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This one just means more. And this time, it means even more than usual.
The Green Forest Tigers and the Berryville Bobcats will meet in the annual Carroll County Super Bowl on Friday night, Nov. 8, at Bobcat Stadium. Just like every year, bragging rights are on the line. But this season, there’s even more at stake.
A Green Forest victory, combined with a Prairie Grove victory over Lincoln, would send the Tigers to the Class 4A state playoffs for the first time since 2020. Green Forest “opted into” the playoffs during that season, which was played in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite going 1-9. Before that the Tigers hadn’t been to the state playoffs since 2014.
There is a potential path for Green Forest to reach the playoffs even with a loss to Berryville, but Tigers coach Greg Tibbitt wants to keep things simple.
“We need Prairie Grove to beat Lincoln and us beat Berryville and then we’re in for sure,” Tibbitt said.
The Tigers defeated Berryville 16-6 last season as running back Ridge Gordon-Swofford ran for 103 yards and scored two second- half touchdowns. Gordon-Swofford carried the ball 37 times for 200 yards in Green Forest’s 21-13 victory at Huntsville last week, and Berryville coach Macklin Chermak said he expects the Tigers (3-6, 2-4 4A-1) to attack the Bobcats (1-8, 1-5) on the ground.
“They’ll come out and they’ll do what they do,” Chermak said. “They’ll pound the ball and try to shorten the clock, shorten the game. That’s just what they do. And the quarterback can sling the ball a little bit, but they only want to do it when they have to.”
Green Forest senior quarterback Mason Meador completed 7 of 9 passes for 76 yards in the win over Huntsville — including a fourth-down touchdown pass that helped preserve the victory. He also ran for a pair of touchdowns.
Tibbitt said Chermak is correct about the Tigers’ plan of attack.
“That’s the goal,” Tibbitt said. “We want to have a physical running game and we’ll throw play-action and boots off that. Mason’s gotten really comfortable with that. And we have some receivers that have really picked up the slack … so if we can spread the ball around with those guys and still pound Ridge and Jonathan in the middle, we feel like we can set the tone that way.”
While Berryville has struggled on both sides of the ball for most of the season, Tibbitt said the Bobcats will be motivated to play their best against the Tigers.
“It’s a typical Green Forest-Berryville game,” he said. “I think we’re very similar. Their record’s a little worse than ours right now, but I think we’ll get their best game. It’ll be Senior Night, and they’d probably like nothing more than to ruin our season and knock us out of the playoffs if at all possible. So that’s something they’ll have to play for. I think starting off we’ll get their best game for sure.” Berryville is coming off a 56-13 home loss to Lincoln last week. The Bobcats trailed 56-7 before sophomore quarterback CT Hicks ran for a 9-yard touchdown on the game’s final play. Chermak said Berryville won’t make major changes against Green Forest.
“Throughout the year, we’ve tried to scheme off other teams and we’ve gotten a little closer to what Coach Tibbitt has done,” Chermak said. “We’re going to stick to our identity and we are going to do what we do and try to do the best we can. We’re just going to line up and have our kids go and play the best we can.”
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