Sports
Game Preview: Williamstown Ready For Home Opener Against Oak Glen
By: Josh Vermillion
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The undefeated Williamstown Yellow Jackets will look to keep their winning streak alive on Friday in their Week 4 home-opening matchup with the Oak Glen Golden Bears.
“We’re excited,” said Williamstown coach Terry Smith. “We were pretty close last week and had a lot of fans show up to Marietta, but we’re closer this week.”
Despite opening the season with three straight road games, the Yellow Jackets (3-0) have gotten off to a great start, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Last week tailback-turned-quarterback Dakota Watson accounted for 296 yards of total offense, along with his roles as linebacker and primary punt returner.
“The move to quarterback really allows us to use him more,” explained Smith. “He’s been running the ball 25 times a game and throwing it around 10 or 12 times. That’s around 35 times a game where he has the opportunity to make plays for us.”
With that kind of workload, Watson has a huge impact on the field at all points of the game. Being involved in offense, defense and special teams is bound to take a toll on him over the course of the season.
“He works really hard in practice,” said Smith. “I think at some point he will get a little worn down, but we just have to make sure we’re smart with how we use him.”
On the other side, the Golden Bears (1-2) haven’t gotten off to the same type of start. Oak Glen won its first game against Edison on a last second field goal, but has since fallen to Beaver and Indian Creek by a combined score of 54-18.
The Golden Bears may have gotten off to a slow start, but they are definitely not a team to be overlooked.
“We’re just going to look at everything we’ve seen, on tape and from last year,” said Smith. “They’re a lot bigger than us, they’re AA and we’re A, but we are just going to look at everything and prepare as well as we can.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Williamstown.
'Gridiron Glory' airs every Friday night at 11:30 p.m. on WOUB. You can follow the show on Twitter @gridironglory, like the Gridiron Glory page on Facebook, and follow along on Instagram @woubsports. You can also join the conversation throughout the season by using the hashtag #GridGlory!