Cowboys look to avoid letdown against Heritage
Posted on Thursday, October 2, 2008
ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Times Woodland Junior High receiver Reid Holmes (17 ) is tackled by Southwest Junior High’s Kevin Martinez during the second quarter of play Sept. 25 at Harmon Field.
Woodland won a mustwin last week and now must avoid a trap door today.
The Cowboys took control of their own destiny and knocked off Springdale Southwest last week in impressive fashion. Woodland’s three-game homestand comes to an end today against Rogers Heritage and Cowboy coach Bobby Crockett just hopes his team doesn’t suffer a letdown following a season high.
“ We hope it’s not a trap game, ” Crockett said. “ We’ve really emphasized good practices and how that can pay off on Thursday nights. The kids have seen that. This week is no different. We’ve had good practices and we’re certainly not taking Heritage lightly. ”
Woodland enters today’s tilt against Heritage one game off the Northwest Arkansas Conference pace at 3-1 overall and 2-1 in league play. Crockett said today’s tilt is key to keep within striking distance of Bentonville Gold and Springdale Central.
“ Chances are you’re just not going to have a chance to win the conference championship with two losses, ” Crockett said. “ Very rarely does a team win the conference with one loss and sometimes you can’t loss at all. The Southwest win was important to keep us in the race and it brings one of the top teams back down even with you. ”
Woodland’s 10-6 win over the Southwest Cougars builds confidence following a loss at home to Bentonville Gold in Week 3. Southwest entered the last week’s game averaging 27. 3 points per outing on offense. Woodland is now allowing an average of 6. 5 points per game on defense. The Cowboys absorbed 223 yards rushing by the Cougars but didn’t buckle when it counted most.
“ If you had been a bystander in the game, you would think we had no chance to win the game just because of Southwest’s size and their talent, ” Crockett said. “ But our defense bent and didn’t break. That was very important. ”
Also key were two forced fumbles by the Woodland defense. Crockett said he has placed an added emphasis on creating turnovers.
“ We noticed on film, the Southwest ball carriers held the ball out a little and didn’t tuck it good, ” Crockett said. “ We talked all week about one guy getting them wrapped up and the other guy swiping for the ball. That’s something we really worked on and it paid off in the game. ”
While Woodland scored just 10 points against Southwest, Crockett said he gauged solid offensive progress last week. Eight grader Austin Allen stepped in at quarterback and produced 147 yards passing, including a 72-yard scoring toss.
“ We ran the ball pretty effectively against Southwest, ” Crockett said. “ But I thought we really improved on our consistency and throwing the football. I thought our quarterback threw the ball well and our receivers made the catches. That’s been a place we’ve struggled and being able to throw the football effectively really helped us offensively. ”
Reid Holmes stepped up last week to help generate production in the passing game. He hauled in Allen’s 72-yard touchdown pass and finished with three catches for 112 yards.
“ Reid has worked very hard, ” Crockett said. “ He’s coming back into form now. He’s very athletic, can run well and is doing a great job. We noticed something on film that Southwest did. It was just a little check play and it worked to perfection. He did a great with it and runs real after the catch. ”
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