El Dorado won’t need GPS to get to Sylvan Hills for Friday’s 6A East football matchup. Coach Chris Hill coached the Bears for three years before taking the job with the Wildcats for last season.
“Some of those kids were sophomores when I was over there. I enjoyed my three years there, great kids, great administration. But there’s not a game we’d rather win than this week,” said Hill. “It will be fun. It’ll be a little odd going back, being on the other sideline.”
Sylvan Hills has struggled to an 0-5 start this season. The Bears lost last week to Benton (49-0) and to Marion (45-7) in the league opener. The non-conference losses were to Russellville (35-33), Vilonia (31-12) and Maumelle (36-0).
“They’ve got a couple Division I recruits. They’ve got good team speed,” Hill said. “They very easily could’ve won some games this year. I wouldn’t say they’re your typical 0-5 football team. I think they’re better than what their record indicates. It’s going to be their homecoming so they’re going to be excited to play. We need to go over there and handle business.”
Hill was asked about the Bears’ season so far.
“They’ve had some injuries. I think they’ve had four or five starters out. They’re just kind of snake bitten. It’s been a wide variety of different things. They just haven’t been able to put it together. At times they’ve played good on defense. At times they've played good on offense or special teams. They just haven’t been able to put a whole game together. I hope it doesn’t start this week.”
Sylvan Hills runs a spread offense most of the time with a dual-threat quarterback.
“They do get in some I and run the football. They try to be physical up front. They’ve got a couple backs who are pretty good,” Hill said. “The quarterback is a junior. He throws the ball well. He’s an athletic kid. He can run.
“Defensively they operate out of an odd front. It was more of a 3-4 look last week. They play hard. They pursue the ball. We’ve got to protect the ball and try to limit their big plays.”
El Dorado (2-3, 0-2) is coming off a 34-28 loss to Marion. The Wildcats lost four turnovers, including three interceptions.
“Defensively, we’ve got to wrap up. Last week we had the running back several times and he’d run through us. We have to wrap up and limit their big plays,” said Hill.
The Wildcats will again be without the services of injured linebacker Jakori Lumsey.
Coming off back-to-back setbacks, Hill said his squad needs a win. He said the Wildcats bounced back after last week’s last second loss with a strong week of practice.
“I think they responded well. You’re always disappointed in a loss. You don’t know how long that loss will linger,” he said. “As crazy as it sounds, hopefully they learned last week that we can play with a really good football team. Marion has lost one game and that was to 7A powerhouse Conway. That’s the only game they’ve lost and we were right there with them. Of course we felt like we should’ve won the ball game. But hopefully our kids gained some confidence that when we play ball we can play with anybody.”
As for going back to his former school, Hill said it’s just another conference game for the Wildcats, a very important one if they hope to get into the postseason.
“I’m looking forward to watching our kids compete, looking forward to going over there and making a road trip. We’re out of school Friday so that’s different. We’ll bring the kids in at 10 o’clock that morning, make sure they get up and get around.
“We’ll leave about 1:45, head over to Sylvan Hills. We’ll stop and eat at Sheridan on the way and head on into Sylvan Hills and hope we play our best ball game of the year.”