East Clinton football coach Steven Olds expects a throw-back football game Friday night when Williamsburg visits Lees Creek.
Each team has two ground gainers in the top eight in SBAAC statistics this season.
“Both of us want to run the ball and take shots, there is no debate about that,” said Olds. “It’s going to be a physical, old fashioned football game.”
Kickoff at East Clinton is set for 7 p.m. Friday night. Since re-joining the SBAAC, East Clinton has won three of the last four meetings with Williamsburg, including a 22-20 thriller last season.
Williamsburg’s duo of Trystan Gries and Trent Bocks has combined for 1,426 yards and 21 touchdowns on the ground.
Jared Smith and Isaiah Conger have combined for 1,158 yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground.
“Williamsburg has good size and a couple good running backs of their own,” said Olds. “They want to run the ball and take shots off of play action, so we will need to be physical upfront and have great eye discipline in the secondary.
“It helps to have three very capable backs in Isaiah, Glenn (Peacock), and Jared. We played the Minford game without Isaiah because of a quarantine and Glenn had been banged up the last couple of weeks, so having both back healthy makes a huge difference and takes some of the pressure off of Jared.”
East Clinton is coming off a 35-27 win over Fayetteville, a team Williamsburg defeated two weeks ago 49-28. EC got the win despite a 425-yard, 4-touchdown performance by Rocket quarterback Levi Wiederhold.
“Fayetteville’s passing game is as good as it gets on our schedule,” Olds said. “So we knew they were going to make some plays and get their yards. The key, we felt, was to try and get pressure on the QB and in the second half our defense was able to do that. It ended up being the difference in the game. In the second half we did a better job of breaking down and forcing him to throw on the move. If he gets time to stand back there in a clean pocket, then has the ability to pick you apart.”
The Wildcats were defeated last week 49-13 by Blanchester.
Olds said WHS runs a defense his team doesn’t see often to preparation will be key. In addition, with the running game such a big part of both team’s gameplan, Olds said every player on the team doing his job decide the game.
“It’s going to be imperative that our defensive backs don’t get caught looking into the backfield (to stop the run),” said the EC coach. “Everybody on the field will need to do their 1/11th and trust that their teammates will do their jobs as well.”
