Due to the conference reshuffling, Searcy will make its second trip to Memorial Stadium in two years on Friday in a crucial 6A East clash. Both Searcy and El Dorado have identical 1-3, 1-2 records.
The Wildcats beat the Lions 52-51 last season.
“It’s a big game,” said El Dorado coach Steven Jones. “It has a lot of playoff implications tied to it. We’ve got to go out there and put together a four quarter game and get a victory.”
Searcy is coming off a 42-21 loss to Little Rock Catholic. The Lions beat Sylvan Hills 34-28 but fell to Sheridan (31-27) and Batesville (40-39).
“I think they have a very good football team. They have some really explosive players,” said Jones. “Defensively, they line up and play sound defense. They’re kind of like us. They’ve struggled out of the gate and haven’t been able to finish drives offensively. That’s been kind of the story for both teams.
Turnovers have come into play for our team and them. We’re two very similar teams.”
El Dorado lost on the road at Benton 56-28 a week ago. The Wildcats struggled against the Panthers’ 230-pound back Braylen Russell. They’ll see another talented runner this week in Searcy’s Demetrick Johnson. Johnson rushed for 223 yards on 29 carries against El Dorado last year.
“He’s a good player. He’s already right at 800 yards through four games,” Jones said. “Very tough runner, very physical runner, their offense revolves around (Johnson). He’s hard to bring down and extremely shifty.”
Searcy totaled more than 500 yards in total offense against the Wildcats last season, including 338 yards on the ground.
The Lions use a spread offense, mostly four wides. According to Jones, Searcy’s run-to-pass ratio is about 50-50.
“They’ve done a good job with the pass game. The quarterback has gotten better each week. He’s a dual-threat guy. They have some playmakers.”
Defensively, the Lions have used a 4-3 base with two high safeties.
“I feel like we’ll be able to push them around a little bit size-wise. I like the match-up,” said Jones. “They have some smaller guys on the defensive line but they play hard and they do a good job of getting off blocks. I think we’ll be able to push them around and get the run game going.”
The Wildcats have run the ball well with a package unveiled two weeks ago that features running back Shadarious Plummer taking the snap and running read option. Plummer completed three passes last week to DeAndra Burns, Jr.
“We’re just continuing to try to get the ball in our playmakers’ hands. I feel like we did a better job of that last week,” said Jones.
“We just can’t turn the ball over. We had some things in pass protection we had to fix. I feel like we’ve done that. But, yeah, that stuff with Shadarious at quarterback has been good so far. We want to continue to work that in. If we’re moving the football in that set, we’ll stay in it.”
El Dorado’s offense clicked at Benton until the Panthers’ pass rush took the game over.
“We’ve got to be better in pass pro,” said Jones. “I feel like I’ve said it for five weeks but we have to finish drives. We had positive momentum against Benton but there were times we’d turn the ball over or our drive would stall. We have to finish.”
Special teams were a thorn in the Wildcats’ side last week as well. Burns had a kickoff return for a touchdown and Javier Rivas was 4-of-4 on extra points. But, El Dorado had a punt blocked and another snap was over the punter’s head for a safety. In addition, the Wildcats gave up kickoff returns to midfield or beyond throughout the game.
“Our punt unit, we just had different miscues throughout the first weeks of the season. We feel like in practice this week we’ve done some things and made some changes. We feel good about those,” said Jones. “We have harped on special teams a ton this week. Our kickoff coverage is going to improve and we’ll continue to get better in the punt game.”
The Wildcats look to improve in several areas. Most importantly, however, a victory would be crucial to their postseason aspirations.
Jones offered his keys to the game.
“Offensively, establishing a run game to open things up on the edge with our pass game,” he said. “Defensively, rallying and tackling as a group. We’ve got to get two or three guys at the point of attack to bring down (Johnson).”