Sports
Williamstown Faces Test From St. Mary’s
By: Ian McConville
Posted on:
After dropping two of their first three games, the Williamstown Yellow Jackets have responded in a big way, winning their last two games by a combined score of 72-14.
Coming off a 23-7 win last week at Ravenswood, the Yellow Jackets now face a stiff test on Friday night, when the St. Mary’s Blue Devils invade Williamstown.
Williamstown, despite scoring 23 points against the Ravenswood last week, were led by a strong defensive effort. The defense allowed only 7 points, the 2nd such performance in as many weeks. That effort did not go unnoticed by head coach Terry Smith.
“I thought our defense played really well,” said Smith.
He added that there is still room for improvement on the defensive side of the ball.
The defense will have its hands full against a St. Mary’s offense that bares many resemblances to Williamstown’s own, and who scored 64 points last week in their win against Tyler Consolidated. Both sides like to establish a dominant ground attack early and often, and use that to set up their aerial assault.
“They like to run the ball. They run the ball over 80 percent of the time,” Smith pointed out.
If Williamstown struggles to bring down the ball-carriers, it will force the Jackets to bring safeties up and load the box. From there, the Blue Devils will have single coverage on their receivers, which makes the passing game much easier.
The offense will also be presented with an opportunity to prove itself. Only one team has scored over 20 points on the Blue Devils defense all season. The lowest output from the Williamstown offense thus far was last week’s 23 point outing.
Coach Smith pointed out that his team could have put more points on the board, but inefficiency deep in Ravenswood territory cost the Jackets opportunities to expand their lead.
“We had the ball inside the five-yard-line twice and didn’t score, so we obviously need to improve that,” Smith stated.
Despite the failure to score deep in the red-zone, Smith said that the game plan will not change this week.
“If you have a game plan, you stick with it until it doesn’t work anymore. We want to run the ball and throw the ball when we want to, not when we have to,” Smith said.
In order to execute that style of offense, Smith said that the offense will need a “great performance from our tackles, guards and centers.”
Williamstown will need to establish its attack early if it wants to have success against St. Mary’s. If the offense gets going on the ground early, it could be a long night for the Blue Devils defense. However, if that unit struggles to find its footing, and gives St. Mary’s more opportunities to score, Williamstown will find it hard to remain competitive.