El Dorado ready to host Benton

El Dorado lost to Sheridan for the first time ever last week. But the Wildcats haven’t had time to lick their wounds.

Perennial conference rival Benton will invade Memorial Stadium tonight and would delight in continuing El Dorado’s season-long struggles.

The Wildcats (1-5, 0-3) have lost four games in a row. Benton (3-3, 3-0) has won three in a row after starting 6A-West play against Russellville (36-31), Siloam Springs (28-26) and Little Rock Hall (48-0).

“They’re coming in here playing with a lot of confidence,” said El Dorado coach Steven Jones. “Offensively, they do a lot of what we like to do. They run a lot of power and counter. You’ll see a fullback in the game a lot of times. Mostly three-wide, sometimes four. They like to run the football and then throw the play-action and everything that goes with it.

“Defensively, they run the exact same scheme as we do, a 3-3 stack. They do a lot out of it. They do a lot of stunts, blitzes, send a lot of pressures from a lot of different ways, vary coverages. Scheme-wise, we feel like we’re kind of playing ourselves this week.”

For the second time in three weeks, the Wildcats surrendered almost 400 yards on the ground. The Panthers, behind a big offensive line that averages 272 pounds, tackle-to-tackle, could present another stiff challenge for El Dorado’s defense. Up the middle at the center and two guards, Benton averages 286.6 pounds.

“Sometimes when you play football, it doesn’t go your way. We’ve had times maybe we should’ve made a play, times that teams have matched us up with some big offensive lines that we’ve struggled against this season,” said Jones. “It’s not an effort thing. Our kids play hard every Friday night. We’ve just had a little struggle stopping it. We’ll continue to find ways to make it happen.”

Benton has a few backs, perhaps led by sophomore Casey Johnson.

“They have two running backs that have split the carries. So far this season they have about the same amount of yardage. Both of them are physical, downhill runners,” Jones said. “So, yeah, stopping the run will be key for us on Friday night.

“It’s the key every week, stop the run.”

The Wildcats accumulated 373 yards at Sheridan last week with senior back Alex Hicks returning to the starting lineup from an ankle injury.

Jones is hopeful his team can put the pass and the run together and start clicking consistently on offense.

“We’re doing some good stuff. Statistically, it looks like we’re doing some good things,” he said. “But we’ve got to finish drives. We still have setbacks that kill us at big times in the game. We’ve got to put drives together. The key offensively is to get off to a fast start. The last couple of weeks we’ve been kind of slow to start. When you get to playing catch-up with somebody, it changes what you want to do. Having a fast start, offensively, is something that’s key.”

El Dorado lost two turnovers and had a punt blocked against the Yellowjackets.

Benton’s defense was yielding 33.8 points per game before shutting out Hall last week.

El Dorado faced a schedule front loaded with the top teams in the league.

The Panthers had the complete opposite. Benton’s three league opponents have a combined conference record of 1-8 while the Wildcats’ opponents have gone 8-1 in league play.

El Dorado believes its team is better than the record would indicate. Jones said, in each game, the Wildcats have been a play or two away. He’s hoping, perhaps, tonight’s homefield advantage could make a difference.

“We need something good to happen. No better place to do it than Memorial Stadium. We know our fans will continue to show up and support us,” Jones said.

“So far, win-loss, we’re not where we wanted to be, not where we expected to be. But, there’s a lot of fight in our guys and a lot of positive energy floating through our program. They know something good is going to happen and we’re going to get this thing rolling. It’d be a great time to do it Friday night at home.”

“Morale is great. They know we’ve been right there in, essentially, every single game. We just haven’t finished. When we do, we still feel like we have a good ball club.”

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