Arkansas.

And Bobby, you know, for those that aren't familiar with overtime rules in Arkansas, I want you go ahead and give everybody the rundown.

It's really important right here.

What we're about to see is the coin toss, because whoever wins the coin toss, the option of going on offense or defense or what's end of the field.

So generally you'll see the team who wins the toss will defer, go on defense first.

So that one, then you can find out if.

You got to sometimes kick the ball to go for the two point conversion, whatever the case may be, but the ball is going to be put on the ten yard line.

You get four downs and unless there's a penalty there, that would extend the play first and ten first and goal from the ten yard line and we'll keep playing.

So captains around midfield as coming up with the coin they're not they didn't make the coin toss so there is no clock.

So that's one thing to pay attention to as well.

What you see counting down is just the the stadium clock for the time out here.

The Springfield Springhill won toss and they elected to defer Rector will get the football first and they will go towards the north end zone here at war Memorial Stadium.

We're going to be down on the end of the video board.

The rector is going to be have the ball to ten.

There's a lot of strategy that goes into it when you bring the kicking game into it.

Obviously, Springhill and Rector haven't messed around with kick extra points today, so it would be awesome if they've got one guy that randomly can kick and they just trot him out.

They're going to holding back all your surprise sandbagging trick you and plan for that one to do.

So.

Either way, they're going to have it at the ten yard line and it's the first first go round and overtime, it really is fitting it for these two defenses to play as well as they have the whole director team that's averaging 400 yards on the ground essentially per game to half of now.

They got a chance to it's really between them in ten yards and a state title.

So Henderson's going to be the shotgun.

He's got one receiver split wide to the right Avery is in the backfield.

Henderson will keep it himself.

He'll be taken down immediately coming up to make the stop that time for Spring Hill It was a Reagor.

What a great play in space.

He's just one on one with a 2000 yard rusher and he just steps into the hole and makes the point that is as a perfect form tackle and you can't for a better play from your linebacker.

He's a good size linebacker too as he stepped in that home.

And so now here is Avery Ryan's side trying to get around the corners.

He'll take it inside the ten yard line down to the nine that just tripped him up there.

Looked like Avery might have had the edge.

But the shoestring tackle saves Avery from getting into the end zone.

And now it's third down just inside that five yard line.

Call it the fourth.

So third down and goal, they're going to officially spotted at the four yard line.

I believe you've seen Henderson go straight ahead in this formation all night.

Anderson takes it left side.

He's going to dive for the end zone.

Threw it was able to get the bunched formation two backs in the backfield that pushed him push that defensive line and Henderson was able to run it in for the score.

It wasn't the exact same thing we've seen from Rector all that time.

They push it a little bit farther to the left side and a great job by Henderson to fight through a couple arm tackles lunges into end zone and for the first time tonight a number one team in class eight man has a lead and they're going to go for two as Henderson will be in the shotgun, going to look to throw this time goes left side and it's incomplete as it went in and out of his intended targets trying to hook up with Ashton Scott that time.

And so it's 20 to 16.

Bobby.

That could be huge.

As we're in overtime, you could see the flags on the far end of the field.

The wind is starting to pick up a little bit with this rain and that pass was under thrown.

Scott was behind the defense again on that corner route.

All you have to do is lay it out there.

Henderson couldn't put enough one.

It maybe the win affected it.

Maybe the conditions did.

Either way, Spring Hill has a chance to win this contest here in overtime.

So Spring Hill, they're going to have it at the ten and Reclaim to be an expert here.

RJ But I would imagine number 15, T.J. Tipton he's going to touch the football at least once on this possession, maybe also it's awful dealt Smith Can I handed to Tipton and he has nowhere to go got stopped at the line of scrimmage and that brings up second down another great job of those two defensive tackles for director with stay stand Tipton up in the hole holding to a no gain and they've really done a great job in the second half stopping Tipton.

He has not really done much in the second half running the football.

Dalton Lamar, again 62, makes the play his 17th tackle of the contest from a defensive line.

Yeah yeah so it's second down and goal from the ten yard Smith will be under center they're going to pitch it right side give it to Hamilton Hamilton takes it to the nine for a one yard gain The great job of assignment football Jacob Hand who led the team in tackles coming into the to this contest.

