Cabot will be without its top two players for the remainder of the regular season and possibly its first Class 7A playoff game.
Senior running back/safety Jake Ferguson, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Defensive Player of the Year last season, tore his meniscus against West Memphis on Oct. 10, has missed the past two games and will be out for the next three games. He underwent surgery last week and will begin a rehabilitation program next week, Coach Mike Malham said.
"Seventeen interceptions over the last two and a half years, 100 tackles," Malham said. "He makes plays everywhere."
Sophomore quarterback Jarrod Barnes hurt his thumb in the first half of the Panthers' 17-3 loss at Little Rock Central. Barnes, whose thumb is in a cast, played on defense in the second half but will not play at all for the rest of the regular season. He also bruised his shoulder in the second half.
Malham, who led Cabot to the Class 7A state championship game last year, said his team has to move on, beginning tonight at Mountain Home.
"It's tough, but it's football," Malham said. "Injuries are a part of football. You lose a couple of players, but you can't make excuses."
Cabot (4-3, 2-2 7A/6A-East) outgained Central 285-264 but only managed a 30-yard field goal by Christian Underwood on Friday. The Panthers also fumbled three times.
"We were out of sync," Malham said. "Jake's loss hurt us on both sides. He was a weapon out there."
Junior Jess Reed, 5-5, 148 pounds, will move from halfback and start at quarterback for Cabot tonight at Mountain Home.
"He's had a whole week to get ready," Malham said. "We're not going to make it complicated for him."
Logan Melder, Cabot's third-string quarterback, played in place of Barnes last week. He starts at cornerback, so Malham decided that with Ferguson's absence he needed to keep Melder on defense instead of going to quarterback.
Two of Cabot's three losses came against two of the top teams in Class 7A, Conway and North Little Rock, but Malham has seen improvement from the Panthers.
"I'm not discouraged," said Malham, who starts five sophomores on defense. "We're getting better, but Jake and Barnes are two of the biggest difference makers we've ever had around here."
MARION
First victory
Jed Davis had to wait until the middle of October to get his first victory at Marion.
It was a sigh of relief for the first-year coach, whose team beat Mountain Home 32-22 last Friday at home.
Sophomore running back Tom Young rushed for 186 yards and 3 touchdowns on 15 carries to help the Patriots (1-6, 1-3 7A/6A-East) end a 13-game losing streak.
"It was really exciting," said Davis, who spent the past seven years at Mayflower. "You feel for the kids and the coaches the most. The kids and the coaches have been working extremely hard. It's hard sometimes as a teenager to come to practice and do everything you've got to do when you haven't won a single game yet."
The Patriots scored only 49 points in their first six games, but Davis has seen progress.
"If you look at how we've executed our system from Week 1 to now, we're leaps and bounds better than we were around Week 1," Davis said.
Marion's task will be tougher this week when it faces 7A/6A-East leader North Little Rock (6-1, 4-0) tonight at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
"By far and away, they have the best athletes of any team in the state," Davis said. "The pressure isn't on us, it's on them. They're supposed to be world beaters this year."
Davis admitted that trying to rebuild a program while having to play teams such as North Little Rock and Cabot is a chore.
"We're not really emphasizing winning games right now," Davis said. "We're emphasizing coming to practice with a great attitude and a great effort. The expectation is we're working to get better. The winning will take care of itself."
EXTRA POINTS
Fayetteville Coach Daryl Patton can earn his 100th victory as the Bulldogs coach tonight at Rogers Heritage. Patton has been at Fayetteville since 2003. He previously coached at Bryant. Cabot's Mike Malham is the only other Class 7A coach who has more than 100 victories at his current school. Malham has 272. ... Greenwood has lost two consecutive conference games for the first time in Coach Rick Jones' 11-year tenure at the Sebastian County school. The Bulldogs, who had won 29 consecutive conference games before Oct. 10, lost to Conway and Bryant the past two weeks. ... Little Rock Hall (0-6-1, 0-4 6A-South) has been outscored 180-0 in conference play. The Warriors have scored 12 points this season. Hall tied North Pulaski 6-6 on Sept. 5 and lost at Dumas 30-6 on Sept. 19, both nonconference games.
Sports on 10/24/2014