CCS football set for Mountain Pine

by Charlie Livingston
UCA sportswriting

The Conway Christian Eagles got back on track last Friday against Quitman but face another 2A-5 conference road trip Friday.

The Eagles (3-2, 3-1) travel to Mountain Pine to take on the Red Devils. Mountain Pine is 3-2 overall and 2-1 in conference play.

“Mountain Pine is a tough team. They’ve been real good last year and this year,” said Stephen Hay.

The respect is mutual as Mountain Pine coach Joel Frazier, in his 11th year, identifed Conway Christian as a team to look out for in preseason.

“They’re building a program there, and gave us a good game last year, when the odds weren’t with them," he said.

The Eagles know what to expect from Mountain Pine, but that does not mean that it will be an easy game. The Red Devils have played only one home game so far, but starting Friday, they will start a run of four straight at home, all of which are conference games.

The Eagles are getting healthy, but there are still a few assorted bumps and bruises. Landon Legree is still banged up but hopes to play. Hay played last week against Quitman and has gotten better this week as well.

Mountain Pine, fresh off a 9-2 season in 2008, has to be considered a favorite in the conference along with Danville. Mountain Pine took a non-conference win against Union Christian last week and won a big game against Bigelow two weeks ago.

The Red Devils lost their opener in 2008 to Bigelow, then rolled off nine straight wins, giving them the conference title, but they were stopped by Murfreesboro in the first round of the playoffs.

Mountain Pine is led by seniors Ryan Herron and Chris Rice on offense. Rice is looking for his third straight all-conference season.

Mountain Pine returns 17 starters from last year's team.