The Arkadelphia Badger seniors will not have fond memories of their last game at Badger Stadium. The Badgers knew they had a challenge for their last game with defending 4A state champions Nashville as the last game on the schedule. The Badgers walked away with a 58-0 loss on Friday night.

“It stinks for our kids to go out that way,” Coach Billy Elmore said. “There was really nothing positive from the game. It was a bad loss; it was an embarrassing loss.”

Arkadelphia won the toss and elected to receive to start the game. After two incomplete passes and a short gain on a run by Warren Hunter, the Badgers were forced to punt on fourth down.
Four plays later, the Scrappers were in the end zone for the first time. Pierre Vaughn passed to Derrick Graham from 17 yards out for the touchdown. The extra point was good to make it 7-0.

The Badgers got the ball on their 35-yard-line. Quarterback Jarvis Purifoy passed to Colby Whitaker for a 17-yard gain. After a seven-yard loss on a rush attempt, Purifoy kept the ball and gained 13 yards. On third down and four, he was sacked for a seven-yard loss. Faced with fourth down and nine, the Badgers went for the conversion. Purifoy found Colby Whitaker open at the 34-yard-line of Nashville for the first down. On the next series, the Badgers were again faced with fourth and nine, Purifoy connected with Todd Whitaker for the all important first down.

The Badgers had first and 10 from the Nashville 23. After an incomplete pass and short gains on rush attempts, the Badgers again were faced with fourth down. On fourth and six, Purifoy’s pass was intercepted at the Nashville 22.

“We had a couple of good plays. It was the second time we had the ball. It might have made a difference if we could have kept going. We did execute well to get those couple of fourth down conversions, but that’s not a situation you want to put yourself in,” Elmore said.

The Scrappers had a seven-play drive that went 78 yards for their second touchdown of the night with 2:16 left in the first quarter. The Scrappers got on the board again as the horn went off at the end of the quarter. This time Graham had a one-yard run to put the ball in the end zone. The extra point was good for a score of 21-0.

Todd Whitaker returned the ball from the 8-yard-line to the 26-yard-line. Purifoy recovered a bad snap at the 13-yard-line. Facing second and 23, Purifoy was sacked for a 4-yard loss. On third and 27, Purifoy’s pass to Cody Pritchard fell incomplete. On fourth down, Phillip Twyford’s punt was blocked in the end zone for the Scrappers to get their fourth touchdown of the night. The extra point was good to make it 28-0 with 10:16.

The Badgers were again forced to punt from the end zone. This time the blocked punt resulted in a safety. The Scrappers led 30-0 with 8:35 in the first half.

“It snowballed on us. It was a killer. We are not set up for that. We’ve not had a punt blocked all year,” Elmore said.

The Scrappers wasted no time adding seven more points to their total. They started the drive on the 48-yard-line. Vaughn passed to Erin Adams who got down to the 11 before Colin Williams made the tackle. Graham carried the ball into the end zone on the next play. The extra point made the score 37-0.

Nashville had one more touchdown before the end of the first half. On a 65-yard five-play drive, the Scrappers put the ball into the end zone on a pass from Vaughn to 8. After the PAT, Nashville had a 44-0 lead with 4:49 left in the first half.

With the start of the second half, the mercy rule began with the clock running almost continually. However, the Scrappers showed no mercy putting seven more on the board two minutes into the second half. After four plays the Scrappers were on the 5-yard-line. Lucas Scott carried the ball for the touchdown. The extra point made the score 51-0.

The Scrappers had one more scoring drive at the end of the third. Nashville got the ball back after the Badgers failed on a fourth down conversion. The Scrappers went 53 yards in eight plays to put up six more points. The extra point was good for a final score of 58-0.

Warren Hunter had 17 carries for 33 yards. Purifoy completed 13 out of 23 passing for 124 yards. Cody Pritchard caught seven passes for 62 yards. Todd Whitaker had two receptions for 16 yards, and Colby Whitaker had catches for 35 yards.

“Nashville’s obviously a good football team. You can’t take that away from them,” Elmore said.

“They are talented; there is no doubt about that. By the same token, we want to get on their level and we are just not there yet. We’ve got to keep working toward that.”

The Badgers end the season at 2-8, 2-5 in conference play.