DUBLIN — West Bladen’s varsity football team went from having a challenging short week of preparation for defending Class 1-A state champion Wallace-Rose Hill to an incredibly short week when predictions of storms moving through on Friday came through.
The 4-1, 1-0 Knights will now travel to Teachey to take on the 4-1, 1-0 Bulldogs on Thursday at 7 p.m.
“We figured the week was already shortened, so why potentially mess up another week by not playing the game until Monday,” West Bladen coach Russell Dove.
He added that, though Wallace-Rose Hill has a lot of players returning from last season’s state title team, the Bulldogs do a lot of things his Knights are familiar with.
Wallace-Rose Hill operates its offense out of the Wing T with a crew of running backs that include Keyshawn Canady, Johnnie Gillespie and Jhonta Wilson. The Bulldogs have scored a conference-leading 215 points this season, while West Bladen has given up 102.
On defense, Wallace-Rose Hill lines up in a 53. The Bulldogs have allowed just 66 points and the Knights have scored 176.
“They can fly to the football and play really good team defense,” Dove said.
“Everything on both sides of the ball we’ve either seen a lot of or we run it ourselves,” he added. “So we know what to expect.”
Dove said his Knights are “decently healthy” and that they will need to execute their base assignments. In addition, “we’ll need to take care of the football better, move the chains and get points in the red zone — especially early,” he said. “And play good defense, of course.”
W. Curt Vincent can be reached by calling 910-862-4163.