Weeks of workouts and two scrimmages have been done to get ready for this Friday night which is the start of the football season. Head Coach Randy Crouch of the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears analyzed the Bears in getting ready for the start of the season having been practicing well, working hard to improve, and he feels it has been beneficial for this week’s season opener.
Crouch and the coaches will be looking at the tapes of the two scrimmages to try to identify mistakes and be able to rectify them in the first game. Unfortunately, injury hit the Bears’ Ethan McKay who will have surgery on his knee this week. Otherwise all the other varsity players should be ready to go.
The first opponent for Little Cypress-Mauriceville is state ranked Woodville in Class 3A, Division I which Coach Crouch reminds played the Bears last season following Tropical Storm Harvey. The Eagles made it to the second round of the playoffs last season and return many of those players.
The coach said the Eagles are conservative, but very consistent on offense. They use a Double Wing and like to run the football inside the tackles. Running back Zach Martin carried the ball for over 1400 yards last season and scored 18 touchdowns. At another running back is Michael Brooks. He rushed for over one thousand yards.
Woodville runs a power offense behind a big offensive line and tries to ware out opponents by pounding the football. The Eagles will throw the ball as a change of pace. Crouch emphasizes, “We’ve got to be able to stop the run and be strong enough defensively to slow them down up inside.”
Their ball control offense may be their best defense, but Coach Crouch added the Eagles are solid defensively too. Woodville returns six starters on defense. The Eagles use a four-man front on defense which they will move around to show different looks. With usually five defensive backs they give some man-to-man pass defense and some zone pass coverage.
The leader on defense is linebacker Marcos Broom who led in tackles with 111. Kobe Adams at the other linebacker position had 93 tackles and six sacks for Woodville last year. Martin also stars in the Eagle secondary with 93 tackles and two interceptions.
This is week one of the eleven-week regular season. Crouch identified what he wants to see from the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears in the first game against Woodville. Mistakes in the early games are usually a problem Crouch points out and usually teams give away games early in the season rather than the other team outplaying them. The Bears want to avoid mistakes especially turnovers in this contest.
First downs will be a key on both sides of the football. The Bears need to avoid penalties or negative yardage to put the behind the chains. The same is true when LC-M is on defense as Woodville thrives on time consuming drives which means the Bears must be able to stop them on first down.
The kicking game will be important, but it will come down to blocking and tackling by the Bears to gain the victory. “Hopefully, we can do those things and I think if we can do that we always have a chance to win,” Crouch concluded.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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