Running games power JC, Foreman
As Junction City coach Steven Jones and Foreman coach Mark King get their respective teams ready for Friday’s showdown in the 2A state semifinals, there are some names that are being firmly ingrained for their defenses to remember.
In Junction City’s case, trying to slow down the Gators’ ground attack headed by senior quarterback Kyren Batey and junior Robbie Smith is a top priority.
The duo has combined for over 2,000 yards rushing between them with each averaging over 10 yards per carry with Smith averaging an astonishing 17 yards per carry this season.
For Foreman, containing the one-two punch of junior running back Jakiron Cook and senior running back Dhante Gibson is a major focal point for the Gators.
The twosome has combined for 2,355 yards and 34 touchdowns on the ground.
Both of these teams are trying to reach the state finals for the second straight year.
Junction City reached the 3A state finals, while Foreman captured the 2A state crown.
Batey, the MVP of last year’s state finals, has
been dominant over the Gators’ last three games, tallying 645 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.
“Kyren Batey is an elite player,” Jones said of the Foreman quarterback. “He’s had a great year and a great senior campaign. We’ve got to find ways to stop him.”
When asked what was it about Batey that makes him so tough to defend, Jones said it was his speed.
“He gets from zero to 60 in a hurry,” Jones said. “If you give him a step or a crease, he’s going to take it to the house. He’s very fast. Having two guys on him at all times is something that we need to try to do.”
Smith, who had 112 yards, including a 90-yard run against Magazine in the second round of the playoffs, has emerged as a big-play threat for the Gators.
“He’s a guy that can make plays,” Jones said. “He’s another guy that like Batey, you’ve got to keep him bottled up and contained. Neither of those guys are just great runners between the tackles, but if they get outside the tackle box, they can put on a show.
“Keeping those guys bottled up is something we’ve got to do. They’re explosive and they have a chance to take it to the house every time they snap the ball. We’ve got to be ready to play. We’ve got to be focused.”
Like Batey, Gibson has been very consistent.
The senior has seven games with 100 or more yards this season, including five with over 140 yards over the last six games.
Cook had 138 yards on just eight carries in the Dragons’ win over Mountainburg in the second round of the playoffs, and King said the two teams mirror each other with their powerful running attacks.
“It’s kind of like us. It’s a two-headed monster,” King said. “If you key on one of them, the other one is going to kill you. We’ve just got to read our keys, attack, be very physical up front, don’t get blown off the ball and be good tacklers. That’s the whole thing. We’ve got to keep them running east and west and not let them get north and south. They’re so explosive. They’re hard runners, and the first guy usually doesn’t bring them down. We’ve got to gang tackle. They have several back there that can hurt you.”
Heading into the season, Gibson was expected to be the lead running back, but Cook forced his way into the picture.
“Those two guys being a one-two punch is what made Dhante better,” Jones said. “Going into his senior year, Dhante was slated to be the guy to take over, but Jakiron has been right there pushing him.
“The competition that was there early created a lot of effort, and Dhante had to really just decide that he was going to be the guy. Through this final stretch of the season, he has.
“He’s run the ball extremely hard. He’s run the ball between the tackles very explosively. He’s done a good job. I can only remember one turnover from Dhante in the last seven games. He’s just been very sharp for us. He’s a guy that’s leading us into the last two weeks of the season.”
Although Gibson and Cook certainly are a formidable duo in the backfield, Jones said he doesn’t worry about substituting them on offense to give them a rest for defense.
“That’s not really something we think about much,” Jones said. “We just try to play as hard as we can. If we notice that one of those guys needs a blow, we try to get another one in. We try to do a good job of rotating on both sides of the ball. Keeping them fresh, I don’t think that’s something that we’re really mindful of. We just want them to play as hard as they can for as long as they can.”
Batey got hurt during the Gators’ loss at Mineral Springs, but the senior is healthy and ready for Friday’s showdown with the Dragons.
“He’s fine,” King said. “I think it scared him more than anything. He kind of hyper-extended, twisted his knee in the first half. I played him in the second half, but I didn’t run him very much, more or less just handed the ball off and ran the tosses with him.
“He was fine the very next week. He’s been 100 percent. He didn’t have to play very much the next week with the team that we played, so we got to rest him.”
Since then, Batey has been on a roll.
“He’s one of those kids that comes to play in big games,” King said. “He always shows up and has great games in big games. Everybody is out to stop him. We run the triple option, and people are giving us a lot of give reads to try make him give up the football, but we have a bunch of design stuff where he runs the ball even out of the option look. He’s a dynamic player. He’s one of those kids that on Friday night, he shows up to play.
“The good thing about him is it’s not about him. He’s not a me, me, me guy. That’s what I like about him. Early in the season, I was having to tell him, ‘Hey, keep the ball when you need to keep it.’ He was trying to distribute the ball too much because he was worried about what people would think. He was trying to do it all himself. I told him to just take what the defense gives you, and he’s done a good job with that. He’s a dynamic player on both sides of the ball.”
Smith is back after missing last year due to health problems.
“He’s another speed guy,” King said. “We didn’t have him last year. He was having some heart issues last year. He spent a lot of time in Children’s (Hospital), but luckily, they ran a lot of tests and did some things. They did a couple of surgeries, and it wound up not being his heart, so we got him back healthy this year.
“In the past five weeks, he’s really turned it on. He’s probably returned four punts for touchdowns for us. He’s another guy that when he touches it, he can go to the house. He’s not very big.
“He’s probably 5-7 and 155 pounds, but he runs extremely fast and physical. He’s hard to hit hard. He’s got great moves. He’s been a spark to our offense since we got him back.”
So how will the Dragons try to slow down the Gators? Jones said his defense must know where Batey will be at.
“The plan is to play our base defense and just continue to do what we do on that side of the ball,” Jones said. “We need to know our option responsibilities. We won’t change anything up, but we’ll know where he’s at at all times.”