Cougars eye rebirth at start of conference
STAMPS, Ark.—Lafayette County may be winless early, but head coach Bobby Clark is certain his Cougars will regroup at the start of conference to make a strong playoff push.
“We’ve lost three heartbreakers to start the season,” Clark said. “We’ve been right there all three weeks, so we’re given ourselves a chance; we just have to figure out how to win.
“We’ve been in every ballgame, so we feel that we’re playing good. It’s conference play this week, so it’s definitely an opportunity for us to start off on the right foot.”
Junior quarterback Martavious Miller has connected four passes on 16 attempts through three
games this season. He also has thrown two touchdowns, along with two interceptions, to lead the Cougar offense. Miller has 189 yards on 36 carries and three touchdowns.
“Offensively, we’re still trying to find our identity with Martavious,” Clark said. “We’ve hinged everything on running the ball, but we are game planning to balance out our offense more. Everything we do offensively goes through Martavious, so he’s an integral part in our offense.”
Junior tailback Jaylyyn Anderson has led the Cougars’ ground attack this season. He has compiled 229 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns in three games.
“We have three guys right at or close to 2oo yards,” Clark said. “We haven’t been throwing the ball very well yet and we haven’t really tried to either. At times it looks good, but sometimes it gets shut down. We moved him around in our Power-I formation, and I think we found something there.
“You have to be able to pass a little bit when they start to slow the offense down, to keep them honest.”
Senior tailback Justin Brown has toted the rock 32 times for Lafayette County for 155 yards and two touchdowns.
“We moved Justin to our power back in our formation last week, and we had a lot of success in the second half. Our running backs are threats to break a big run at any given moment, and that’s what we’ve been missing.”
The Cougar defense has given up 111 points this season, while the offense has scored 77 points.
“We have to get lined up correctly on defense,” Clark said. “That’s our biggest obstacle at the moment, is kids not being in the right place. We feel once we get them in the right place and they know what they’re doing, we’re going to be all right.”