The Pea Ridge Blackhawk football team will be making its last home appearance in 2017 by hosting the Arkadelphia Badgers in a state playoff semifinal game Friday.

The game will be a playoff rematch from 2016 when the 'Hawks defeated the Badgers in the first round of the playoffs. It was the closest fought game the 'Hawks had until the state final a month later.

Like Booneville, the Badgers have a decidedly run heavy attack, with 67 percent of their total game yardage coming on the ground. Pea Ridge has been remarkably balanced this year, with a quarterback throwing for more than 2,000 yards (Jakota Sainsbury) and a running back who has rushed for more than 2,000 yards (Drew Winn).

The 'Hawks have averaged more yardage per week than the Badgers, with Pea Ridge averaging 397 compared to Arkadelphia's 316. The 'Hawks' offense numbers are fairly evenly split between rushing and passing with the Badgers only passing for 86 yards weekly. The 'Hawks' rushing numbers are nearly the same with Arkadelphia having a slight 230-225 average advantage.

In the scoring department, the two teams are almost mirrors of each other. Pea Ridge has averaged 36.5 points per game through 13 dustups, with Arkadelphia averaging 36.7 in the same number of battles.

Defensively is where it might seem that the visitors may have an advantage. Arkadelphia is only allowing 8 points per contest with the Blackhawks allowing more than double that at 17 points per game allowed. However, southern Arkansas teams seem to have no problem with running up lopsided scores while the 'Hawks coach Stephen Neal hasn't been that concerned with holding opposition scores down when the 'Hawks have the game irrevocably in hand. Quite a bit of the opposition scoring against Pea Ridge this season has come against the 'Hawks' second and third teamers, players who need the experience to develop into the starters and anchors of the future.

The star of the Arkadelphia offense is tailback Zion Hatley, a 6-foot junior who has averaged 133 yards per game this season. He ranks third in the state in rushing yards for the season with 1,503, behind Gravette's Austin O'Brien (2,294) and Pea Ridge's own Drew Winn (2,170). The value of Hatley showed when the speedster missed the Robinson game with an injury, the only game the Badgers have lost this fall.

Cannon Turner, a sophomore, is the Badger quarterback, throwing for 979 yards this season. Turner has thrown 125 passes and has rushed 124 times for 874 yards and is a dual threat. By contrast, the 'Hawks Sainsbury has the second highest passing yardage total in the state (2,275).

The 'Hawks have decidely better passing statistics by employing a veteran quarterback in Sainsbury and having two of the best receivers in the state in Hayden Holtgrewe and Jordan Witcher. Holtgrewe is second statewide among receivers yardage with 1,170.

One of the Badgers' chief weapons is their kicking game. Junior Gabe Goodin is averaging 40 yards per punt this season, and is also averaging 53 yards per kickoff, both state leaders. He is very accurate in PAT kicks and has hit nine of 13 field goals from as far out as 37 yards. The 'Hawks counter with sophomore Luis Reyes who has numbers similar to Goodin. Evan Brewer handles PATs and is usually dependable with Sainsbury handling punting responsibilities and has proven to be very cool under pressure.

The Badgers use a lot of players on defense, with the leaders only averaging five tackles per game. Kyren Harris, Josh Burnham and Josh Wallace lead the defensive stats with 27 players contributing weekly to the tackle totals. Pea Ridge has Tristan Brewer who averages over 10 tackles a game, and several speedy players who have made a number of big plays thus far into the 2017 season.

Arkadephia, ranked ahead of the 'Hawks in the polls, will be the favored team this week. The game is being played in Pea Ridge by virtue of the 'Hawks' district championship title, giving them a No. 1 seed.