Sports and Outdoors

Thursday, September 9, 2010

 Lake Info

Normal Lake Level is 322.00 feet above Mean Sea Level.
Current level for Cedar Creek Lake is: 320.41 Water Temperature:
86  degrees - top
84 degrees - bottom

Kemp to visit Mineola Friday
By Kerry Yancey
Monitor Staff Writer
KEMP–A better effort on both sides of the ball helped Kemp post a strong performance against a pretty good spread offense last Friday night.
That effort will have to be duplicated this Friday, as 2-0 Kemp travels to face former district foe Mineola in a battle of Yellowjackets.
Kemp head coach Greg Anderson was pleased with what he saw in last week’s 42-26 road win over Edgewood’s Bulldogs.
“I was pleased with the way we moved the football,” Anderson said Monday. “Anytime you score 42 points, you’re doing something right.
“Defensively, we played pretty well for the most part, but I think we let down in the second half,” he said.
At one point, the ’Jackets led 42-14, and the Kemp players lost focus. “I thought we gave them a couple of easy touchdowns,” Anderson said.
The one injury the ’Jackets suffered didn’t happen on the field, but in the locker room as players were getting dressed to go out for warm-ups.
Junior two-way starter Jon Jennings had his cleats on and slipped on the concrete floor, sustaining a nasty cut and a mild concussion, Anderson said.
“We held him out today because of the concussion, but I believe he will be back by Friday,” Anderson added.
“We were definitely a better football team this week (than in the season opener at Eustace),” he said. “We cleaned our mistakes up on defense and were more consistent on offense.”
Friday night, the ’Jackets will face a 1-1 Mineola team coming off their first win, a 31-17 blowout of Bullard.
Mineola took advantage of some early Bullard turnovers to open a 24-0 halftime lead, with quarterback Erik Galaz throwing for one score and running for another.
Mineola’s defense held Bullard quarterback Kirk Bryant to just two completions, but Bryant rushed for 169 yards.
“Galaz probably is the best athlete (on their team),” Anderson said. “To me, he’s one of the more talented kids we’ll see all year. He can throw, and he can run.”
Galaz doesn’t throw that much – about 80 percent of the time, Mineola uses an I-formation running attack, although they have been known to jump into a spread formation to shake up a defense.
“Defensively, they use a 50 defense, with a true noseguard,” Anderson said. “It’s pretty similar to what Edgewood ran, and that will be an advantage for us, seeing the same front two weeks in a row.”
With both Kemp and Mineola looking to run the ball, fans can expect a fairly quick contest – probably much closer to two hours than three – meaning each possession will be crucial.
Turnovers are always costly, but in a game of seven or eight possessions (compared to 14 or 15 for two spread teams), a turnover on one can be a major setback, Anderson noted.
“It will come down to whose defense can get the other team off the field, and whose offense can sustain drives,” he said.

EHS seeks rebound against Edgewood
By Kerry Yancey
Monitor Staff Writer
EUSTACE–Following a blowout loss to Grace Community, Eustace’s 0-2 Bulldogs will be looking for their first win of the season when they host the Edgewood Bulldogs Friday night.
Eustace coach Doug Wendel was surprisingly upbeat following Monday’s early-morning practice, pointing out his team probably won’t be seeing that level of talent again.
“I think they (Grace Community) have the best offense we’ll see all year – a lot of speed and precision on their routes,” Wendel said.
“They stayed with their base stuff,” he added. “They didn’t run anything that we hadn’t seen, but we can’t simulate that level of speed and precision in practice.
“A lot of our kids hadn’t seen that (spread) type of offense before,” Wendel pointed out.
Offensively, the Bulldogs played much better than they did in the season opener against Kemp, running up 297 yards, even with a number of backups playing much of the second half.
“We shot ourselves in the foot with penalties, but our backs blocked much better and our offensive line played much better,” he said. “We got a lot closer this week, I think.”
Unfortunately those backups got playing time because the two-way starters were hurt.
Linemen Owen Babcock (ankle) and Raymond Shutack (knee) were hobbled, along with junior fullback/linebacker Blake Ward (ankle) and sophomore fullback/linebacker Tyler Folsom (hip pointer).
Folsom practiced Monday, and Wendel said he hoped the others would be back by Friday, although they weren’t expected to practice any this week.
Edgewood (0-2) also will be looking for their first win of the season after getting blown out by Kemp, 42-26, last Friday night.
Edgewood also runs a spread offense, centering around quarterback Ethan Rutter, but without the level of speed and precision shown by Grace Community.
“They do a solid job of flinging the ball around, but they’re not in the same league as what we saw (last Friday),” Wendel said. “Their defense is young, but they have a good defensive tackle (Tre Wright). He’s a difference-maker.
“We don’t usually game-plan around one player, but we’re going to take some precautions on No. 56 (Wright),” Wendel added. “He can create some problems with what we want to do.”
During the Grace Community game, new Eustace quarterback Jacob McCarter showed a better ability to audible away from the called play to something else, in order to take advantage of the defensive alignment, “and our option game is coming along,” Wendel said.
Edgewood’s young defense was victimized by Kemp’s practice of getting into unusual formations to run standard plays.
“(Kemp) comes up to the line quick, and you have to make decisions quickly,” Wendel said. “They were misaligned several times, and Kemp took full advantage of it.”
With both teams looking for their first win, Friday’s contest at The Boneyard should be an interesting matchup of run vs. pass, but Eustace likely will be better prepared after last week’s loss.
“Offensively, we got better,” Wendel said. “Defensively, a game like that will make us better, once we’re on the other side (of that contest).”