Teams with different styles but similar results face off at Laville
LAKEVILLE — COVID may have taken away the HNAC naming a conference champion but if it were still on the table Friday’s game between Laville and North Judson would certainly have been a red-letter date.
Breezing through the season so far unbeaten, the Lancers had to fight for their lives in a rivalry game with Glenn a week ago, but they survived to fight another day.
“We are very fortunate,” said Laville head coach Will Hostrawser. “Our kids have found some things and been going in the right direction. We had a little bit of Lady Luck with us last Friday and made some plays when we needed to so hopefully that keeps going.”
Laville has shown resilience from day one with the Pandemic taking away the first part of their season, but since returning to the field they have been on a mission averaging just under 30 points a game and allowing only 11.
“Our kids responded really well to the challenges we had coming off the quarantine period,” said Hostrawser. “Our kids really put their nose to the
grindstone, they understand that we don’t have a lot of depth, we have a lot of guys playing in all three phases of the game and they’ve responded well.”
North Judson will come to Lakeville with a 6- 1 record and a three-game winning streak with very similar offensive and defensive numbers to the Lancers.
“Coach Lambert does a fantastic job,” said Hostrawser. “You know
they are going to run the wishbone or a form of it. They are very physical. They will hit you with everything that they have and they have some good perimeter speed.”
“First and foremost you have to stop their running game and their power running game,” he said. “They have a couple of the best players in the conference. Cheyanne Allen is a very good running back and he’s only a sophomore and
Eli Blunt is another one that stands out.”
Hostrawser has some good players of his own and a number of ways to utilize them.
“One of the nice things about this ball club is that we have a lot of different weapons we can use in a variety of ways,” said Hostrawser. “We are going to sling the ball around. That’s really what we do but the run sets that up.”
“We have to find some consistency. A week ago I thought we moved the ball really well until we got to the red zone and we stalled out.”
“The kids have played really well on the (defensive) side of the ball,” he said. “That’s been our M.O. We’ve always played solid defense here, if the other team can’t score they can’t win. It’s not rocket science.”
“We always try to get nine to 11 guys in the frame when the tackle is made,” said Hostrawser. “Our guys take a lot of pride in that and they get graded on that. Each week they try to better their scores.”
With a lot of things equal there is one thing for certain in the Lancers favor.
“Playing here you know your routines, your locker room,” said Hostrawser. “There is definitely a level of comfort playing here.”