Derek's Corner

November 4, 2007

Red Dragon Fans,

9-1! A job well done. It was not an easy victory. We had to go into two overtimes to get it done; whatever it takes right? I told our team all week that Cabell Midland was just two or three plays away from being 8-1 instead of 4-5. All of their losses were by less than a touchdown. This was our most physical game of the year by far. Their line averaged 6’3 280 lbs. I told our offensive and defensive line that this would tell us how good we really are up front. I think we won the battle. We rushed for 298 yards on offense. Defensively we held them to 113 yards on 40 rushes. I was glad to have a good challenge before entering into the playoffs. Our defensive secondary gave up a couple of big plays. We must get better on defending the pass. We also have to get better at 3 and long situations. Turnovers hurt us again and probably kept us from putting the game away in the first half. We fumbled once going in and threw an interception right before the half. We were in the red zone on both of those possessions. If we score, it gives us a 21-7 lead at half and probably puts the game away.

We have been our own worst enemy at times this year with penalties and turnovers. We ended up (-8) on the turnover chart. We also had 100 penalties for 797 yards. That is by far way too many for both categories. Despite of these, our team has found a way to win. I really believe that our weight room is the reason. They believe in themselves and more importantly they have confidence in each other. It showed in the second overtime. We had the ball on the one yard line on 4th down. We had to decide if we wanted to kick a field goal or go for a touchdown to win. Every player on the field wanted to go for the TD. If we don’t make it we have to play a third overtime. They all said that this is why they have busted their tails in the weight room. We went for it and won the game.

I told them after the game that for the next few days they need to enjoy this win and the success they have had during the regular season. Luckily we have our open date this week. This is will be a good time to heal up and get our legs back before we start our second season. THE AAA PLAYOFFS. We will play the first round at Crawford Field. This has not happened since 1996. The 9-1 record is the best since the 1979 season. That year SA went 10-0 during the regular season and ended up losing in the state championship game. That was my junior year. We finished up 12-1. That was a long time ago. We are going to practice hard and see what happens. I feel our team is good enough to win it if they continue to believe. We have just as good of a chance as any team. See you at Crawford Field on November 9th or 10th.