by Steve Dunford
The West Frankfort Redbirds travel to Murphysboro this evening to take on the Red Devils at the mid-point of the SIRR Ohio seasons. Both teams are coming of shellackings in Week 5. Murphysboro fell to Herrin 42-6, and the Redbirds fell to their arch rivals, the Benton Rangers 47-14.
This is what Murphysboro coach Gary Carter had to say about the season so far. “We are 1-4, we are playing a lot of younger kids in every phase of the game. It has been a difficult season for us, but we like our younger players and feel they can compete.
“Our QB is Sophomore Jamarr McZeke, also in the offensive backfield is Senior Brandon Caldwell, Sophomore Zane Caraway and Sophomore Jake Hoppenstedt. Brandon, Zane and Jake will play on both sides of the ball for us.”
Here is what Coach Carter’s thoughts are on the Redbirds. “West Frankfort has good size and their running backs and QB run hard. Defensively, I think their linebacker core is solid and can cause teams problems. Coach Beery does a great job with his program and we know that West Frankfort will play hard.”
West Frankfort Coach Brian Beery had to say about the matchup against the Red Devils tonight, “Murphysboro is a very athletic/competitive team, regardless of their record. Their offense posses a lot of threats to our defense. They have great overall team speed, with a very athletic QB. Furthermore, they use a lot of motion and unbalanced formations that we will have to adjust to prior to the snap of the ball.
Their defense is very aggressive, and have defensive linemen that are not only big, but quick. In order to be competitive we will have to play good sound football. We can’t afford to lose the turnover battle, and we must limit our penalties.”
We are getting down the home stretch of the season. It is the time of year that is fun for number crunching geeks and bracketologists like me.
Tonight’s game is a must win if the Redbirds have playoff hopes for two reasons, first it will be important to come out of the gates strong after last week’s loss to Benton. Second, with the lack of points, the Redbirds will have to be 6-3 to get in. Between Sparta, Pinckneyville and Nashville, there will probably only be at the most seven or eight points between the three.
Barring injuries and other unforeseen circumstances as of now the Redbirds will be the favorites against Massac County and Nashville. Even though DuQuoin beat them earlier in the year, I see Herrin running the table in the conference.
So that comes to tonight’s game. I think last Saturday was some growing pains for the team. I think we will see a Redbird team that will come out ready to play tonight.
I am going with the Redbirds by ten points tonight.
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