New Boston, Queen City face off tonight
One team hopes to continue its win streak and the other hopes to find the keys to rekindle their winning ways at New Boston’s Lion Stadium tonight.
Host New Boston puts its unblemished 4-0 record on the line against 3-1 Queen City, which fell out the undefeated list after last week’s 49-7 loss at Waskom.
But wait there’s more at stake than win-loss records.
Tonight’s game acts as the District 8-2A, Division I opener for both teams. Where the winning team gains a slice of first place and puts itself in a better position of earning a state playoff berth.
While preparation for the showdown between the two teams has been intense, both teams’ head coaches feel their squad is ready for the challenge.
“Our kids know how important district games are, so we’re going to come out and do the things that we do,” said New Boston head coach Jamey Thomas.
“What we have to do is go in there and play a much better game than we did last week,” said Queen City’s Eric Droddy. “That would be a big confidence boost for our kids.”
A concern of Thomas’ is how to defend Queen City quarterback Drew Davenport, which Droddy redesigned his offensive scheme to take greater advantage of his athletic skills.
“(Davenport) is a good player. Queen City will line up in a pistol and in a pro set,” Thomas said. “I’ve seen them on film and they will run the ball quite a bit. But they will throw it because (Davenport) can run and throw. We have to pay attention to that, be disciplined and be where we’re suppose to be defensively.”
“We tried to design our offense to allow Drew to read more and make more runs on his own. Its been good for him,” Droddy said of the senior quarterback.
What bothers the Bulldogs’ coach the most about the team’s offense has been penalties.
“We need to cut out the silly penalties that have killed good drives that we’ve had,” he said. “Last week we had a couple of good drives against Waskom and then we had a couple of big penalties that set us back.
When it comes to New Boston, Droddy said the Lions have a tremendous size advantage.
“They are a lot bigger and more physical than any team we’ve faced so far,” he said. “So we have to run away from them. The problem is they’re everywhere.”