Points have been tough to come by for North Webster during the regular season’s first two weeks.
The Knights have the pieces to be a dangerous offense, but turnovers, penalties and all sorts of self-inflicted wounds have held the unit back.
The North Webster defense, led by a ferocious front seven, has held their own against Haynesville and North DeSoto, a pair of powerful offenses, but the offense has to rise up if the Knights are going to reach their potential in Class 3A or have a
chance to beat Minden on Friday night in Springhill.
“Looking back at the film, there are a lot of little things that can be corrected,” Knights head coach John Ware said. “If we correct them that could really put us over the hump. Unfortunately for us, we don’t have any easy games to work on those things; we’re in the line of fire.”
Ware said the focus of practice this week has been and will be getting back to basics and making sure everyone is on the same page.
They’ll need to be against a Crimson Tide team oozing confidence after knocking off the Golden Tornado in Haynesville.
Minden blocked a last-second field goal to finish off last week’s win. Against one of the state’s best rushing attacks, the Tide defense stood tall while the much-maligned offense started to show signs of life.
“The first week they were sloppy against Haughton,” Ware said. “But Haughton is very good, too. Minden has athletes and they’re coached well. They have plenty of players and they took advantage of what Haynesville gave them last week.
“Despite the Knights’ offensive struggles, Ware said he feels good about his team’s odds. North Webster downed Minden 7-0 in the Pineland Jamboree, with the game’s only touchdown coming on a deep play action pass to TJ Hawthorne.
If there is a weak spot on the Minden defense, it’s in the secondary. First-year North Webster QB Tyrell Markray will try to exploit that matchup with Hawthorne on Tide DB’s; if he can do that and avoid putting the ball on the ground, the Knights’ home crowd could become a real factor.
“We just have to be consistent,” Ware said. “We’ve moved the ball, it’s there. We just have to hold onto the football and quit shooting ourselves in the foot.”