It may be several weeks before we learn the answer to a particularly hot topic in local high-school football.
Who's the No. 2 team in Garland County?
Hold that thought for a moment. First, some background information about the No. 1 team
In a week that Alabama slipped from the top rung in the college polls, Lake Hamilton gained even more support statewide. Fearless Friday ranks the 6A Wolves No. 4 overall behind three 7A teams: Bryant, Conway and Bentonville. Lake Hamilton, the only 6-0 team in the top 10, moved ahead of Cabot, which lost to Conway.
The 6A-West championship likely will be on the line when Lake Hamilton plays at Greenwood Nov. 5. Greenwood, two-time defending 6A champion, is 4-2, losing to 7A Fort Smith Northside and conference rival Little Rock Parkview. The Bulldogs are the only team to beat Lake Hamilton in the regular season since Benton in Week Five of 2019.
They did it twice last year, 42-14 at Wolf Stadium and 49-24 in the December state final at War Memorial Stadium. Rick Jones, a Harding College product from Oklahoma, hammered out eight state championships in Sebastian County and went 185-26 in 16 seasons before taking a consultant's job at Missouri under Eli Drinkwitz. New Bulldog coach Chris Young won his first 16 games before Greenwood lost a backyard scrap to Northside and played Parkview without an injured quarterback.
Lake Hamilton started the current season No. 2 in 6A and with its fans looking ahead to the Week 10 rematch with Greenwood. Lakeside (48-14), Malvern (35-12) and Hot Springs (41-0) went down easily enough and the long bus ride to Mountain Home (36-6) didn't sap the Wolves' strength. The Wolves come off home victories over Parkview (24-14) and Russellville (42-32) before they check out the northwest Arkansas fall foliage at Siloam Springs and Van Buren.
Lake Hamilton, it should be noted, has steered clear of teams that might endanger its perfect record. No longer do the Wolves book such attention-getting nonconference opponents as Pulaski Academy, North Little Rock and Texarkana, Texas. Perhaps just as well: Benton, which Lake Hamilton plays at home in two weeks, and Greenwood should be tough enough give coach Tommy Gilleran the right slant on his team.
Mainly, the Wolves keep the ball on the ground and grind teams into submission. If anything, they are a mirror image of Gilleran's 2009 Fountain Lake Cobras, the last Garland County team to win a state championship in football. They run the ball so well that anything they gain through the air is gravy. And like 2009 Fountain Lake, the Wolves sting from a finals loss the previous year, the Cobras losing to Charleston before beating Prescott for the school's first state title.
Lake Hamilton vs. Greenwood shapes up as the game of the year in Garland County. If you prefer to watch two local teams, Hot Springs and Lakeside should have a rousing game the same night at the Trojans' Reese Memorial Stadium.
Hot Springs (4-2) finds itself one of the two unbeaten conference teams in 5A-South. Perhaps one should read that postmark carefully, the Trojans having throttled two conference have-nots, Hope and DeQueen, the latter by 50-0. Tonight's game at Magnolia bodes more meaningful as does a trip to conference co-leader Camden Fairview in two weeks.
Lakeside (2-4) lost to Fairview (38-33 at home) and at Magnolia (61-35). After beating the weakest Texarkana team in years on the road (31-7), the Rams play Hope and DeQueen the next two weeks before a bye week (the South Conference has six schools).
The city championship, as a former Hot Springs coach called the game with Lakeside, could carry not only bragging rights but playoff seeding. Coaches Jared McBride at Lakeside and Darrell Burnett at Hot Springs have high-powered offenses that should feed the scoreboard. The Rams have won the last five meetings, 42-7 last year, since Hot Springs prevailed 17-15 in 2015.
I remember discussing the previous night's high-school football scores before an afternoon of simulcast wagering at Oaklawn years ago. The men in my party, knowing that I worked at the hometown newspaper, would ask how the local teams fared. I think of those guys every Friday night when the scores roll in.
What good news there would be to share now. We push into mid-October after weeks that Garland County teams went 5-1 and 5-2. Jessieville is 3-2 after downing Bismarck and rallying past Genoa Central. That should be some game tonight at Diamond Bank Stadium in Pike County when the Lions plays once-beaten Centerpoint, which lost a wild thing at Prescott. T.J. Burk, who quarterbacked Jessieville to the 2006 state championship, has a four-year dual threat starter at the position in Carson Hair and a dynamic runner in Matthew Huff.
No score was more shocking in the first six weeks than Fountain Lake's 54-21 Oct. 1 rout of Nashville at Scrapper Stadium. The Cobras, although only 3-3 overall, 1-2 in brutal 4A-7, are holding their own in a war of attrition against declining numbers. Any coach-of-the-year ballots not checked for Tommy Gilleran might go to Kenny Shelton, who rescued the Cobras' program when an imported coach resigned before the first game a few years back.
Cutter Morning Star (2-4) and Mountain Pine (4-2) are playing eight-man football, the Red Devils winning a state championship last year. Matt Kinsinger and Sam Counce are solid coaches and, although limited, their teams play exciting games with basketball-like scores. See for yourself Oct. 29 when they square off at Stanley May Field.
It is good to see so many local schools playing well. Even if Lake Hamilton is the clear leader, and it's anyone's guess who's No. 2.