The West Orange-Stark Mustangs prepared for this week’s season opener with a scrimmage against the Nederland Bulldogs and a combined scrimmage against Bridge City and Vidor. Coach Cornel Thompson believes the Mustangs showed improvement in the final warm-up with the Cardinals and Pirates which both run the Slot-T offense as now do their first opponent this week the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears.
Thompson says the Mustangs are fortunate to face the Slot-T in scrimmages and in the season opener since they will face it again three or four times during the regular season especially in the district games. He thinks LC-M will do better with the new offense, and Coach Randy Crouch will do a good job of coaching the Bears how to run it. Thompson predicts other teams will have to deal with the Bears in their district.
West Orange-Stark will counter with the Spread Offense, and Coach Thompson looks for his quarterback Jack Dallas to distribute the football behind a youthful offensive line. Thompson admits that West Orange-Stark is still working on building an offensive line. He says they are trying to get their best combination with the best five getting to see the most playing time. A couple or three young linemen got better during the course of the week between scrimmages so the line is starting to take shape.
From the Spread Thompson hopes to spread the football around. He wants to start with running the ball, and the offensive line will dictate how successful that is done. The coach has a good group of small, but quick and athletic receivers which Thompson is counting on to be targets for Dallas to throw to off of play-action this Friday night.
The Orange Bowl will kick off the season for the Mustangs. Coach Thompson is counting on his team’s conditioning to gain a win against the Bears. Thompson observes that teams make multiple mistakes in the opening game and a team has to win two-thirds of the contest in the offensive, defensive, and kicking games. Thompson is concerned with the Mustangs’ kicking game which has been very poor to this point, and that leaves West Orange-Stark having to win both the offensive and defensive phases. He points out the Mustangs are facing a team in LC-M with a new offense and a new defensive front also, and Thompson thinks his team’s conditioning and the whole 48 minutes of effort by the Mustangs will determine the outcome of the contest.
The West Orange-Stark Mustangs play the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears Friday night at Dan R. Hooks Stadium and live on KOGT.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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