Red Devils aim to shut down Indians

Mountain Pine may have had a narrow win against England a week ago, but everything is on the line tonight as the Red Devils travel to Indian Field to take on the Poyen Indians.

The Red Devils (4-4, 4-1 2A-5) took a 32-28 win over the Lions at home, and while head coach Sam Counce is grateful that his team pulled off the victory, he noted some mistakes that held the team back.

“We played a real good team,” he said. “We made some mistakes; we hurt ourselves a little bit with the interception and some fumbles, but England was fair. They did a good job against us. We were fortunate to come out of there with a 4-point victory, I thought, because of the way we played and what they did to us. They did a good job. England mostly had long runs. We had a few missed tackles.

“We were glad to get the win, and Collin [Smith] had a good game. We didn’t throw the ball very much, and when we did throw it, we didn’t throw it very good. We got some things we’ve got to clean up a little bit. Overall, I’m happy with the win.”

Smith rushed 310 yards on 24 carries to lead the Red Devils offense.

“He’s the usual suspect in that,” Counce said. “Kai Moore came back and played outside linebacker for us, and he led the team with eight tackles, and he did a good job on defense. Josiah Walpole always does a good job, and our defensive line were strong, too.”

To establish improved groundwork, Counce had his team polish up on its defensive output in the past couple of days.

“We went back after the England game and did some open field tackles and worked on tackling pretty good,” he said. “We had a good practice yesterday [Tuesday]. Today was wet, but we still went outside and threw around the ball, tried to play with a wet ball and get kind of acclimated to what we may have Friday night. I don’t think it’s supposed to rain, but I think the ground will be wet still Friday night.”

Last year, the Red Devils cruised to a 63-28 win over Poyen (7-1, 4-1).

“It was a very exciting game,” Counce said. “They returned a kickoff on us. It was a high impact game. It was a lot of fun. They threw the ball around. We were playing well, and it was just a really good high school game. We beat ‘em. They’re 7-1 right now, so they’re a good football team. We’re gonna have to play a really good game and not make any mistakes to be able to compete with them.”

Counce brought up some ways the Indians have tweaked their offense as well as players his Red Devils have to watch.

“They run the ball a lot more than you’d kinda think than what they did last year a little bit,” he said. “They tried to throw it around a little bit last year. This year, they’ve really tried to focus on running the ball, and they get in some heavy sets. We’ve just tried to make sure we’ve been able to account for everything they do on offense.

“They’ve got a tailback, [junior Brandon] Sanchez; he does a really good job of getting wide open. They’ve put in about seven yards back in the backfield and by the time he’s in his third step, he’s wide open. He takes off. We’ll have to make sure we do a good job with the head up and tackling him, and their quarterback [junior Jaxson Carter], he’s good. He does a good job running the offense for ‘em. They’re Poyen, and they’ll get at you. They’ve got good size and good speed.”

The Red Devils have a full team dressing out, and Counce expects his guys to show up ready to play hard.

“We can’t get behind like we’ve done before,” he said. “Previously, we’d give up a touchdown in their first drive. We’ve got to come out and attack them and go after ‘em. We’d better come out and play hard early and get after them because if we don’t, we’ll be chasing ‘em.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Indian Field.