High School Football Preview Week 6: Indians set to play another Blue Devil
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The schedule isn't getting any easier for the 1-4 Hillsboro Indians in week six. In fact, added with all the travel and the division of their opponent this week, it can be said this just might be the toughest test for the Indians of the season.
HHS (0-4, 1-4) will take to the road for the third straight week, fifth time of the season, in their longest journey of the season when they face the Zanesville Blue Devils Friday night at John D. Sulsberger Memorial Stadium.
The Blue Devils have won 13 of their past 15 games, as they use a 3-3 stack defense, but against the spread they will use a 3-4 look. Zanesville is a coverage first team but at times will send five or six players on a blitz.
"You can tell by watching film they have a coverage first philosophy," Spicer said. "They will rush their three down linemen and they are pretty good players. I don't think they want to play a man-coverage, but will use a cover 2 and cover 4."
In their first three games this season, the Blue Devils defeated Newark (41-7), Licking Valley (17-14) and New Philadelphia (28-0).
"They are probably the second best team on our schedule, other than Clinton-Massie," Spicer said. "When I look at their players, I look at the jersey numbers and see where the skill kids play on defense. With Zanesville, their linebackers have skill player numbers and so you know they are going to be quick and fast."
Zanesville is no stranger to the playoffs, as they went last season, and so far this year stand at 4-1 overall, losing by four points during week four to East Liverpool. The loss to the East Liverpool Potters snapped a nine-game home winning streak by ZHS. In their loss to ELHS (4-1), Zanesville led 14-0 at halftime and lost on a fourth quarter punt return for a touchdown. In that final quarter, ZHS had a 14-6 lead. It was their first home loss since Sept. 12, 2008 to the Chillicothe Cavaliers.
Standouts for the Blue Devils include quarterback Wes Hudson, who tossed three touchdowns last week in a 49-20 thrashing of John Marshall (W.Va) at the home of JMHS (0-4). Hudson went 7 of 12 for 136 yards, along with the previously mentioned three TDs. Also getting snaps at quarterback is Ian McFarland.
In week three, Hudson was 7 of 10 passing and McFarland was 5 of 9 for 77 yards. During that game, New Philadelphia ran more offensive plays than the Blue Devils at 56-45.
The rushing game is led by Braily Blair. Blair has played well in the past two games, including a two-touchdown performance against JM in their fourth game. Last week, Blair had a 62-yard touchdown run. He also pounded his way for a 2-yard score, giving him four touchdowns in his past two games.
Their wide receivers in the balanced rushing attack by the Blue Devils include a majority of their running backs catching passes, and Jaren Cooper, who had four catches in week three against New Philadelphia.
In their win last Friday, the combo of Blair and teammate Talen Hutchison combined for 125 yards rushing. Also contributing to the rushing game are fullbacks K.J. Grimmett and Dylan Tandy.
Then there are the Indians.
The lack of depth and numbers of players are starting to show, and head coach Brian Spicer knows that.
"Our weakness is that we wear out," Spicer said. "I fully expect in the second half for Zanesville to pound the ball at us."
Following the loss to the Washington Blue Lions last week (41-12), Spicer said his team was mentally and physically worn out, and the rest players got in-between offense and defensive series wouldn't change due to the fact most players had to play on both sides of the ball.
"It's frustrating to see us play so well in the first half on defense, but then we had the second half we did. We watched our film and we see we are tired, reaching out and not taking the right steps to the ball. You ask yourself, 'What happened?'
"We’ve got to figure out a way to handle the mental fatigue, along with the physical fatigue. We have to become mentally tougher to handle the physical part of it."
Hillsboro played head-to-head with the Blue Lions in the first 24 minutes, trailing 7-6 at halftime.
But in the second half were outscored 34-6.
"We have to realize there are more than 24 minutes to play," Spicer said.
HHS quarterback Aric Carroll was under pressure by the Blue Lions' defense most of the game but did connect with Chase Gilliland in the end zone for Hillsboro's lone offensive touchdown.
The other HHS score was an 85-yard kickoff return by freshman Kordell Ford in the third quarter.
This season, the Indians have been outscored 210-82. In the past four games, HHS has lost four straight games by a total of 176-48. In their past two games, they have tallied 19 points against Clinton-Massie and Washington, who are both 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the South Central Ohio League.
"Offensively, we didn't execute very well," Spicer told The Highland County Press. "We had so many mistakes, and they were the type of mistakes you don't expect in week five. We had seven bad snaps against Washington, and that was quadruple what we had before the game. Our guys need to realize bad snaps and having mistakes on the little things can kills drives."
But Spicer said it all comes back to finishing games for all four quarters.
"We can't do much with the fatigue, but as far as execution, like developing plays, making tackles, we do have a lot of room for improvement. It takes working hard in practice, there is no magic formula.
"We have to focus and give ourselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter."
To have a winning season in 2010 HHS must win out, to at best finish 6-4 overall. Besides their game with Zanesville, they will face Madison-Plains, London, Miami Trace and McClain. The combined record of the next five HHS opponents are 10-15 with MP and MT both standing at 0-5.
LHS is 2-3 and ZHS mad MHS are 4-1 each.
