Wampus Cats face rematch with Cabot

Wampus Cats advance to second round against Cabot
By Shawn Lee
UCA sportswriting

After their first post-season victory since 2003, the Conway Wampus Cats will travel to Cabot tonight for a quarterfinal game in the Class 7A state football playoffs.

The Wampus Cats (5-6) have won their last two games, both of which were on the road. Conway trailed by 42-38 in the final quarter against Fayetteville last week in the first round of the playoffs, but with just seconds remaining, quarterback Xavier Acklin threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to the Cat’s leading receiver, Tristan Eddings. The Wampus Cats ended the game as well as Fayetteville’s season, 45-42.

Acklin has thrown for 464 yards in the two previous games and rushed for 318 yards, totaling eight touchdowns.

“When we have success, that’s when he does best," Conway coach Clint Ashcraft said. “The offense feeds off him and hopefully we can continue that on Friday.”

Conway fell to Cabot in Week 4.

“We’re still working every day,” Ashcraft said. "We learned a lot about Cabot when we played against them, but we’re still trying to polish up some mistakes that we’ve been making in practice.”

Cabot, which won the Central, had a first-round bye and is undefeated this year. The Wampus Cats will head into Panther Stadium on their biggest winning streak of the season and with the odds against them. The winner will advance to the semi-finals to play the winner of the game between Springdale Har-Ber and Russellville.

Kickoff is set at 7:30 p.m.