Bulldogs look to remain hot against undefeated Lions

Bulldogs look to remain hot against undefeated Lions

Earle rides a four- game winning streak into England tonight for Class 2A Football quarterfinal playoff

sports@theeveningtimes.com

The Earle Bulldogs (9-3 overall, 5-1 conference) battle the England Lions (13-0, 7-0) tonight in a 2A Quarterfinal matchup.

The Bulldogs offense looks to repeat last week's performance where the team scored 52 points in a win over Murfreesboro. If the Bulldogs are to duplicate that scoring explosion they will need another strong outing from quarterback Gerry Bohannon. Bohannon accumulated 468 yards of total offense last week, finding the end zone five times.

Earle assistant coach, Carl Miller, praises Bohannon's contributions to the team.

“I would say he's our MVP,” Miller said. “He's a good dual-threat quarterback, and on the defensive side of the ball he's helped a lot. When you have a Division 1 caliber player on your team, you try to utilize him to the best of your knowledge.”

In order to keep their playoff run alive, the Bulldogs must overcome a stingy Lions defense which has only allowed 134 points on the season. The play of the offensive line will be crucial to the Bulldogs success, according to Miller.

“If the offensive line continues to block like they have the last four weeks, I don't think we will have a problem moving the ball,” Miller said. “As long as the line keeps doing their job, we're going to score.”

In order to leave England victorious tonight, the Bulldogs also need their defense to return to the dominating play they are accustomed to. The team surrendered 42 points last week but has only given up an average of 17.3 points per game throughout the season. Returning to that form will be challenging against a Lions team that has put up 637 points during the last 13 games.

After watching game film this week, the Bulldogs made several adjustments on the defensive side of the ball by moving some players around in an attempt to slow down that high-octane Lions scoring attack. The Bulldogs plan on playing a more “assignment-style” defense which relies heavily on players to execute their jobs individually in order for a solid defensive performance as a whole, according to Miller.

“We're going to live by this motto: You do your job, everything is going to take care of itself,” Miller said. “I feel pretty good. We have a pretty solid team.”

Kickoff for the 2A Quarterfinal matchup is tonight at 7 p.m.

By Collins Peeples