By Jason Avery
News-Times Staff
On Friday night, it will be a case of Dragons squaring off against Dragons in the second round of the 2A playoffs, as Junction City plays host to Mountainburg.
Game time is set for 7 p.m. from Junction City with the winner advancing to the state quarterfinals.
Not only do the schools share a mascot, they also own identical 8-2 records.
Junction City, the 8-2A’s No. 1 seed, advanced with a 37-8 win over McCrory last week.
Mountainburg, the 4-2A’s No. 2 seed, rallied from a 21-6 deficit in the third quarter to top Parkers Chapel 46-28.
“They’ve got some guys that can make some plays,” said Junction City coach Steven Jones. “They run an offense from the 1940s with the single-wing with a lot of misdirection going, so we’ll have to make sure that we read our keys and stay focused with that. They do some good things with that offense.”
For Mountainburg coach Tom Harrell, this is the second straight week he has had to prepare for an opponent from Union County.
“I think we’ve got a monumental challenge,” Harrell said. “Junction City is probably one of the best 2A football teams in the state, if not the best.”
This is the second postseason meeting between the schools with the first coming eight years ago.
Junction City won that meeting 51-3.
It may seem odd that two schools separated by nearly 300 miles would have a few common opponents, but with the 8-2A losing Woodlawn and Hermitage to eight-man football and the way playoff bracket was set, Junction City and Mountainburg have two common opponents with all of the games being played within the last month.
In Week 9, Junction City downed Hector 48-7 in a game played at Henderson State.
A week later, Hector upended Mountainburg 26-22 to win the 4-2A crown.
The night before Hector’s win over Mountainburg, Junction City topped Parkers Chapel 53-14, scoring 40 points in the opening quarter to put the game out of reach early on.
Last week, Mountainburg erupted in the second half, outscoring the Trojans 40-7 after falling behind 21-6 to win their fourth straight first-round game in the postseason.
But regardless of scores, Jones said he is keeping his team focused on the task at hand.
“We’re just trying to get the guys in our locker room to focus and realize that in November, anybody can show up and beat anybody,” Jones said. “We’ll be ready to play.”
Making long trips is nothing new for Mountainburg, and Harrell said his team won’t have any problems adjusting to the travel.
“We’ve made long trips before. I don’t know if we’ve traveled that far in a while,” Harrell said. “We’ve been to Junction before, but not with these kids. We generally stop and each lunch and then we’ll go and have a walk-through. Then we’ll eat a light supper and get to wherever we’re going. This year, we traveled to Marshall, which is about 3 1/2 hours, so we’ve made a few long trips. Our kids will adjust OK.”
Harrell also had plenty of praise for Junction City.
“They’re probably more talented than anybody we’ve played,” Harrell said. “We played Greenland, a 3A team that was a pretty good team, but from what I can tell, Junction is probably better than they are as far as being more physical and more team speed.”
Both teams sport offenses that have lit up scoreboards this fall.
During their seven-game winning streak, Junction City has scored 30 or more points six times, while Mountainburg has scored 40 or more points on seven occasions.
Dhante Gibson, a senior, has spearheaded Junction City’s running game with four straight games of 140-plus yards rushing, including 177 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries against McCrory.
“We continue to find ways to run the football,” Jones said. “Dhante has turned it on late in the season and been a very good hand for us. Very dependable. He’s been a senior leader down the stretch.”
For Harrell, trying to find a way to slow down Gibson and junior Jakiron Cook will be difficult.
“We’re focusing on alignment and trying to figure out what gives us a chance and what gives our kids the best advantage we can give them,” Harrell said. “We’re going to have to tackle in space. Their offensive line is awfully good, so it’s a huge challenge for us.”
Junction City quarterback Brady Hutcheson threw a pair of touchdown passes to Kevontae Haynes while going 3-of-7 passing for 125 yards in the Dragons’ win over McCrory, but Jones said the junior’s numbers should’ve been much better.
“We had three drops, so we’ve just got to catch the football to have success down the road and get people out of the box,” Jones said. “Brady should’ve been 6-for-7 in that game Friday night with probably 200-plus yards if we just catch the football when it’s in our hands.”
Jones added that he was very pleased with the team’s effort against McCrory.
“We had a couple of drives stall in the game, but the thing that stood out to me was our effort. It never wavered,” Jones said. “We made mistakes. We had a couple of turnovers. We did some things to kill drives, but we never stopped. The offense stepped up when they needed to, and the defense made plays down the stretch. The effort for the four full quarters of the game was a great thing to build on heading down the final stretch of the season.”
After Parkers Chapel cashed in on a turnover to take a 21-6 lead, Mountainburg’s season seemed to be in peril, but the Dragons roared back to advance.
“We didn’t really make any adjustments, it was more of a mindset I think our kids were in that goes back a couple of weeks,” Harrell said. “We had an issue with a player that we had to get rid of. I really felt like since that moment, we haven’t been the same team that we were before that, and I’ve told them that.
“From that point on (down 21-6), it was like the old team showed up. We ripped off chunks of yardage rushing. The blocking was crisper and more defined and picking up the right people. We didn’t sit at halftime and go back over who was supposed to block who and this and that, it was just a state of mind that we were in. We finally woke up and decided that we were a better football team than we’ve been showing.”
Harrell added they switched some things on defense to try and slow down Parkers Chapel quarterback Caleb Jacobs.
“We made a few adjustments on defense at halftime to try to keep their quarterback bottled up a little better,” Harrell said. “We still didn’t keep him bottled up, but we probably did better than what we did in the first half. We made a few plays and they dropped a few passes here and there. When momentum gets on your side, it seems to affect you and them. At some point there early in the third quarter, it swung back to us, and we reeled off 40 points in about a quarter.”
If Mountainburg is to upend a second straight foe from Union County, Harrell said the Dragons’ offense must continue to produce.
“We’re probably going to have to have some help turnover-wise,” Harrell said. “We can’t have penalties that put us behind the sticks. We’ve got to be very consistent and keep the down and distance where it’s manageable. We’ve got to get stops. We can’t get in a scoring match like it was when we played England last year. We beat them 55-52. That’s not going to work with Junction. Their defense is too good.”
For Junction City to advance to the quarterfinals, Jones said the Dragons must continue to have big plays on offense.
“Explosive offensive plays and just making sure that we take care of the football to finish drives,” Jones said. “We can’t have turnovers. We need to those explosive plays, those 12-yard runs and 10-yard passes. We need as many of those as possible.”