Dragons, Wildcats set to collide

With the 8-2A title sewed up, Junction City heads into their final two games of the regular season aiming to enter the postseason hitting on all cylinders.

On Friday, the Dragons will step out of conference play to take on Hector in a game that will be played at Henderson State.

Game time is set for 7 p.m.

The Dragons (5-2) have won four straight games, and they won the 8-2A crown with a dramatic 7-6 win at Fordyce with Dhante Gibson’s 1-yard run coupled with Jack Smith’s extra point in the final seconds proving to be the difference.

The Wildcats (6-2) have a two-game winning streak, but have won six of their last seven.

For Junction City coach Steven Jones, the trip to Henderson State is one the Dragons are looking forward to.

“I think they’re excited about getting on a college field and being able to play a quality opponent late in the season,” Jones said. “It’s just good to get those guys out on campus and let them see a college atmosphere. They’re looking forward to that, and the coaches are looking forward to that. Our junior high season will finish up Thursday, so we’re going to take our ninth-graders along with us as well to get them that exposure.

“I think that Junction City has played there twice probably in the last 15 years. To see coach pleted just over 50 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns while throwing just one interception, which came two weeks ago in the Wildcats’ overtime win over Hackett.

Day is also the team’s leading rusher with 831 yards and 11 touchdowns. He averages 6.2 yards per carry, and has topped the century mark four times with a season-high of 200 yards and five touchdowns against Hackett, a game in which he finished with 483 yards of total offense.

“They do a good job in the passing game,” Jones said of the Wildcats’ offense. “They like to spread it out. They’ll go four and five wide. They throw lots of verticals (David) Carpenter go back to the stadium that’s named after his dad, I know he’ll enjoy the game there as well. Its just good for our community to get out and go to a college stadium.”

Hector stands two wins away from winning eight or more games for the sixth straight year, and this could be the first of two meetings between the schools this year.

Depending on how events unfold in the coming weeks, the Dragons and Wildcats could find themselves on a collision course to meet again in the second round of the playoffs.

Junction City will be tested by senior quarterback Cody Day, who has over 2,000 yards passing and rushing combined.

Overall, Day has comand things of that nature. They just really like to air it out.”

Day has several targets with junior Caleb Profitt leading the team with 27 catches for 602 yards and seven touchdowns.

Profitt has been outstanding of late, tallying 11 catches for 246 yards and two touchdowns in the last two weeks.

In addition to Profitt, sophomore Ty Day has 14 catches for 271 yards and two scores, while fellow sophomore Gunner Garrison caught four passes for 92 yards against Hackett.

Seniors Logan Church and Blake Koehn add depth to the Wildcats’ running attack, averaging 6.2 and 6.7 yards per carry respectively with the latter adding 101 yards in a win over Western Yell County.

Sophomore Jacob Casto chipped in last week with 58 yards on 11 carries against Johnson County Westside.

For Jones, seeing Junction City face the type of offense the Wildcats run will be beneficial with the playoffs starting in two weeks.

“Absolutely,” Jones said. “I knew this game would be a good one to add to the schedule just because Hector has traditionally been a team that has thrown the ball a good bit and seeing a spread-type team before we get to the playoffs can help us out because we typically don’t see that during conference play, so having somebody on the schedule that will test us in the secondary will be a good stepping stone for us heading into the playoffs.”

When the Dragons have the ball, Jones said the offensive line must be ready for the pressure the Wildcats will bring.

“They run the same exact defense that we do, so we have some familiarity with how they align,” Jones said. “We see that every single day, so we see that as an advantage. They like to send a good bit of pressure, so we’ll have to be ready for that.”

Against Fordyce last week, there was good news and bad news for the Dragons’ offense.

Junction City had 273 yards of total offense with Gibson finishing with 145 yards rushing on 25 carries.

However, the Dragons had their troubles in the red zone. In the second half, the Dragons got to the red zone four times, but didn’t put any points on the scoreboard until Gibson’s touchdown on their fourth trip tied the game.

“Between the 20s, we were a really good team offensively Friday night,” Jones said. “We were able to control the line of scrimmage and move the chains and keep our offense on the field. In those elements, we were really trying to just eat up clock, which is not what we always like to do, but it just kind of fit. We were trying to keep the ball as much as we could, and we really controlled the game doing that.

“The red zone is where we’ve got to improve. We’ve got to finish drives. We had four opportunities in the second half to get in and only finished one of them with a touchdown, so we’ve got to have a higher red-zone percentage than that and just continue to find ways to get into the end zone. With the way the weather was, and the way the game kind of went back and forth, I’m glad how our kids stood tall and made plays when we had to.”

With two games left in the regular season, Jones is hoping to see continued improvement in the passing game.

On Junction City’s final drive, Brady Hutcheson connected with Kevontae Haynes for 32 yards that helped set up Gibson’s touchdown.

“Kevontae Haynes came up with probably the catch of the year up to this point to keep a drive going with about two minutes left, and the rest of it ended just being effort up front. Just a great team effort,” Jones said. “We feel each week like we’ve gotten better in the pass game. It wasn’t as sharp Friday night, but the weather had a lot to do with that, so we’re going to try to continue to improve the next two weeks in the pass game getting ready to go into the playoffs and just try to see who is going to step up at receiver and lead us.”

Defensively, the Dragons forced two second-half turnovers while not allowing Fordyce to convert on any of its four fourth-down attempts.

“Semaj Levingston had an awesome game and he was kind of banged up, but he led us up front,” Jones said. “Jvacye Cook played well and had the pick late in the game. Dhante Gibson comes up with a big play, and I think Jakiron Cook ended the game with 10 tackles, so we had a lot of different guys just making plays out there.

“Our defensive line continues to get better each week. Bryce Ware has come on late for us. He’s really a force on the defensive side of the ball. He made a couple of really nice plays. One of the biggest things that Fordyce likes to do in watching film was throwing quick bubbles out in space to a couple of their receivers, and Bryce took that away early and they never went back to it, so just having guys step up and make plays like that has been awesome.”

If the Dragons are to come away with a win, Jones said it will come down to the play of the offensive line.

“Our offensive line has got to do a better job of maintaining a lower pad level,” Jones said. “That’s going to help us finish drives, and that’s the main thing.”