BLUE DEVILS (cont.)

son.

The Blue Devils take their 4-6 record (with one of those wins counted as a forfeit after the fact) on the road to Pearcy Friday night as they face heavily favored Lake Hamilton (82) the third-place team from the West.

No matter how this game shakes out, the Blue Devils and head coach Robert Hooks think next year looks brighter. With seven sophomores currently starting for West Memphis that very well may be true.

“The biggest thing is we’ve got a lot of sophomores that have gotten some valuable experience,” said Hooks. “And the other thing is many of them have played a full JV schedule.

They got in at least two quarters in every JV game.

That right there is going to help propel us. But we have to finish this season strong and then get our guys bigger, faster and stronger.”

With the help of a forfeit from the Marion game, which was a 33-3 Patriot victory, the Blue Devils ended up as the number six-seed from the East thanks to two wins over Sheridan and Pine Bluff, two teams who came into the eighth week of the season winless in 6A-East Conference play.

From an offensive standpoint,

have starred at various times this season. Wide receiver Dylan Greer is the most promising with his sure hands and above-average

Then there’s running back Jalen Merritt, who has proven to be elusive in the backfield and a strong pass-catching threat.

In the past few weeks, Hooks has eased in sophomore quarterback Keland Mills into the framework.

A left-handed thrower, Mills has been used primarily as a running threat when the Blue Devils reach the opposition’s red zone.

“I think we’ve got a good group that’s going to come back,” said Hooks. “We’ll mostly talk about that after the season. Right now our focus is on the playoffs and Lake Hamilton.”

The Wolves will have a huge advantage over the Blue Devils in terms of size and they will mostly rely on their ground game on offense.

“They’re one of the best teams we’ve seen all year, no doubt,” Hooks commented. “But we feel like we can be competitive in this game and that we can have a chance to win at the end.”