Eagles' stout run game tests T-Birds again

KINGDOM CITY - The North Callaway Thunderbirds get their turn again to devise a blueprint - defensive or otherwise - that can somehow impede Southern Boone's prodigious running game.

North Callaway will employ those strategies tonight when it hosts Southern Boone for the Class 3, District 6 championship (kickoff at 7) in the regular-season finale. The Thunderbirds and Eagles, both 5-4 overall and 2-0 in district play, have already guaranteed themselves spots in the state playoffs for a second year in a row.

There is no mystery about the intent of Southern Boone's double-wing offense: Run the ball almost exclusively and rule time of possession. The Eagles - who score 37.2 points a game - are averaging an extraordinary 355.8 yards rushing this season.

What is baffling for opposing defenses is coming up with a feasible solution to slow Southern Boone's grinding ground game. The Eagles manhandled North Callaway's defense for 347 yards rushing in Southern Boone's 32-13 win over the Thunderbirds for the District 6 title last year at Ashland.

"It can be a helpless feeling," North Callaway head coach Mike Emmons said Tuesday afternoon. "... From our standpoint, we've got to try to get them off-schedule - get them to where they're not getting 4 yards a carry. You can mess that up once and maybe they don't get a first down or you can get a turnover, but all those things are very hard to do with the way they do things.

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.