This will be the first time Hillsboro has played Zanesville. Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m. in Zanesville.[[In-content Ad]]
HHS (0-4, 1-4) will take to the road for the third straight week, fifth time of the season, in their longest journey of the season when they face the Zanesville Blue Devils Friday night at John D. Sulsberger Memorial Stadium.
The Blue Devils have won 13 of their past 15 games, as they use a 3-3 stack defense, but against the spread they will use a 3-4 look. Zanesville is a coverage first team but at times will send five or six players on a blitz.
"You can tell by watching film they have a coverage first philosophy," Spicer said. "They will rush their three down linemen and they are pretty good players. I don't think they want to play a man-coverage, but will use a cover 2 and cover 4."
In their first three games this season, the Blue Devils defeated Newark (41-7), Licking Valley (17-14) and New Philadelphia (28-0).
"They are probably the second best team on our schedule, other than Clinton-Massie," Spicer said. "When I look at their players, I look at the jersey numbers and see where the skill kids play on defense. With Zanesville, their linebackers have skill player numbers and so you know they are going to be quick and fast."
Zanesville is no stranger to the playoffs, as they went last season, and so far this year stand at 4-1 overall, losing by four points during week four to East Liverpool. The loss to the East Liverpool Potters snapped a nine-game home winning streak by ZHS. In their loss to ELHS (4-1), Zanesville led 14-0 at halftime and lost on a fourth quarter punt return for a touchdown. In that final quarter, ZHS had a 14-6 lead. It was their first home loss since Sept. 12, 2008 to the Chillicothe Cavaliers.
Standouts for the Blue Devils include quarterback Wes Hudson, who tossed three touchdowns last week in a 49-20 thrashing of John Marshall (W.Va) at the home of JMHS (0-4). Hudson went 7 of 12 for 136 yards, along with the previously mentioned three TDs. Also getting snaps at quarterback is Ian McFarland.
In week three, Hudson was 7 of 10 passing and McFarland was 5 of 9 for 77 yards. During that game, New Philadelphia ran more offensive plays than the Blue Devils at 56-45.
The rushing game is led by Braily Blair. Blair has played well in the past two games, including a two-touchdown performance against JM in their fourth game. Last week, Blair had a 62-yard touchdown run. He also pounded his way for a 2-yard score, giving him four touchdowns in his past two games.
Their wide receivers in the balanced rushing attack by the Blue Devils include a majority of their running backs catching passes, and Jaren Cooper, who had four catches in week three against New Philadelphia.
In their win last Friday, the combo of Blair and teammate Talen Hutchison combined for 125 yards rushing. Also contributing to the rushing game are fullbacks K.J. Grimmett and Dylan Tandy.
Then there are the Indians.
The lack of depth and numbers of players are starting to show, and head coach Brian Spicer knows that.
"Our weakness is that we wear out," Spicer said. "I fully expect in the second half for Zanesville to pound the ball at us."
Following the loss to the Washington Blue Lions last week (41-12), Spicer said his team was mentally and physically worn out, and the rest players got in-between offense and defensive series wouldn't change due to the fact most players had to play on both sides of the ball.
"It's frustrating to see us play so well in the first half on defense, but then we had the second half we did. We watched our film and we see we are tired, reaching out and not taking the right steps to the ball. You ask yourself, 'What happened?'
"We’ve got to figure out a way to handle the mental fatigue, along with the physical fatigue. We have to become mentally tougher to handle the physical part of it."
Hillsboro played head-to-head with the Blue Lions in the first 24 minutes, trailing 7-6 at halftime.
But in the second half were outscored 34-6.
"We have to realize there are more than 24 minutes to play," Spicer said.
HHS quarterback Aric Carroll was under pressure by the Blue Lions' defense most of the game but did connect with Chase Gilliland in the end zone for Hillsboro's lone offensive touchdown.
The other HHS score was an 85-yard kickoff return by freshman Kordell Ford in the third quarter.
This season, the Indians have been outscored 210-82. In the past four games, HHS has lost four straight games by a total of 176-48. In their past two games, they have tallied 19 points against Clinton-Massie and Washington, who are both 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the South Central Ohio League.
"Offensively, we didn't execute very well," Spicer told The Highland County Press. "We had so many mistakes, and they were the type of mistakes you don't expect in week five. We had seven bad snaps against Washington, and that was quadruple what we had before the game. Our guys need to realize bad snaps and having mistakes on the little things can kills drives."
But Spicer said it all comes back to finishing games for all four quarters.
"We can't do much with the fatigue, but as far as execution, like developing plays, making tackles, we do have a lot of room for improvement. It takes working hard in practice, there is no magic formula.
"We have to focus and give ourselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter."
To have a winning season in 2010 HHS must win out, to at best finish 6-4 overall. Besides their game with Zanesville, they will face Madison-Plains, London, Miami Trace and McClain. The combined record of the next five HHS opponents are 10-15 with MP and MT both standing at 0-5.
LHS is 2-3 and ZHS mad MHS are 4-1 each.
This will be the first time Hillsboro has played Zanesville. Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m. in Zanesville.[[In-content Ad]]