Physicality, consistency the Lancer formula Friday
LAKEVILLE - Laville’s Lancers (6-2) were able to break through a week ago in a win at Culver thanks to their offense for a change.
In a game of classic smash-mouth football, Laville capitalized on a balanced attack to beat the ground and pound of the Cavaliers and their ‘Double tight T’.
“I’m going to be honest with you, trying to defend that stuff is miserable,” said Laville coach Will Hostrawser of the Culver offense. “We were lucky we found some offense and moved the ball consistently.”
Finding some success in the passing game was the key to success.
“That’s one thing that we have not been good at all in, our passing attack, and very, very inconsistent,” said Hostrawser. “We felt we could hit some intermediate passes and kind of open up some things in our running game. That was our game plan and we ended up scoring throwing the ball twice on our first drive.”
They may need to score on every drive this Friday as round one playoff opponent Rochester (5-2) comes in looking like the Zebras of old, averaging 34 points a game and giving up just 16.
“They put up a lot of points,” said Hostrawser. “This year they play with a whole new confidence, a whole new swagger. They play very physical. They play very fast. We are going to have our hands full. We have to figure out a way to stop that offensive juggernaut of theirs. They’ve put up 100 points in their last two games. They know how to get in the end zone.”
The offensive scheme of the Zebras is nothing new to Laville. The Wing T, the same offense perfected by Pioneer, is the choice of Rochester.
“A lot of misdirection with a very physical line up front,” said Hostrawser. “They can sting you with traps right up the middle, they can sting you with power. They have a good jet package and toss package to get outside. You have to figure out where they are going and guess right once or twice and get in their way.”
The offense will be familiar and the path to a win will also be a familiar one for an HNAC school.
“The big thing in this game is going to be physicality,” said Hostrawser. “I think we really need to play physical in order to compete on both sides of the ball. We have to win the special teams battle because field position is going to be very important in this one. The biggest thing is that we have to improve on the consistency of execution on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve gotten a little bit better, but we have to string a couple games together.”