East has `nothing to lose` vs. Warriors

With their 3A State Playoff chances pretty much fallen by the wayside, East Lincoln’s head coach Matt Rikard believes his team has nothing to lose by taking chances against the East Gaston Warriors.

X-Factor
“We don’t have anything to lose. We’re going to throw everything we got at them. We’re going to take some chances and hope they work.”

Offense
The Mustangs (2-7, 1-4 Big South 3A) laid the ball on the ground eight times against Hunter Huss last week, a trend that has robbed them of a couple of potential wins. Rikard, who has understandably grown tired of talking about the subject, says that can’t continue to happen.
“We can’t fumble. Offensively, if you take away the fumbles we’ve played pretty decent football. When we’re doing something good we lay it on the ground. As long as we’re doing that, it’s going to be tough to beat teams that are as good or better than us,” he said.
A group that Rikard hopes will step up this week against the Warriors is the offensive line.
“Upfront we’re going to have to play a good ball game. They’re very good on the defensive line. They’re big and strong and we’re going to have to do a very good job upfront,” he said.
East Lincoln will look to get the ball in the hands of receiver Thomas Huntley who had a mediocre game against Hunter Huss catching two passes for 11 yards.
“Thomas has dropped some passes. He normally doesn’t. A lot of that comes from Hunter Huss’ double coverage. We weren’t able to free him up like we’re normally able to do because on the fades, they were just sitting there over top,”
Against a modified 4-4 defense, with a walk-up strong safety, Grayson Schram should get plenty of chances to throw the ball.

Defense
East Gaston (5-4, 3-2 BS3A) is led by quarterback Ryan Baker who Rikard believes is as good as advertised.
“He moves well, has a strong arm, is accurate and doesn’t make a lot of mistakes,” he said.
The Warriors also have a very talented duo at the running position that East will have to slow in order to be competitive in Ronnie Brooks and Desmond Wilson.
“They’re probably as good of running backs as we’ve seen all year and they got two on the same team. They have speed, quickness and power and have great receivers,” Rikard said.

by John Mark Brooks