West Fork, Shiloh Vie For 1st Place
Posted on Tuesday, October 24, 2006
The two unbeaten teams in 1-3 A Conference play will imperil their perfect marks Friday night at Tiger Stadium when West Fork and Shiloh Christian jostle for first place.
The Saints (8-0, 5-0 ) come to West Fork with their No. 1 Class AAA ranking in tow while West Fork (7-1, 5-0 ) enters the game having secured the school’s first home playoff game by virtue of its 40-14 pasting of Lincoln last week.
The victor will have the inside track on the first round playoff bye that comes with winning the conference. Both teams conclude the regular season Nov. 3, with Shiloh facing winless Lincoln (0-7-1, 0-5 ) and West Fork traveling to third-place Green Forest (5-3, 4-1 ).
The Saints haven’t been slowed since losing the reigning The Northwest Arkansas Times Athlete of the Year, senior quarterback Matt Simpson, to a dislocated foot during the first game of the season, a 49-48 win over Greenwood.
Converted wide receiver Austin Tucker has taken the controls, completing 77 of 110 pass attempts for 1, 196 yards and 19 touchdowns. He threw six touchdowns last week in a 48-3 humbling of Cedarville.
With Tucker under center, Shiloh has outscored its 1-3 A opponents 226-17. Though he lacks Simpson’s ability to eviscerate a secondary with pinpoint passing, Tucker is more of a running threat. Two weeks ago at Green Forest he called his own number seven times for 90 yards and two touchdowns. “ Simpson was pretty fast, too, ” said Bryan Dougan, West Fork
coach. “ But with
him you kind
of knew he was
going to sit back
there and pick you apart. Tucker is a lot like our backup quarterback [Eddie Frazier ]. He throws the ball all right but when he decides to run it he’s a big-time threat. ” Dougan said Tucker’s athleticism will force the Tigers to shadow him with a spying linebacker or defensive back. West Fork will also have to be wary of bruising tailback David Ingram, whose physical gifts have compelled teammates and coaches to affectionately confer upon him the nickname of “ freak”.
“ He’s fast and reads the field well, ” Dougan said. “ We’ll probably have to spy him as well. ”
To keep Tucker, Ingram and the other components of Shiloh’s rollicking offense idled, West Fork’s offense will have to maintain possession of the ball. The Tigers come into each game wanting to run a minimum of 60 offensive plays.
Before the season, West Fork planned to employ a no-huddle attack to help achieve that end. However, the Tigers started huddling after the first two games when the frenetic pace started to tire their 23-man roster.
“ We got out of that when we realized our guys were getting worn out, ” Dougan said. “ We have to use all of the 25-second clock to keep us fresh for the entire game. ”
Covering the Saints ’ cadre of athletic receivers is also a concern for Dougan. He attributed a slight speed advantage to Shiloh but said the precise routes run by the Saints’ receivers will create the biggest match-up problems.
“ We’ll have to have some tremendous coverage this week, ” Dougan said. “ We have our work cut out for us. But this isn’t the first time we’ve played the No. 1 team in the state.
“ We’re not going to cower down and be overly impressed with the No. 1 team coming to our field. Our kids are going to fight. We’ll need to get a couple of breaks and just keep doing what we’ve been doing. ”