Class 2A Week 14 Rankings, Matchup, Selection

Class 2A Rankings

Week 14, 2025

RK-PV Team (Record; Week 13 Result)

1. ↔ 1. East Poinsett County (12-1; beat Mount Ida 26-14)
2. ↑  3. Cross County (11-2; beat Des Arc 27-8)
3. ↓  2. Mount Ida (11-2; lost to East Poinsett County 26-14)
4. ↔ 4. Des Arc (8-5; lost to Cross County 27-8)
5. ↓  2. Junction City (10-2; season completed)
6. ↓  4. Carlisle (10-2; season completed)
7. ↓  6. Poyen (7-5; season completed)
8. ↔ 8. Mineral Springs (5-7; season completed)
9. ↔ 9. Hampton (9-2; season completed)
10. ↔ 10. Hector (9-2; season completed)
11. ↔ 11. Bearden (6-5; season completed)
12. ↔ 12. Bigelow (4-7; season completed)
13. ↔ 13. Conway Christian (5-6; season completed)
14. ↔ 14. McCrory (6-5; season completed)
15. ↔ 15. Gurdon (6-5; season completed)
16. ↔ 16. Spring Hill (5-6; season completed)
17. ↔ 17. Murfreesboro (5-5; season completed)
18. ↔ 18. Foreman (4-6; season completed)
19. ↔ 19. Earle (5-5; season completed)
20. ↔20. Magazine (6-4; season completed)

NOT RANKED

1-2A: Mountain Pine (1-9), Johnson County Westside (0-9), Bigelow (4-6), Mountainburg (5-5)

2-2A: Izard County (1-9), Marked Tree (1-9) and Marianna (1-8)

3-2A: Lafayette County (2-8), Dierks (4-6)

4-2A: Baptist Prep (3-7), Hazen (3-7), England (3-7) and Clarendon (0-10)

LAST WEEK

Hootens.com correctly predicted both semifinal games (100 percent) and has correctly predicted 159 of 192 games (83 percent) for the season.

CLASS 2A STATE TITLE GAME

Friday, 12 p.m., War Memorial Stadium, Little Rock 

No. 1 EAST POINSETT COUNTY (12-1) vs. No. 2 Cross County (11-2)

Two teams — both from the 2-2A conference — are playing for the state title.

East Poinsett County advanced to the title game for the third consecutive season with a 26-14 win over Mount Ida. Dee Buchanan rushed for 131 yards and 2 TDs, and Jacob Gaines rushed for 74 yards and a TD. Quincy Perry (44-767 receiving, 7 TDs) returned an INT 75 yards for a TD. 

EPC came up short against Bigelow and Conway Christian the previous 2 seasons. 

QB Eli Blagg has passed for 1,708 yards and 17 TDs this season, with Gaines (1,524 rushing, 17 TDs) and Buchanan (1,172 yards, 24 TDs) leading the ground game. In Cross County’s win over Des Arc, Caden Crawford rushed for 171 yards and a TD, and Braxton Armstrong rushed for 96 yards and  2 TDs. Kale Searcy threw a TD pass to Will Bezzard. 

Crawford  (1,865 rushing, 27 TDs) leads the Thunderbirds in rushing, and Cross County averages 355.9 rushing yards per game. 

The two teams met Oct. 10 in Cherry Valley, with EPC coming away with a 20-16 win. 

EPC Coach Brandon Powell is impressed by his seniors making it to the finals 3 consecutive seasons.

“Kudos to those kids,” he says. “Obviously, it’s a talented group. They’ve played in basketball state championships and football state championships. It’s a really special group, athletically. They’ve got a great work ethic. They’ve worked hard to get where they are.” 

Powell says the first time the teams played this season was a good game. 

“I feel like both teams felt like they could have won the game,” he says. “It’s going to be one of those games. Whatever happened in the past doesn’t matter. This week is the only thing that matters.”

Powell says his team has got to be physical. 

“That’s a big physical football team,” he says. “You have to match that the best that you can. You have to stop the run, and make them get away from the run a little bit. Defensively, they are probably the best defense in 2A football. You’ve got to find a way to put the ball in the end zone.”

Cross County is trying for its first state championship since winning the Class A state title in 1984. 

Coach Van Paschal is the third Arkansas football coach to take 3 different teams to a title game. He won a state title with Monticello and also took Barton to the title game. The other coaches are Bobby Bolding and Gus Malzhan. 

“We’re glad to be there, that’s for sure,” Paschal says. “We talked about the possibilities of that happening when they beat us. We knew what we needed to do. We thought there’d be a good chance we’d see them again if we lined up on the opposite side of the bracket. 

“We’ll be looking forward to it.”

Paschal says the Warriors were more disciplined in the first game. 

“They played a cleaner game than we did,” he said. “We still had chances to win it. That’s the deal. They wanted it a little bit more than we did, to be honest. That’s the thing that jumped out at me. 

“We’ve got to flip the script. We’ve got to want it more than they do. We’ve got to play clean, play hard. 

“If you’re not playing hard at this point, something is wrong, anyway.”

EPC is poised to win its first state title, but can the Warriors stop the Thunderbirds’ potent running game? EPC is no slouch running the ball, but can also throw it around with Blagg taking snaps.