Lions face Beavers in tough 3A-5 battle
JESSIEVILLE — Jessieville has plenty of experience against tonight’s foe, having played in the same conference for many years, but head coach T.J. Burk is not letting familiarity get the best of his team.
The Glen Rose Beavers (2-1) are often right at the top of the table by the time the season reaches Week
10, so the Lions know that they have their work cut out for them.
“It’s always a big game,” Burk said. “Usually no matter what conference we’re in, they’re usually towards the top. They’re one of the ones that you’ve got to beat if you want to be up there.”
The Beavers and Lions (1-2) both moved back to the 3A-5 this year after a two-year stint in the
3A-4, so Jessieville knows what to expect, especially when it comes to
6-1, 160-pound senior quarterback Wesley Launius.
“He was an All State kid last year,” Burk noted. “And he’s back. We’ve got to do a good job of containing him and not letting him hurt us will his feet.”
While the Beavers tend to try to keep a balanced attack, Burk said that between Launius’ feet and a couple stout receivers, the Lions’ defense has plenty to do this week.
“They’re pretty balanced as far as run-pass,” he explained. “He can throw it, and they’ve got some receivers that’ll go out and make plays. But he’s scary when he takes off. He can hurt you with his legs.”
In order to combat that, the Lions’ defense has spent the week focusing on keeping the quarterback in the pocket and making solid tackles.
“We watched it on film,” Burk said, referencing the team’s 46-28 loss to Dierks last week. “There’s a lot of mistakes that we made, and we missed some opportunities. And we’ve hopefully corrected those mistakes and can carry that over into Friday night.”
The Lions have had the second highest output from their offense compared to the rest of the 3A5, having scored 97 points. Glen Rose leads the conference with 104 points with Prescott (2-0) having scored 94. Jessieville has allowed 95 points so far this season, with just Bismarck (1-2) and Horatio (0-3) having given up more.
“We’re trying to shore up our defense,” Burk said. “We’ve got to be able to get off the field defensively, so that we can get the ball back. Go put some points on the board.”
While the Beavers are the first conference foe the Lions will face this season, Burk is telling his players to keep focused on just one game at a time.
“It’s just the one game at a time approach,” he said. “You can’t really think about anything else other than the game that you’ve got on Friday night, so we just will take it one game at a time from here on out.”
The Lions are in fairly good health, Burk said.
“We’re pretty good,” he said. “We’ve got a couple kids that are banged up, but I believe we’ll have everybody for (Friday) night.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.