By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
In the Mike Malham rankings, this week’s opponent Conway isn’t too far behind last week’s opponent Springdale Har-Ber.
Malham, Cabot’s coach, leads the Panthers into their 7A/6A-Central conference opener at Conway this week. While Har-Ber, which beat Cabot 28-10 on Friday, is the No. 1 team in the state and ranked in several national polls, Malham said Conway, No. 2 statewide, has potential to be just as good.
“They look pretty good,” he said. “They’re very good on offense. In fact I don’t know if they’re not as good or better than Har-Ber. They got skill people pretty much running around everywhere.”
Har-Ber scored on its first three possessions Friday night but Cabot kept pace until the offense stalled in the third quarter.
Malham said a handful of plays, or plays not made, may have made the difference.
In the first half the Panthers appeared to make a stop on two different third down plays, a tackle at the line of scrimmage and a sack, but each time the ball carrier escaped for a first down leading to a score. Malham also pointed out a holding call that went against Cabot in the second half and likely cost the Panthers a touchdown.
“Just a little play here or there can make a big difference in a ballgame,” Malham said. “Stat-wise we had about 280 yards offense, which isn’t that bad, and they had about 320 so it wasn’t that big a difference.”
Malham, who had to replace 14 starters this season, was more encouraged than discouraged by the Panthers’ performance Friday.
“We hung in there toe to toe with them anyway,” he said. “And in the third quarter we didn’t do very much. All in all I’m not disappointed. I think we’re getting a little better each week.”
Cabot scored all of its points in the first half on two sustained drives. The first lasted 15 plays and ended with Jesus Marquez’s field goal and the second went 14 plays and ended with Zach Craig’s three-yard keeper up the middle that cut it to 14-10.
Marquez was kicking in placed of Logan Spry, who played in the defensive backfield but didn’t kick because of a pulled stomach muscle.
“Stats don’t win games for you but I think our kids competed well against what’s supposed to be the best team in the state,” Malham said.
Malham said Friday’s game could impact the conference race for the rest of the season. If Cabot doesn’t beat Conway, averaging almost 48 points a game, Malham isn’t sure who else in the 7A/6A-Central will.
“I will say this — it could be for all the marbles Friday night,” Malham said. “If we don’t win Friday night, they may run the table and we’ll be chasing them all year long.”
Malham said it’s hard to say which high schools are truly best in the nation, but after taking a look at Conway’s work out of the Spread, he is pretty certain the Wampus Cats deserve to be ranked up there with Har-Ber in the state.
“That’s just a tossup. There’s so many teams around the country,” Malham said of Har-Ber’s national rankings. “I can see why they’re picked No. 1 in Arkansas. I can see now why they’ve got Conway No. 2. They can play.”
Malham likes his teams’ chances at Conway if the players produce the same effort they showed against Har-Ber, and make the sure tackles when they have the chance.
“We played some good defense at times and then we’re not thinking very good sometimes,” Malham said. “You’ve got to be able to stop the run and you’ve got to be able to control the ball on offense and we really didn’t stop the run very well against Har-Ber.”
