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SUNDAY, AUGUST 26, 2018
| RIVER VALLEY & OZARK EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE FOOTBALL PREVIEW
DANVILLE LITTLE JOHNS
DANVILLE continued from 37VV
“He was all-state and our back of the year in our conference,” Crane said. Twins Eli Lane, running back, and Evan Lane, receiver, are back for their senior seasons. Seniors Zach Stanley and Dalton Reagan will be receivers.
The team will miss senior Trent Cathey, who hurt his knee and is out for the season, the coach said.
“He was an inside slot receiver and a three- year starter,” Crane said. Starting middle back- er J.T. Tatum hurt his knee, too, but hopes to come back in October, the coach added.
On the other side of the ball, Crane will rely on senior nose guard Tony Ochoa; de- fensive tackle Hinton; and defensive ends and seniors Damian Goacher and Zach Stanley. Stanley was first team all-conference end as a sophomore and missed his junior year with a torn ACL. “He’s one of best defensive ends around,” Crane said.
Tolbert will fill the middle linebacker role. Other linebackers are senior Kalyb Phomsithi and sophomore Gabe Stanley; and senior safe- ties T.J. Lewis and Eli Lane. “Eli will be one of the best safeties in our conference. He’s really, really good,” Crane said. Rounding out the defensive line will be Evan Lane, corner, and senior Luke Callahan, left corner.
“Some guys who can come in and help us will be juniors Devan Mitchell at safety and corner Alex Hilton,” the coach said.
Crane said the team’s strength is
“experience for sure — our seniors. We’re pret- ty smart. We have several kids scoring high on the ACT,” he said.
He would not use the word “fast” to de- scribe the team. “Overall, the team speed would be our weakness. Coming into 3A, we’re not going to be quite as fast as every- body else.”
Crane’s outlook on the 2018 season is fairly optimistic.
“I think that if everything goes your way, it will be extremely hard to go undefeated in that conference, but I think if you can get on a run — if we can be successful early in that conference, we can have a shot at winning it or placing really high in that conference. The early conference schedule is pretty tough,” he said.
There are several key games on the sched- ule, Crane said, including “three out of the first four conference games — Mayflower, Glen Rose and Atkins — the top three teams in the conference.”
Crane said the goal is the same year after year.
“The goal is always a state champion- ship. We’ve got to get through that confer- ence schedule healthy and playing well at theendoftheyeartomakearunatit,”he said. “If you can play well early, you can do well, so that’s our goal — to get ready to play well early.”
We had to play a lot of young kids [last season]. We got some experience; we look good.”
D.J. CRANE
DANVILLE HEAD COACH
Danville won the 3A-4 Conference in 2015.
“We’ve got experience in 3A; we know how to play at that level. These kids were in it seventh through ninth grades.
“This group of seniors went 8-1 in the ninth grade and lost to Booneville, and that’s it. They know how to play in the 3A,” Crane said.
The starters in the Spread offense, all se- niors, are center Tyler Phomsithi; right guard Jose Montiel; right tackle Jarrique Hinton; left guard Samuel Swysgood; left tackle Derrick Gray; and quarterback Preston Donnell.
“He’s good; he’s really good. He had a good year for us last year. He threw over 600 yards in just three games in the playoffs and threw for over 1,500 yards and didn’t get to play three games because of forfeits. The other teams didn’t have enough kids. We didn’t play for 28 days.”
His statistics would have soared, had it not been for that long hiatus, Crane said. “He still threw for 22 touchdown passes.”
Offensive starters include senior Quinton Tolbert, running back, with 1,500 yards and 18 touchdowns.
FOOTBALL SCHEDULES
BIGELOW PANTHERS
AUG. 24 ........................................MAGAZINE AUG. 31 ..................................... PERRYVILLE SEPT. 7 ....................................@CEDARVILLE SEPT. 21 ...................................... QUITMAN* SEPT. 28 ................................... @ENGLAND* OCT. 5 .................................MOUNTAIN PINE* OCT. 12 ..........................................@POYEN* OCT. 19 .............................. @MAGNET COVE* OCT. 26 ...................CUTTER MORNING STAR* NOV. 2 ........................ @CONWAY CHRISTIAN*
*DENOTES CONFERENCE GAMES
WESTERN YELL COUNTY WOLVERINES
AUG. 31 .................................. @TWO RIVERS SEPT. 4.................... @LAMAR JUNIOR VARSITY SEPT. 14 ....................................@ROSE BUD SEPT. 21 ........................................ HECTOR* SEPT. 28 .................................... @HACKETT*
OCT. 5 ............................................. LAVACA* OCT. 12 ........................... @MOUNTAINBURG* OCT. 26 .......... WESTSIDE JOHNSON COUNTY* NOV. 2 ......................................@MAGAZINE*
*DENOTES CONFERENCE GAMES
TWO RIVERS GATORS
AUG. 31 ................... WESTERN YELL COUNTY SEPT. 7 ..........@WESTSIDE JOHNSON COUNTY SEPT. 14 ........................................... LAVACA SEPT. 21 ................................... GLEN ROSE* SEPT. 28 ................................... @DANVILLE* OCT. 5 ................................... @MAYFLOWER* OCT. 12 .................................... PERRYVILLE* OCT. 19 ................................. @JESSIEVILLE* OCT. 26 ................................. BAPTIST PREP* NOV. 1 ........................................... @ATKINS*
*DENOTES CONFERENCE GAMES
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