FOOTBALL CAPSULES: Wayne Christian at Hobgood

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

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WAYNE CHRISTIAN (0-4, 0-3 CCC)

AT HOBGOOD (2-2, 1-1)

Last time out: Community Christian d. Wayne Christian 56-54; Hobgood Academy d. Lawrence Academy 60-16

Last meeting: First-ever meeting

Notable: First-year quarterback DJ Waters is fully recovered from a concussion. Several JV players are dealing with injuries that has reduced the team to just 11 players.

With 41/2 games under your belt, what have you seen from this group of players that you like? "We have good talent...about six athletes that are performing well other than the concussion, everybody is staying relatively healthy," first-year WCS head coach Scott Pender said. "Having some issues trying to get everybody on the same page at one time as far as practice. But we're at a point now that we've actually started to add some more aggressive plays (to our playbook). We've kind of stuck with the basics -- the power plays and the sweeps. Of course, we've been passing pretty good. We finally feel like we're confident now to add some plays to help us expand and maybe not be so predictable."

You scored 54 points on the board last week, how well is your offense doing right now? "I don't think they saw the whole field the first half, which is very unusual," said Pender, whose team excelled in special teams play and defensively. "Our return team is very strong. We move it well. We pass well. We still have a little trouble with our line not sustaining blocks as good as they should, so that hurts us some on getting off some pass plays. We're having to throw a little quicker than we need to and of course running we need a strategy to where we can find our strongest side or strongest gap to run through. We've worked on it. I don't think it's a mental issue. We just don't have the strength and size up front that some of the other teams do, so we're really getting blown back some. With those top athletes that we have, that's what's keeping us in the game on offense. They're doing a good job of moving us down the field and putting points on the board."

Have you seen improvement on defense? "I have, but not to the extent that I want. We had trouble last week with the QB option on who was supposed to cover the QB and who was supposed to cover the pitch man. We had a lot of issues on the corners and linebackers splitting duties covering the tight end going out for short passes. That was more of a mental thing they weren't too sure about we had to correct. They did a better job last week. I think we're still a little lacking on the line, but it's same guys on the offensive line. Not so much that they're not performing, we just don't have the power some of these other teams do."

What do you know about Hobgood and what do you have to do to come away with your first win of the year? "Watching the video they do run up the middle, which with our line that's kind of a weakness sometimes. Our linebackers should be there. We may have to re-arrange our formations to cover some more in the middle. It doesn't look like they pass a lot. I was pleased with our pass coverage (against Community) last week. If they do, I don't think we'll have a problem there. I think it's going to be a challenge for us to make sure our linebackers are in place and our front line stays tight to keep these guys from running up the middle. They have a pretty strong back that I saw on the film. If we can control the run without the secondary having to make all of the tackles, I think our offense can score enough to where we'll be ahead (at the end of the game)."