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WC Prepares for South Laurel Shannon Hutchinson Sports Writer The Wayne County Cardinals, 2-1 on the season and coming off a 42-14 win over Monroe County, travels to Class 4A South Laurel this Friday night. South Laurel is 2-1 on the season and coming off an impressive 41-28 win at Corbin, which marked the county’s first ever win at Campbell Field. This week’s contest marks only the second ever match up between the two schools with South owning a 17-6 win in 2003 at Jewell Field. South enters the date with one of the state’s most prolific offenses. The London Cardinals average nearly 42 points per game is led by quarterback Chris Riley. Riley passed for 339 yards and three scores in last week’s upset win at Corbin. “South Laurel likes to spread teams out with a lot of multiple receiver sets and the thing they do that’s so different is they use a lot of no-huddle. We have to be ready to make calls at the line and understand our responsibilities,” said Wayne County head coach Shawn Thompson. South Laurel head coach Jep Irwin hopes to build on last season’s six wins and a state playoff appearance with several different offensive weapons. Riley passed to several different targets last week, paced by the 11 receptions and 185 yards of athletic wide receiver Zack Marcum. Marcum scored on passes of 56 and 34 yards, while Terry Bingham added a 78 yard scoring catch. “South runs their offense very well and they have several guns that can big-play you if they get behind the defensive. South is known for their passing attack, but they are just as effective on the ground,” said Thompson. Senior running back Jake Karr scored on runs of 3 and 34 yards last week and leads a cast of talented backs. “We’ve swarmed the football pretty well the last two weeks and that will be another key this week. We can’t be content with our past efforts, but we must build on that and have a focus on details this week,” said Thompson. Wayne County’s defense has allowed a respectable 18.3 points per game through three games and yielded an average of 94 passing yards per contest, two areas certainly to be challenged on Friday night. The Cards’ offense is coming off a season high 478 total yards against Monroe County, led by the 254 rushing yards and four touchdowns of Matt Goff. Quarterback Ryan Steele passed for a career best 141 yards last week, with Tyler King catching three balls for 111 yards. “Offensively we did a better job across the board on our down-field blocking and that’s another key area this week. We’re starting to understand what needs to be done after the initial contact on the defense. We have to do a better job in the area of penalties, we can’t afford to get into a lot of third down and long situations,” said Thompson. Wayne County has committed 19 penalties the last two weeks and hopes to improve on that against a South Laurel defense that allows 24 points per game. “Last year against South we scored just six points and it was a game we just couldn’t get much going on the offensive side. We have to put some drives together and hopefully not get into a shootout,” said Thompson. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday night at South Laurel High School Field. Add a comment |
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