FOOTBALL CAPSULES: North Duplin at Lakewood

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on September 29, 2016 10:01 AM

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NORTH DUPLIN (2-3, 0-0 CAROLINA)

AT LAKEWOOD (4-2, 1-0)

Last time out: North Duplin d. Lejeune 42-0; Lakewood d. Spring Creek 29-0.

Last meeting: 2015, Lakewood won 21-7

Notable: The Leopards have taken the last seven meetings against the Rebels and hold a 14-10 edge in the series. North Duplin's last win over Lakewood occurred in the west 1-A regional championship game in 2007.

Coach, for the second time this season, you have a short week to prepare for an opponent. Your thoughts? "We had to do this earlier from the Southside game," ND head coach Hugh Martin said. "Try to condense everything we can into the days we've got. You've got some bumps, bruises and swelling after a game, we make to sure we're healed first and foremost. Then we need to do our scoutwork. We did our coaching scoutwork over the weekend to get ready."

What's the biggest challenge that Lakewood presents to your team coach? "They're a very good football team, offensively and defensively. They have real good speed. Their running back is an all-conference player back from last year, and is a real good runner. Of course, the quarterback returns and is a three-year starter now. He throws it real well. Defensively, their front seven attack so well and really put a lot of pressure on you offensively to do what you're going to do quickly. You're not going have a lot of time to sit back there and make decisions about things. You've got to be able to execute it real well. It's going to be quite a challenge for us. We've got to continue to do the things we've been doing here lately well. Offensively, hopefully we can control the ball a little bit, sustain some drives and give ourselves a chance there at the end."

Coach, where do you think you match up well with Lakewood, can expose it and get something out of it? "We're going to run our option game. We've got to make real good reads out of that. Our offensive line has to continue to do a good job of not allowing the penetration to occur. We've been pretty decent at that so far this year. We've been able to get our backs to the line of scrimmage before we have too much penetration so that's going to be a key thing for us. We can't allow their front four to create havoc with their linebackers blitzing to create even more havoc. Then we've got to make real good reads off our option. They've got better size up front than Southside and are better in terms of attacking."