STORY BY: JORDAN MESEROLE
If there’s one thing the Rudder Ranger football team has done well this season, it’s control the option-pitch offensive attack.
The Rangers (1-3, 1-1) will be tested at their capabilities of controlling that attack on Friday, as the Caney Creek Panthers (1-3, 0-2) travel to Merrill Green Stadium in Bryan to face off against Rudder.
“They run the triple option attack, which you don’t see much today – and they’re good at it,” said Rudder head coach C.M. Pier. “When you face an offensive attack like what they do, you’ve got to be disciplined. You spend all these weeks saying get there fast…get there fast…and now you’ve got to slow down. Because you’ve got to have someone on the dive, someone on the pitch, and someone on the quarterback.”
Rudder is rebounding from a tough 47-21 loss to Huntsville last week, and will look to get its offense rolling more effectively a Caney Creek defense that features a lot of movement and switches on the line and before the snap. Pier said senior running back Tre Guyton will continue to be the feature of the Rangers’ offense – who got 167 yards and two scores in the loss – but that the offensive sets may feature multiple backs in the field with Guyton, including junior Anthony Veal in a fullback type of role.
“The strongest part of our offense is our backfield,” Pier said. “And Veal has some tools. He needs some carries and he needs some touches. Bottom line is we’ve got to get him out on the field.”
Rudder will also look to improve upon preventing penalties, which has plagued the team since week one of the season, and has allowed opposing teams in each of their losses to benefit greatly from the costly mental mistakes.
“We as a coaching staff set some things in motion to basically punish them if they get penalties,” Pier said. “We hate to go that route. But we’ve got to get where we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot, and where we don’t beat ourselves. And we’re doing that quite a bit lately.”
Caney Creek is rebounding from a tough loss as well, losing 41-20 loss to Montgomery last week, and is hunting for its first district win this season. The offensive attack will be led by Jeremy Collins and Cole Streeter, a combo that Pier said is dangerous enough to run 20-yards down field and still attempt an option-pitch to avoid a tackle.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 at Merrill Green Stadium.