After the celebration and congratulations for the school’s four hundredth victory, the West Orange-Stark Mustangs had their bye. Coach Cornel Thompson reviewed the injury list and what the Mustangs did during the open week. Injuries from the historic game two weeks ago were minor and have healed over with the bye. The coaches emphasized a bunch of one-on-one workouts and the practices were held outdoors with the improving weather. Thompson looks to this week, “Coming off that open date we could reset, refocus, and we’re fixing to play the Hardin-Jefferson Hawks Friday night.”
Hardin-Jefferson runs an offense that Thompson and the Mustangs are very familiar with seeing. Coach Dwayne DuBois has moved back to Hardin-Jefferson from Bridge City and has brought the Slot-T Offense with him. The Hawks are going to try to run the football on the Mustangs’ defense. “We’ve got to do something about their run, if we don’t stop the run we’re not going to see any passes at all,” Thompson advised.
DuBois has thrown the ball more this season than he did during his first term at Hardin-Jefferson or at Bridge City. He has a junior quarterback Westen Nugent to lead the offense. The Hawks will shift out of the Slot-T and use the I-Formation with a converted lineman Christian Bowie at tailback. Thompson said Bowie at 225 pounds is a big load to bring down when he has the football.
The Hawks rely on their ball control offense to keep the ball out of the hands of the opposition. Coach Thompson evaluated the Hardin-Jefferson defense. The Hawks are a 4-2-5 defense or maybe a 4-3 when they line up. They swarm the ball pretty good.
Bowie is a stalwart on defense at one defensive end. At the other end is a converted offensive lineman Michael McIntosh. He is a big youngster too at 6-6 and 240 pounds. The Hawks thus have two impressive bookend defensive ends. Thompson analyzed, “We’re going to have to deal with those two on the edges because there won’t be any outside game unless we do.”
There are still three district games remaining, and Thompson knows West Orange-Stark needs to focus on each one a week at a time to add more wins to their impressive total. The coach believes the players and coaches have come back to earth in the almost two weeks since the highlight of the four hundredth win in the five hundredth game in the school’s history.
The district record is 1-0 for West Orange-Stark with that victory over district rival Silsbee two weeks ago. Coach Thompson refuses to allow the Mustangs to look any further down the road then Sour Lake on Friday. “The only people we’re talking about are the Hardin-Jefferson Hawks and we’ve got to go take care of our business on the road,” Thompson concluded.
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