The Gosnell Pirates will take on the Arkadelphia Badgers in round two of the 4A state playoffs Friday night at J.W. Rea Field.
Gosnell (9-1-1) comes in to the game on the heels of a convincing, 35-7 win over Dover in the opening round last Friday. It was the Pirates' first playoff victory since 2008 and one of many goals achieved for this year's squad with still more to achieve, according to head coach Gary Moody.
"Something we've talked about all year was getting to play Thanksgiving weekend," said Moody. "If you play the Friday after Thanksgiving, you're in the quarterfinals. If you're in the quarterfinals, then you have a good chance of going all the way. I've told these kids all year, when we play the way we should play, we're as good as any team in the state. But first things first. Arkadelphia is a good football team. We've got a lot of work to do this week before we think about playing next week."
The Pirates earned another home playoff game after the fourth seeded Badgers soundly defeated Pottsville, 40-21, on the road last week.
Arkadelphia comes into the game with an 8-3 record and 4-3 in the tough 7-4A behind Nashville, Mena and Malvern. All three losses came within the conference to Ashdown, Nashville and Malvern. Their 40-21 loss to Nashville early in the season was the only game in which the Badgers failed to score more than three touchdowns, a number that Moody is well aware of.
"If we can hold them to three or four scores, our defense will be doing a great job," he said. "They are an explosive offense. They are an all-out spread team. They run a lot of no-huddle and try to keep a fast pace. They have great skill players who are capable of scoring on every play. They are probably the fastest team we've seen all year."
Leading the offense is junior quarterback Jeff Blake. Blake has the ability to score with his arm or his legs. When he does decide to dump it off it's often to running back Alex Bryant or speedy receiver Bryant Robinson.
Defensively, the Badgers run multiple sets but tend to start out of a four-man front.
Arkadelphia forced turnovers on consecutive drives last week against Pottsville.
"We can't make mistakes on offense," said Moody. "They can put points on the board quickly if you give them opportunities. We have to hold on to the ball."
Moody said special teams will be a key to the game as well.
"They've made some big plays on kickoffs and punt returns," he said. "We're going to have finish the plays on defense. This is an explosive team. They are very similar to Highland and Pocahontas in that respect but they're probably a little faster than Pocahontas."
Both of those games (Highland and Pocahontas) were expected to be high-scoring games but turned out to be relatively low-scoring. Only 36 points were scored between the two teams at Highland and 46 total at Pocahontas.
"We've done well defensively against high-powered offenses this season," said Moody. "We'll definitely have to be up to the task this week. This is a well-balanced team that runs well. They like to spread out your defense and find the holes in it. We're going to have to stay with our assignments.
"Like last week, it's going to come down to tackling and being disciplined on offense and making blocks on offense. If we can do those two things well, we should have a chance of moving on."
Friday night's game starts at 7 p.m.
afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com on Twitter @CN_AaronF