Midland and Strong both looking to finish off storybook 8-man grid seasons with title

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

This year’s Arkansas high school eight-man football champion will be a worthy title holder with a great story.

Unbeatens Midland (11-0) and Strong (7-0) will meet Thursday night at 7 p.m. inside Little Rock’s vaunted War Memorial Stadium in a game that will be televised on Arkansas PBS channels.

For Strong, it comes a year after head coach Jason Porter’s 9-0 squad thought that had a great shot at winning it all, but the self-reported use of an ineligible player bounced them out of the playoffs after a first-round victory.

“Coming off last year’s disappointment, it kind of added fuel to our fire through the off season, the summer and this whole fall,” Porter said. “That’s the first thing.

“The second thing is that we have had real good senior leadership, got a good bunch and they have had a real business-like approach to this season. It has been one goal from the get go – and that was to get back to Little Rock.”

Midland has experienced a dramatic turn around after finishing 1-7 last season and then not losing a game during this campaign under head coach TJ Pugh.

It became real for the Midland players on Tuesday when they practiced at War Memorial Stadium.

“We are just enjoying it,” Pugh said. “From 1-7 to 11-0 is pretty amazing..Our kids walked into it the other day and they were like ‘Coach, this is amazing.’

“Reality has set it for them. We are here…I told them ‘enjoy the moment, be glad you are here, but let’s now finish it off.’”

Midland has downed Marvell 60-14 and Brinkley 48-8 in its two playoff games.

“They just kept on believing,” Pugh said of his players. “Lot of people talk about starting a new season, but we just talking about adding another game to this one and that’s how we have got to 11-0. And we are trying to be 12-0.

“We have also been talking all season about how there is going to be going to be a game down the road that is bigger than the one we are playing. But right now, we know this one is it. It is the big one.”

Midland’s Mustangs will be trying to win their first state gridiron crown while Strong’s Bulldogs took down Mountain Pine 66-60 in double overtime in the inagural 8-man title game in 2021.

“This bunch of seniors was on that 2021 team and they were determined to get a chance to play for it again and that’s what they have got and earned,” Porter said.

Porter knows his team will face a challenge in Midland.

“Midland has had an unbelievable season,” Porter said. “They have had a primarily run-heavy offense, run it real tight with a single-wing, double-wing type offense.

“They are bigger than us, but most teams have been been bigger than us. We are kind of used to that.”

Strong, knocking off Southside (52-6) and Cedar Ridge (48-6 )to advance, has averaged nearly 50 points offensively this season.

“They )the Mustangs) run a really efficient offense and we are going to have a hard time stopping them, but we have worked on some things,” Porter said. “I think it is going to be a high-scoring game and that’s okay with us.”

Strong was unable to play a full schedule, but Porter sees that as a benefit with just a 21-man roster, including five freshman that moved up.

“I think we would have liked to get one or two more games, but honestly being an 8-man team, it has allowed us to stay healthy while I think some other teams that have played full on schedules have gotten nicked up along the way,” Porter said.

“With 8-man teams, it is just a war of attrition and we have luckily we have had nothing more than sprained ankles and that sort of stuff.

“We have kind of used those weeks to kind of fine tune and give us more time to prepare on who we playing next. It has worked our for us.”

Strong runs a pass-happy offense.

“We run a spread offense and my philosophy has been – since we started 8-man – to get our athletes in space and kind of spread teams out and put them in places where they have to cover everybody ” Porter said.

“We have an explosive quarterback and an explosive running back and when you have both of those and get them through line you have the potential for a lot of explosive plays. That’s what we have gotten almost every game.”

Pugh expects to see that speed.

“They are extremely athletic, they’ve got good speed,” Pugh said. “One good thing is we have played both Marvell and Brinkley and both of them have those same type athletes.

“Strong has a little bit more depth of it so it is going to be challenge, but we are up for it. We are going to just try and control the ball. We have got to move the back and make them earn it.

“They have had a lot of big plays against people. If we can make them drive it, that will be big.”

Graphic courtesy of Arkansas Activities Association