WOODLAWN - The South Conference championship and playoff positioning will be on the line this Friday night when the Woodlawn Bears square off against the Mountain Pine Red Devils in a battle of unbeaten teams at the Carl Jones Sports Complex.
The junior high teams will kick off at 5 p.m. Followed by the varsity teams at 7 p.m. It will be Senior Night for Woodlawn as the Bears hit the road for their final games of the regular season at Marvell and Spring Hill.
Mountain Pine comes in at 6-0 overall and 3-0 in South Conference play, while Woodlawn is 50 overall and 2-0 in league action.
The Red Devils are ranked as the state’s top Class 2A eightman team by Hooten’s Arkansas Football, SBLive and other media outlets while Woodlawn is ranked anywhere from second to fourth.
Woodlawn Coach Zach Meyer described Mountain Pine as a team that checks all the boxes for a championship caliber team: speed, size and athleticism.
“They’re big. They’ve got really good size,” Meyer said about his first impressions of the Red Devils. “They’re good up front (both offensively and defensively).”
The Red Devils came within six points of knocking off Strong, 66-60, in last year’s eight-man state championship game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. Two of the playmakers who fueled that run to the title game are back this year, versatile seniors Keelan Dobbins and Isaiah Miles. Both were All-State selections in 2021.
Meyer and the Bears are very familiar with both Dobbins and Miles. Last year, the duo helped the Red Devils roll up 375 yards on the ground while adding another 117 through the air in a 5628 victory at Woodlawn.
He described Dobbins and Miles as “explosive” players with Dobbins lining up at about every offensive skill position on the field: running back, slot, receiver and even quarterback “when they get behind,” Meyer said. He said Miles is used mostly at rec...
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