Mountain Pine junior quarterback Collin Smith had another red-letter night on Friday as the Red Devils shut out England in the second half en route to a 44-12 victory over the Lions, ruining senior night at Gaylon Gibbs Field.
Smith tallied 190 yards on the night as Mountain Pine (5-3, 4-1 2A-5) punched its ticket to the postseason with England (3-5, 3-2) sitting in a three-way tie for third place with Magnet Cove (4-4, 3-2) and Quitman (6-2, 3-2).
"It's great for these kids," said Mountain Pine head coach Sam Counce. "We've got a great group of kids. They work hard, and they do what we ask them.
"They come out in practice and they do a good job understanding what we're trying to get them to scheme as far as against other teams. They execute the game plan real well for us. They're just good kids, and they play football hard. I'm just happy for those guys, especially our seniors."
The two teams battled it out in the first half, leaving the score tied at 12-12 at the break.
"We were kind of lucky to be in that situation," Counce said. "England tipped the ball in the end zone, and Dylan Munson came up with it for a touchdown right before the half.
"We kicked the ball off, with the conditions, we weren't trying to onside kick it, but we did and we got it right before half. We went into halftime with a lot of momentum."
The team made some adjustments during the break, trying to capitalize on the weather as England tends to be most successful throwing the ball.
"We felt good, and we made some adjustments on offense and defense," Counce said. "We knew that England had to throw the football to be pretty successful, and it was raining.
"It was really coming down right after halftime, so we changed up our defense up and put a few more guys up front, trying to shut down their run. We were successful with that. ... It was wet conditions, and they tried to run the read, and our defense held them and stepped up and contained them the rest of the half."
The weather was not the best for the Red Devils, but they did manage to have some success on the ground, led by Smith's 21 carries for 114 yards.
"We ran the ball pretty successfully," Counce said. "Collin had success running the ball for us. In fact, in the rain, we threw it a couple of times because they were loading the box, and it made a lot of difference for us.
"We kept the ball most of the second half. We were just moving it down, getting first downs, going on fourth down, just keeping the ball away from them and came away with a big win."
England limited Mountain Pine's big plays. Smith's longest run was 24 yards and his longest pass was 28 yards. He finished 7-for-13 passing for 76 yards and a score.
Munson made two catches for 28 yards. Senior Josh Walpole had two receptions for 41 yards.
Senior running back Elijah Browning added two touchdown runs, but he was held to 67 yards on 18 attempts. Ja'on Smith reeled off a 40-yard run, finishing with two carries for 49 yards and a touchdown.
Bryce Sales led Mountain Pine's defense with 11 tackles and eight solo stops, including three behind the line of scrimmage and one sack. Junior Hayden Barnes made nine tackles and Walpole had eight. The Red Devils made 10 tackles for a loss and recovered three England fumbles.
Counce said he was optimistic about his team's chances going into the game, but the weather was not ideal.
"We watched a lot film on them, and I knew that if we get to that quarterback, make him rush a little bit and cover their wide-outs pretty good, we could have some success against them," he said. "We felt like we could do anything on offense that we wanted to, but then we were in a driving rain. It kind of took away from both of us, but I feel like the rain helped us more than it helped them."
Only the Red Devils and Conway Christian (6-2, 5-0) are guaranteed playoff berths at this point. Counce said he hopes his team will continue to be successful in the final two games.
"We're sitting in good position right now as far as getting in the playoffs, but winning out we'll be in a really good position as a two seed to have a home field first-round playoff," he said. "That's our goal now to win the rest of the games and try to get a home field advantage and play in front of our home crowd and community at Mountain Pine."
Counce was inducted in the University of Central Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Saturday prior to the Bears' 38-17 victory over Northwestern State at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.
Counce was the starting center for the Bears' 1984 and 1985 NAIA National Championship teams, earning an All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference selection both years as well as an All-NAIA District 17 selection in 1985. During his four years at a letterman for the Bears as a walk-on for Hall of Fame coach Ken Stephens, Central Arkansas went 39-8-2.
The Red Devils will host Poyen (5-3, 2-3) this Friday before ending the regular season against Quitman (6-2, 3-2) at home in Week 10.
Sports on 10/22/2018