Reddie, or not | Missouri Western aims to defend Live United title from Henderson State threat: Henderson State

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - The Henderson State University Reddies are back in the postseason.

The Reddies (9-2) will face Missouri Western State University (8-3), Saturday at Razorback Stadium in the Live United Bowl. Kickoff is slated for noon.

Scott Maxfield leads Henderson State in his 14th season as head coach. Maxfield is has a 99-54 overall and is the winningest coach in the Great American Conference history. Since 2010, Maxfield's squads have claimed four conference championships and have made three National Collegiate Athletic Association postseason appearances.

The Reddies won their first postseason game in 2015, with a 23-16 victory over Sioux Falls.

"Well, we're excited about being in Texarkana and the opportunity to play a good football team," Maxfield said. "We'll have to play extremely well. We're not at full-strength right now, we have a lot of guys beat up. We also have some guys that won't be available for the game but that's part of it going into postseason play.

"We have some young guys, especially in some key positions, that haven't played many snaps for us. They'll get a chance Saturday and some will play the whole game."

Richard Stammetti will lead the Reddies offensively from under center. Stammetti has completed 216 of 351 passes for 2,745 yards with 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Logan Moragne leads Henderson State in the rushing category with 132 totes for 780 yards for 11 scores in 11 contests.

"Well, it's a double-edged sword being able to play this late in the semester," Maxfield said. "After going through a long football season, we have a lot of academic situations where we have kids finishing up the semester. We start finals on Monday, so all of our guys are preparing to take their finals. We want to get a lot of our academic responsibilities out of the way this week with some of our older guys that have internships and research papers.

"It's kinda a juggling deal when you're trying to practice with those responsibilities. It's cut into our study hall time that we have during this time of year. Overall, the kids have responded really well. We've have some really good practices and the kids are excited, They've come out and gave great effort all week. I think they've handled it really well and maturely."

Henderson State has a bevy of local Texarkana-area talent sprinkled on their roster including Fouke's Jarret Easley, Prescott's Trevor Pipkin, Nashville's Robert Dunham, De Queen's Quniton Thornton and Nashville's Jordan White.

The Reddies are averaging 33.2 points per game, while holding opponents to just 18.4 points per contest.

Colby Turner leads the Reddies' defense heading into the Live United Bowl with his 78 tackles, one interception and one fumble recovery in 11 games this season.

Ashdown's Mercado Anderson is the leader in the Henderson State secondary, snatching four interceptions in 11 games with two break-ups, three quarterback hurries and one forced fumble.

Henderson State's only two losses on the season are to Harding University, 14-13, and to its rival Ouachita Baptist University in the Battle of the Ravine, 24-21.

"We had a good year this past season," Maxfield said. "We lost two games by a combined total of four points. We got beat in the last minute of both of those ballgames. We've been very competitive and I thought we had a outstanding year, I thought our kids prepared well every week and also the way they responded to the challenges that were put in front of them on a weekly basis.

"We'd like to have won those two games of course, but we still had a really good year. This has been a really good group of kids to coach. We have a bunch of guys that love to play football and as a coach, that's all you can ask for. You don't have to go out and try to motivate your team everyday, these guys are self-motivated for the most part."

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