Wilmington will be riding a five-game win streak in to Friday night’s game with Western Brown.
The Broncos, 7-1 and ranked No. 5 in the latest Ohio prep football poll in Division III, will be the ultimate test for Ryan Evans’ Hurricane.
“Western Brown doesn’t make too many mistakes,” Evans said. “Drew Novak leads the way, averaging 50 points a game. Their defense and special teams both will play hard and aggressive.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday. Western Brown will be celebrating its Homecoming as well as Senior Night.
Scott Killen’s Hurricane played the Broncos pretty well the past five seasons, winning two of those games and losing the other three by 3, 4 and 21 points. Considering Western Brown scored 700 points last season, a three-touchdown loss isn’t bad at all.
While it is his first tour through the SBAAC as a head coach, Evans has faced the Broncos before. He coached Monroe to a 66-58 last season over Western Brown.
Despite the win, Evans was put through the ringer in that one.
“We were fortunate to win the game,” Evans said. “It was one of the hardest games I had coached to date and I coached in a state championship game.
“I expect that by coaching against them, it will help us in our approach from a scheme stand-point. Our boys still have to come ready to play and play for four quarters.”
Western Brown is well-known, and rightfully so, for its passing game with Novak but the Broncos will gash a defense on the ground with Zachery Chisman (130-770-17) and Novak (73-572-12).
Wilmington has had a dominant run game throughout the year, led by a bulldozing offense line. Thad Stuckey has 1,116 yards on the ground and Cadyn Denniston has 879 yards.
The Hurricane defense has been strong as well. Led by Darrick Perdue, Luke Achtermann, Chase Pickard, Malachi Cumberland, Wilmington has allowed less than 200 yards per game on average while giving up just under 13 points a game.
Despite the numbers on either side of the ball, Evans said his team’s success is simple.
“We have to do our job,” he said. “Alignment, assignment and play with the tough swag that we have all year. We have to play a clean football game. We have to win the turnover battle and eliminate bad penalties.
