Cordele —
By HARVEY SIMPSON
Dispatch Sports Editor
CORDELE — Hoping their third attempt to enter the victory column in 2010 will bring an improvement in their football luck, Crisp Academy’s Wildcats play host Friday night to a foe that already owns a win.
Coming to town to take on the local private school gridders will be John Hancock’s Rebels who after opening the season with an 18-14 victory over Fullington, dropped a 34-0 decision last Friday to Gatewood.
“I’ve seen films of both those games and it’s pretty obvious that they’ve got a good little quarterback (Evan Butcher) and a pretty quick running back, No. 3, who can go the distance on you if he gets outside,” first-year Crisp Academy head coach Jerry Breeden said.
“Up front, they’re what I’d call average size although they do have one big kid, No. 66, who plays a guard position on offense and lines up at a tackle slot on defense.”
Breeden, who describes the Rebels “about like us depth-wise as they dress 18 kids to our 17,” pointed out that the thing that impresses him most about this week’s opponent is its ability to control the football.
“They’re mostly power with a little finesse thrown in to try and take advantage of their good overall speed,” Breeden said. “They’re about 50-50 in their pass-to-run ratio .
“When they stay on the ground, they like to try and spring their little speed demon, No. 3, outside or give it to their big (180-185-pound) fullback for the tough yardage inside.”
When it comes to defense, Breeden said John Hancock employs a 5-2 front from which it mainly reads opposing blockers before reacting to the play unfolding in front of them.
“They’re pretty sound on that side of the football where they’ll sometimes stunt and send their linebackers to try and blow up plays. Overall, I’d say they appear to be more geared to stop the run than the pass.”
The topic of conversation shifting to the Wildcats’ camp, Breeden said that in order for his team to rebound from losses to Covenant (26-14) and Nathaniel Greene (44-14) it has to drastically curb penalties and turnovers.
“We’ve got to quit hurting ourselves with 15-yard penalties and fumbles or interceptions. Improvement in those areas hopefully will allow us to put some drives together and get the ball in the end zone more than twice in a game, which is something we haven’t done to date.”
Crisp and John Hancock last met each other on the gridiron in 2005 when the Wildcats posted a fourth straight victory over the Rebels to trim their series deficit to five wins and eight losses.
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