FOOTBALL CAPSULES: Princeton at Hobbton

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on October 6, 2016 10:23 AM

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PRINCETON (2-4, 1-0)

at HOBBTON (1-6, 0-2 CAROLINA)

Last week: Princeton had a bye week; Hobbton lost 53-14 to Spring Creek.

Last meeting: 2015, Princeton won 15-6.

Notable: The Bulldogs have emerged victorious in their last three outings against the Wildcats, who hold a commanding 22-4 advantage in the series, which started in 1971 but was discontinued on several occasions.

How have you used your bye week? "We've had nasty weather, so we were able to get healthy," first-year PHS head coach Travis Gaster said. "We scouted Hobbton the night they played Spring Creek. We had a good idea of what they were going to do, so we went ahead and started preparing for them. It made Monday's practice more productive than it normally is. Monday is usually an introduction for our defense of their formations and what they're trying to accomplish. We were able to jump right into it and run plays at each other. It gives you a step ahead (in the game), but you also have time where you can get back to the basics... working on special teams, working on fundamentals of tackling, footwork with our O-line, ball handling by the backs. It's almost like you're day getting back to day one of the summer."

What are your thoughts on Hobbton? "They're explosive. Two players (Raekwon Bryant and Omar Farrior), they can take it to the house any time they touch the ball. They both play both ways, so I know they're tired. But it doesn't matter if they're tired or not because if they see the open field, they can pick them up and put them down... can really run. They do a great job of getting them the ball where they can be successful. They like jet sweep a lot and then when you overplay jet sweep, they're going to try to hit you up the gut or run a reverse off of it. They havent shown the halfback pass this year."

They're still in the Wing-T? "Now, they're in the pistol -- a little short shotgun. They've got a tight end and wing sometimes, two wings sometimes and then two receivers when they move that wing out. They do a little a little bit of everything... line up in a lot of different formations, don't run a whole lot of plays. If they can get you misaligned with the speed that they have, they can hurt you."

Your running game continues to be your bread and butter. "My philosophy for the program, the running game is a must. Our kids have bought into it and believe in it. It starts in the weight room and before we get to the practice field. Eventually the defense is going to catch up with it. We get pounded in practice and we're starting to slow it down a little bit (offensive team) in practice defensively, so that's a good thing. Before our backs weren't getting touched and that's not good because they're going to get touched in a game. They need to get hit for ball security, how to take a hit and how to run through a tackle. Our defense is catching up with them and that's been good to see."

Were two weeks into conference play and have already seen some interesting results. It's going to be an interesting five weeks, isn't it? "We talked about it early, it's probably the best our conference has been in a long time overall. This year, I think everybody is playing better football than what we saw last year -- a testament to the conference that people are playing better across the board. When you line it up on Friday night, you better bring it because the other team has something waiting for you. That's shown with the games already that anybody is capable of winning, anybody is capable of losing on Friday night in our conference."