The first district win of the year for Orangefield was last week against Liberty. The Bobcats evened their district record at 1-1 with the victory.
Coach Josh Smalley evaluated the 14-6 triumph for Orangefield as a good one against a quality opponent. The Bobcats’ defense played well holding the Panthers to just six points. Offensively, Orangefield started out of the gate well before kind of stalling out in the second half.
The Bobcats held on to get a victory. Smalley expressed, “I’m excited about that, and now we get to move forward and move on to this week.”
This Friday the Bobcats face West Orange-Stark. The Mustangs operate from the Spread on offense. Smalley said they are equally adept throwing the football as running it. The Mustangs like to spread the field to get their skilled players in space and take advantage of their speed and quickness.
The passing game for West Orange-Stark features the deep ball and the short patterns that allows their receivers to run with it after the catch. Quarterback Jerren Terrell leads the district in passing. Terrell has thrown for 764 yards with ten touchdowns and no interceptions.
Leading receivers for the Mustangs are Jayson Ziegler and Jalen Thompson who tied for second in the district with eleven catches apiece. The dynamic duo is leading the district in yards per catch.
Elijah Gales and Jamaal Shaw provide a one-two rushing punch that is hard to stop. Gales is averaging over 12 yards a carry with four touchdowns. Shaw has 218 yards on the ground for two scores. Ziegler has also figured in the running game with three rushing touchdowns.
Opponents attempting to stop the Mustangs from passing the football will be susceptible to the West Orange-Stark running attack, and the reverse is true if defenses try to load up the box against the run. “It’s a very, very scary offense to try to defend with a lot of speed on the field, so we’ve got a challenge ahead of us,” Smalley admitted.
West Orange-Stark has played the 50 defense throughout the school’s existence and thus are very good with it stopping opposing offenses. The Mustangs believe in the defensive formation and run it well.
Coach Smalley identified the leaders on the Mustangs’ defensive unit are the two inside linebackers. Tyrone Brown is committed to play college football at Baylor. He has started for West Orange-Stark since his sophomore season.
Not to be overshadowed is Kaiden Berry at the other inside backer position. Smalley stated Berry was all over the field in the last Mustangs’ game against Silsbee making tackles.
Floyd Mouton is the noseguard for West Orange-Stark and is the leader of a very strong defensive front line. All of the Mustangs are very aggressive, and according to Smalley it looks like they are playing with 14 or 15 players on defense.
It is well recognized that West Orange-Stark takes a lot of pride in its district leading defense. Smalley advised, “They’re going to stack the box on us to stop the run obviously since there’s no secret what we’re going to try to do so it’s a challenge offensively to move the ball on those guys.”
Orangefield comes into the game as a definite underdog. Coach Smalley points out the goal is always to win the game that’s why they compete, that’s why they practice, that’s why they play, and promises the Bobcats will compete for 48 minutes.
The Bobcats want to control the ball offensively and shorten the game while keeping the Mustangs’ offense off the field. “There’s a lot of teams that have played these guys and had the same goals we’ve got which did not come out well for them sometimes, it is easier said than done. The main thing I want to see our kids do is go compete and play hard, if we can do that then I’ll be happy,” Smalley concluded.
Friday’s game between the Orangefield Bobcats and the West Orange-Stark Mustangs will be carried live on KOGT. The kickoff is at 7:30 PM on Friday.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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