Sports - October 2003

Rebels look to end winless streak vs. NC

Published October 3, 2003

West Lincoln looks to make homecoming special with a win over the struggling Red Devils

By JOHN MARK BROOKS, Staff Writer

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The West Lincoln Rebels had a near miss last game as they were narrowly defeated by the Bunker Hill Bears 8-6. That was last week, and the Rebels are no longer concerned with the would’ves and should’ves.

Offensively

Head coach Butch Parker feels that for them to be successful they are going to have to go the air more.

“We got to spread it out a little bit and throw it a little better. They run a 4-4 defense,” he said.

Parker points out that fullback Paul Chambers, a sophomore, has proven himself to be a viable threat in the running game.

 “We have to rely on Chambers a lot, he’s proven himself to be a constant threat game-in-and-game-out,” he said.

Parker believes that his Rebels are in a good situation judging by the amount of points they have given up lately.

“It’s a defense that has given up a lot of points lately and we certainly feel like we can move the football and we need a score early,” he said.

One option they want to get more involved is tight end Dustin Hester.

“We need to get the ball to Dustin Hester more. He caught a touchdown pass for us last week so we have to get the ball in his hands,” Parker said.

Defensively

The Newton-Conover Red Devils run the Georgia Southern offense. It’s a real motion-type offense that utilizes two slots and there’s a lot of misdirection.

Parker describes the offense by saying ‘it’s all centered around a very active quarterback.’

He knows that for his team to be successful they will have to slow quarterback Matt Wilson.

“The most important thing we can do on the night is stop the quarterback Matt Wilson. He’s an outstanding quarterback and has mastered that offense. He’s been running it since he was a kid. He’s an excellent athlete and makes good decisions so he’s the key to what they do,” he said.

Wilson is listed as questionable with an injury, and his playing will be a game-time decision for the Red Devils.

The Rebels’ defense played hard last week allowing no points on defense. Parker, now, wants to build on that with two of his main defensive leaders.

“Daniel Soto is the heart and soul of it and plus having Joey Briggs back from a shoulder injury will be a big shot in the arm,” he said.

X-factor

The two main factors according to Parker will be solid play on special teams and the fact that it’s homecoming.

“First of all we had breakdowns in the special teams last week. We fumbled a punt snap, gave up the kickoff return, fumbled a punt and also missed a field goal so there are four breakdowns in the kicking game. That has to improve,” he said.

However, Parker is quick to note that they did some positive things in the special teams’ area last week.

“We also caused them to fumble a punt because of the excellent hustle of Jeffrey Davis. We also recovered an onside kick, so we did some things right, but the bad outweighed the good,” he said.

The head coach believes that the Rebels couldn’t be in a much better situation going into a homecoming game.

“It’s a big night for us. They’re a 1-5 team so we certainly feel like going into the game we are evenly matched with them. We get to stay home and hopefully build on last week which was our best effort defensively,” he said.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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