Eagles’ excitement leads to Lavaca

MAYFLOWER — The Mayflower Eagles finally get their chance to pick up a playoff victory Friday, after the Arkansas Activities Association decided on Monday that the Class 3A state playoffs would resume this week.

The Eagles’ first-round contest is against the Lavaca Golden Arrows, the third seed from the 1-3A Conference. Mayflower, also a No. 3 seed, has its second meeting with a team from the 1-3A conference. The first meeting, a quarterfinal game last fall against Charleston, didn’t go the way the Eagles wanted it to. The Tigers ended up winning the Class 3A state title last December. 

“We’re ready to go. We were ready to go last week,” Mayflower coach Jed Davis said. “We’re excited and we’re just glad that we have a chance to play. We were worrying a little bit because we didn’t know what to expect. Last week we had a good week of practice, and I believe we followed up with another good week of practice.”

Mayflower’s road trip to Lavaca is a three-and-a half hour bus ride, but Davis doesn’t expect the long trip to factor into the game. The decision to put a hold on the Class 3A playoffs and reinstate Lamar and then restart all of the playoff games this Friday shouldn’t affect the Eagles, Davis believes.

“I don’t think it bothered us either way,” Davis said. “We had a great week of practice, so it’s no big deal.”

According to Davis, his team is healthy and everyone is expected to play against the Golden Arrows, including running back Demetris Lasker. The senior suffered a groin injury in the last portion of 2-3A Conference play, and he’s been hampered by it since then. 

“I can tell it’s getting better. He’s not a 100 percent yet though,” Davis said. “Obviously, that extra week off helped him. That’s good for us because we have been relying on our studs the past couple of weeks.”

Lavaca coach Mark Headley has made it clear that he wants to get pressure and stop Lasker and quarterback Jordan Dycus. Headley wouldn’t mind keeping the Eagles’ weapons on the sideline with their veer option offense.

“They’ve got a couple of kids who can really go,” Headley said. “We have to keep those two guys contained. I think we’re ready to go. We’ve been waiting on this game for over a week.”

Davis is aware of Headley’s defensive plan to slow down the Eagles’ rushing attack.

“We have some different formations where we can take advantage of them,” Davis said. “We have to make sure that we score, so we can get ahead. On defense, we have to stop them, so they’ll go to the spread. That’s what we want them to do is get out of the option and go to the spread. I told the kids that from here on out it doesn’t matter. You can be 10-0 or 1-6. The records don’t matter.”