I be able to just go with the flow 66 tackles on the season coming into it and it makes the play with stays with the option and now it's third and long for Spring Hill are they spotting down back at the ten so it was the no gain on the play so now you've third and goal on Fox at seven Jackson Smith under center going to look to throw goes across the middle had a man wide open that was Tuttle and he overthrows him and now you've got fourth down Has the tight end on the drag maybe call it a shallow cross.

Might have been a little deeper than a normal drag out for a tight end but it's over the the outreached arm of 81 and wide to now.

It's one play for a state title on the Spring Hill is going to take a timeout, take a little extra time to discuss things.

This is this is what you dream of.

You're a high school football player growing up watching games.

You've got one play to keep your state championship.

Hopes Yeah.

Bobby And you know look Jackson Smith has not been very accurate all night tonight but that one right I mean he's two of nine so far on the night passing he had his big tight end and you just lob that up to him.

He's going to take that in for the for the touchdown.

Yep.

Just a sophomore, though.

I mean, he's going to be a name.

Pay attention to the next couple of years.

But you're right.

You've got to put it on the target, put it on the body, give your receiver a chance to make a play.

And if you're Springhill, I mean, you almost have to throw right here, right?

I mean, I mean whatever you think your best point is, no matter the situation, down to distance, whatever you think your best players in the playbook, you've got to go to it.

You know, you've got to go ten yards.

So more than likely it is going to be a pass away that you're running.

Game is really been stuffed for most of the night.

148 yards on, 41 carries are averaging less than four yards a total.

But here we go.

Buckle up.

Nobody is about to hoist the trophy.

Jackson Smith, he's he's done really well all night when he's rolled out of the pocket and been able to run with him, he's going to be in the shotgun.

Smith will take the snap rolls right through to throw back of the end zone over throws his intended target.

Is there a purely flat?

No that's not going to throw incomplete and that's going to be the ball game.

It is Rector winning their first state championship in school history as they winner by a final score of 20 to 16.

You've got all your receivers on that one side of the field.

He just rolls his right just not anywhere near his targets and a tough way to end it.

Spring Hill, who led this game 16 to nothing.

They had all the momentum, just could not hit his man near the corner of the end zone.

And Rector celebrates a perfect season.

Well, as they celebrate, we'll take a break.

When come back, we will talk about who the MVP of this win is.

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There are your eight man football state champions, the Rector Cougars, as they win at 2216 today at War Memorial Stadium.

And there's your MVP.

Would you buy the Little Rock Zoo?

That is your MVP, Drew Henderson, as he had a heck of a night tonight.

Bobby passing.

He was four of eight for 22 yards and then on the ground, 32 carries a 140 and two touchdowns to claim tonight's MVP.

Heck of a performance by Drew Henderson.

Yeah this really did it on a gutsy performance on a night where the the weather was atrocious is still is atrocious as they're out there celebrating but he found a way to quarterback on a night where it wasn't their best night offensively maybe their worst night offensively all season but they found a way to get it done.

They overcame so many miscues of their own doing how many how many times they put the football on the ground because of a bad snap or a bad exchange.

The backfield, they continue to gut it out.

They played good defense and Drew Henderson found a way to put himself in the end zone twice and get him to his team, their first ever state championship.

Let's take a look at the highlights from this one as really it was a lot of scoring in the first half.

And you see right there, Spring Hill, they got rolling early this one and turnovers were a big thing for Rector throughout this ballgame.

Five total turnovers and tipped and was able to take that one to him for the second score the ball game and then this big pass boy took it all the way down to the one yard line as they were able to get down there to the one and Spring Hill, they were trying to get a shut out before halftime.

But director got in the end zone and it was 16 to 8 at halftime.

And there he is, Drew Henderson, just doing things with his legs all night long.

There was a turnover on a fourth down play that really wrecked.

He was trying to get some momentum.

Henderson takes them for the second score of the ballgame.

Now here's a pass play right side corner, the end zone, final play of the game and rector, they are your 1223 eight man state champions as they win at 2216.

Bobby, final thoughts in this one?

Yeah I mean defense is where the story in this one we thought it was going to be a you know we probably read too many articles or pay too much attention to the box score about how good these offenses or how many points is traditionally scored in eight man football.

We didn't give these defense enough credit.

I really tip of the cap, not only to the defenses, the defensive line linemen.

The two defensive tackles for Rector were just home wreckers all game while you're talking about 16 stops for a defensive lineman in the games.

Unheard of.

So but kudos to those guys up front because they're the reason that rector's taken home the championship in a typhoon.