RISON - Friday night’s homecoming game against the Drew Central Pirates has all the potential to be a trap game for the Wildcats, and that fact is not lost on Rison Coach Chris Vereen.Rison is off to a 6-0 start overall, and moved to 3-0 in league play with a huge 33-20 road victory last Friday night over the McGehee Owls, the preseason favorite to win the 8-3A conference championship.Meanwhile, Drew Central moved to 1-5 overall and 1-2 in conference action after getting its first win of the year with a convincing 47-8 blowout of the Lake Village Beavers last week. While a team with a 1-5 record won’t ignite much fear from an opponent, it’s always a good idea to see who those losses were to. The Pirates played a solid non-conference schedule and then faced two of the league’s top contenders once they reached conference play.Drew Central started the year with a 38-6 loss to currently unbeaten Carlisle, which is the top ranked team in Class 2A. Then the Pirates lost a close one on the road at England, 28-22, before suffering three consecutive shutout defeats: 26-0 to 5-1 Class 4A Helena; 49-0 to 3-3 McGehee and 50-0 to 6-0 Fordyce. Combined, Drew Central’s five losses were to teams that currently have a combined record of 22-7.And if the Wildcats need any extra motivation to come into Friday night’s homecoming game focused, they only need to remember their trip to Monticello last year where Rison hung on for a 27-24 win.Vereen said this week’s game certainly has all the markings of a trap game, especially after all the chatter he has been hearing about a Nov. 1 showdown with the rival Fordyce Redbugs for a possible 8-3A championship.“I don’t want to hear about Fordyce. I want to hear about Drew Central,” he said.Vereen said he has been hammering the point home all week that Drew Central has the potential to pull off an upset, especially with the momentum they will bri...
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