By John R. Schirmer
News-Leader staff
The Nashville Scrappers will wrap up the regular season Friday night at Bauxite. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
The Scrappers are District 7-4A champions and enter the game with an overall record of 9-0. They are 6-0 in conference. Bauxite is winless on the season.
The Miners “have struggled,” Coach Mike Volarvich said. “They’ve had a coaching change,” with Daryl Patton moving in from Fayetteville High School. “They’ve gone from the double-slot option to the Spread offense with the new coach.”
Patton is “trying to change the culture there. There were about 15 kids on the roster in the spring. He’s got the numbers up to the 40s. He’s getting kids out and trying to get them going,” according to Volarvich.
“Schematically, they’ve done some good things this year. They’ve had some growing pains,” Volarvich said of the Miners.
For the Scrappers, “We’ll finish with the longest road trip of the season” as the team makes the 2-hour trek to Bauxite.
Volarvich said he was “disappointed in the way we played Bauxite last year. They had won 1 game. We were ahead 21-14 at halftime. Our kids weren’t mentally ready to play.”
Nashville shut the Miners down in the second half and won 42-14.
For Friday night, “We have to concentrate on showing up. We have the number 1 seed going into the playoffs. I care about how we play the game of football. We have to take care of what we can control. We need to play a clean game and play the way we have the ability to play,” Volarvich said.
The Scrappers moved into the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s overall top 10 this week as they’re ranked 10th. They are number 1 in Class 4A in the Democrat-Gazette rankings, followed by Warren and Joe T. Robinson.
Nashville has the longest winning streak in the state with 24 games, including 15 last season and 9 so far this season.
The state Class 4A playoffs will begin Friday, Nov. 11.
