District play started last Friday, and the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears played the Silsbee Tigers who may be the district favorite now. The Bears lost, but are still showing improvement.
Coach Randy Crouch analyzes this week’s opponent the Splendora Wildcats. Crouch believes the Wildcats are much improved from last season. Splendora runs a multiple offense. Toby Clark is an outstanding receiver for the Wildcats and caught a couple of touchdowns against Jasper in Splendora’s opening game of district. They play a 50 Defense and are anchored in the defensive line by Lucas Plate. Crouch observes the Wildcats play extremely hard and they scored 21 points in the Jasper game. The coach admits being on the road at Splendora that it’ll be a challenge for the Bears Friday night.
With the loss in the opening district game LC-M will have an uphill battle to make the playoffs. Coach Crouch sees the district is very well balanced and thinks the Bears are still very much in the mix for the playoffs. Crouch states the Bears’ defense has improved a little bit and that showed in the second half of the Silsbee game when LC-M did a better job slowing down the Tigers’ potent offense. Offensively the Bears are improving every week in Crouch’s opinion. District play will reveal how similar personnel wise and good the various schools are. Crouch says the Bears need to continue to get better, control what they can control, and they will still be real close in the chase for the playoffs.
The first step to getting back into the playoff hunt is that first district win which both the Bears and the Wildcats will be looking for on Friday night. Just like every week, Crouch knows protecting the football, avoiding stupid penalties, and executing well in the kicking game are necessary for LC-M to have a chance to be in every game, which according to Coach Crouch the Bears have been in the first five games of the season. Crouch concludes that Splendora is going to fight really hard, the game is on the road for the Bears, and LC-M is going to have to play some really good football in order win the game.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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