Wolves, Leopards set for physical battle
Coming off a bye week after a season-opening win against rival Lakeside, Lake Hamilton travels to Malvern to take on the Leopards Friday night.
Lake Hamilton head coach Tommy Gilleran said his players are rested and ready to go after the bye week following the high energy rivalry game with the Rams.
“It’s actually been a blessing for our kids that we can have a week to kind of decompress from all the hoopla from that game,” he said. “So it’s actually been a good thing for us then we get refocused for Malvern.”
Both teams play a ground and pound style of football as both the Wolves (1-0) and Leopards (1-0) boast three threatening rushers.
Lake Hamilton’s Tevin Hughes, Kendrick Martin and Owen Miller combined for 291 yards on the ground and five touchdowns against Lakeside.
“Who knows who’s going to get the yards?” Gilleran said. “I expect a good output by them. They each block for each other, they each run hard and they carry out fakes. I expect the same expectation as we did against Lakeside.”
On the other side, Malvern’s quarterback Cedric Simmons and running backs Barrett Watson and Jalen Dupree registered 299 rushing yards and four touchdowns against Glen Rose.
“Offensively they have a quarterback (Simmons) that’s been offered by some Division I colleges, so we know he’s a handful,” Gilleran said. “Then they’ve got some good running backs back there. They have a Division I offensive lineman. But he’s still young, and that’s probably one of the weaknesses he has. He’s really big. I can’t imagine, when he quits growing, how good he’s going to be because he’s so big right now.”
Although Simmons only threw the ball six times in Malvern’s season opener, the junior quarterback has 3,221 passing yards in his career so if needed, he can make an impact through the air.
Malvern head coach JD Plumlee gave Simmons the starting job his freshman year, and Simmons has looked comfortable ever since.
“Any moment should not be too big for him,” Plumlee said. “He can beat you with his arm, and he can beat you with his legs. One thing that he’s got is God-gifted ability, he’s able to extend plays and put pressure on you that way. And he did that a couple of times Friday night. You know, it was a pass and protection broke down, he just extended it.”
Plumlee emphasized that his team is playing two classifications up on Friday night when the Class 4A Leopards take on the Class 6A Wolves.
Conditioning could become a factor late in the game for Malvern with many players playing on both sides of the ball. The Leopards also field a lot of young players.
“I looked out there Friday night in the second half on defense, and there were a couple times we had 10 sophomores on the field playing football Week One,” Plumlee said. “That’s nerve wracking, but it’s also fun to watch those guys grow.”
Although Malvern ran the ball heavily against Glen Rose, look for a more balanced offensive performance Friday night.
“We’ve got to be able to flip the scripts some,” Plumlee said. “We’ve got to be able to throw the ball on first down and stay ahead of the chains. And then we’ve got to be able to, you know, mix up and run on third down and be able to extend drives, you know, get it
with our legs.”
The two non-conference foes play each other on a regular basis, and Malvern actually led Lake Hamilton 16-14 at halftime of last season’s game.
“I mean it’s high school football, and anything can happen,” Plumlee said. “We’re gonna go battle you and fight and scrap and claw until the wheels have blown. You know, that’s kind of something we try to ingrain in our guys daily about who cares about how big they are, who cares how fast they are. Let’s just go hit ‘em and see what happens.”
The Wolves pulled away in the second half to win 35-16 last year.
“We have to get them locked in,” Gilleran said. “They always do some things different we’re not used to. Usually they run a lot against Glen Rose then they play us and throw it a lot, so we’ve got to adjust to whatever they’re doing.”
Lake Hamilton is a team with aspirations to return to the state championship game this season after an 11-2 run, so Gilleran is preparing his team for a battle each and every week.
“I kind of put that game (Lakeside) behind us and said, ‘Hey, you know each week we have to play a great game because everybody’s going to be out for us this year,’” he said. “In the past we’ve kind of been low key, and nobody really knew, but now people know we’ve been pretty good. Each team’s going to give us the best.”
Kickoff at Malvern’s Claude Mann Stadium is set for 7 p.m.
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