Shawnee Drops Dixie

Dixie hung tough with the Shawnee Arrows for about 2 and half quarters on Friday night.  Both teams run a spread offense and the slick conditions in the drizzling rain made it tough for either team to get their offenses in gear during the early going.  And at half time it was almost a stalemate with Shawnee holding a narrow 6-0 lead.  But a young Dixie team with a lot of players going both ways on offense and defense gradually wore down, allowing Shawnee to overwhelm the Greyhounds in the second half.

Dixie actually had good field position in the first half. Their defense was stingy and their special teams were more effective on punts – as both teams had many 3 and outs in the early going.  Shawnee started most of their first half drives in their own territory, while Dixie had a short field.  Dixie gained the Shawnee 30 yard line twice in the first half and thanks to a Devin Worley to Justin Leonard pass – they were in scoring position at the 8 yard line of Shawnee.  But in all three cases, Shawnee’s defense held firm and denied Dixie the end zone.

Shawnee finally made the decision to keep things simple in the poor conditions.  They began running the ball in between the tackles. Mixing in an occasional pass to keep the Dixie defense honest. And their offense is a no huddle offense, meaning that Dixie’s defense was not getting much of a breather in between plays.  Dixie’s offense was not moving the ball well, so the defensive players didn’t have much recovery time on the sidelines before they were back to the grind.  This paid dividends when at the 7:26 mark of the second quarter they scored to capture the lead.  And this would continue to be their strategy in the second half.

Surprisingly there were no turnovers in the first half. Sometimes weather can be an equalizer – the underdog team gets a fumble or mishandled pass and momentum can change.  But fate was not kind to the Greyhounds.  After holding Shawnee and forcing a punt – it was muffed deep in Dixie territory.  A few plays later, Shawnee scored and the air seemed to go out of Dixie’s sails.  Two scores down and under dismal conditions.  When it rains, it pours – with the running game almost non-existent, Dixie was forced to take to the air.  Luke Lovely had two interceptions including a pick six.  The turnovers gave Shawnee great field advantage. What had been a close game turned into a rout as Shawnee rolled in the second half for a 38-0 victory. 

Coach Watson commented after the game, “We played well with them in the first half.  And I told them at halftime that in a close game like this that the team that makes a mistake can lose this game. Unfortunately we were the ones that made a mistake and Shawnee took advantage.  We are a young team – starting a lot of freshmen and sophomores.  So when we got down, the wheels seemed to fall off and we couldn’t get our momentum back. Their hurry up offense was a factor to a degree. We wore down in the second half.”

Justin Leonard:  “He had some good catches tonight that gave our offense a little spark. He is generally a possession type receiver, so he gets short yardage passes.  But tonight he gave us some yardage that helped move the ball. “

South Keeps Rolling

The South season keeps rolling along in winning fashion.  This week the opponent was the Bethel Bee’s who feature an option offense.  But the Panther defense pounced on the Bee’s and held them scoreless.  The offense was slow to get going in the wet weather but by games end the score was 31 -0 in favor of the Panthers.  This makes South 6-0 on the year.

Sammy Shockey got the first score of the night when he ripped loose a 20 yard run in the first quarter. Then Jacob Bassler ran in a blocked punt for a second score.  JJ Utz pulled in a 40 yard TD pass from Wes Cole to end the first half scoring.  Cole would be 5 for 6 passing on the night.  Wes Cole ran for a 4 yard touchdown and JJ Utz put the last points on the board for the Panthers with a respectable 28 yard field goal – keeping his perfect record on field goals intact.

Coach Cates on the game, “We came out playing our brand of defense and they played lights out.  Everyone is flying to the football and that is important on an option team. We got good field postion on special teams.   Our kicker, JJ Utz, helped give us that good field postion and he has also done well on extra points and field goals this season.  The offense moved the ball well on the ground and were very efficient when we passed.  But Bethel played pretty hard, they fought all the way – I am glad to be able to come out on top.”

Covington:  “I am glad we played two option teams going in to play Covington because they run the option very well.  They also run it out of some different formations, so we have to prepare for that as well.  Those kids play very hard, and they go into every game believing that they are going to win.  They are a younger team this year, but they are still very sound and play extremely hard.  We have not beat them since 1999, so that gives us some motivation. “

Three teams undefeated in the CCC:  “It is great for the conference that we did so well in our out of conference games – it makes our conference look that much better.  We are aware of what the other teams are doing, but we haven’t focused on them as we keep our focus on next week’s game.  But we have seen them on film and have seen the scores and are aware that they are really good teams.  We know that North has a strong senior class like we do and both North and Miami East have winning traditions.  They have had more success lately and South just doesn’t have that winning tradition like they do.

“We have to keep our kids believing, they have to be hungry and want to win.  I want to see these last 3 games across the conference – the league title and playoff hopes are on the line.  But we have to take games one game at a time – South can’t even begin to look at a conference championship or playoff’s without beating Covington.”

Sunsite RC racing video

Here is a change of pace from the norm.  They had the last race of the season for rc boats last weekend, watch this video of one of the races: sunsite racing