Central coach not concerned about style of play, just wants chance at end

Friday, September 05, 2008

With this year’s Hopkins County Central and Madisonville-North Hopkins football teams having similar size and strength, the 12th annual rivalry game could prove to be a defensive battle, but Central coach Rick Snodgrass doesn’t want to presume what type of game it will be.

Both the Maroons and Storm enter tonight’s game with 1-0 records and each team boasts offensive balance and defensive speed, which makes anticipating the game’s outcome difficult.

“I’ve given up predicting these kinds of things,” Snodgrass said. “We just want to be in the game going into the fourth quarter. If it’s 0-0 that’s fine ... as long as we’re within a touchdown going into the fourth quarter, we feel like

we have an opportunity to win the ballgame.”

If Central and North enter the fourth quarter at 0-0, the Storm would continue its defensive shutout streak. Last week, Central defeated Fulton County 63-0.

Storm defensive end Denzel Arrington said it will be important for Central to win the battle at the line of scrimmage and penetrate the backfield.

“Their quarterback (Matt Levin), he’s pretty good and I think he can throw pretty good, we’re going to have to keep the pressure on him,” he said.

Senior defensive tackle Dustin Grant said the team hopes to succeed where Fulton couldn’t by limiting Levin’s time in the pocket.

“He’s quick, but I feel like if we get pressure on him it’ll mess him up because no one has really put pressure on him from what we’ve seen,” Grant said.

The Central defense will have to be prepared for a slew of offensive options from North. During the Maroons’ 37-29 Browning Bowl victory over Caldwell County, Levin passed for two touchdowns while running back Chris Scisney rushed for two scores and Trey Carr added another.

Snodgrass said he recognizes the offense is one of North’s strongest suits.

“They’re very balanced,” he said. “They have a real good running game, real good running backs. The quarterback, Levin, does a good job of spreading the football around getting it to his playmakers.”

As for Scisney, Arrington said the defense has developed a game plan for taking down the 5-11, 218-pound senior.

“You can’t tackle Chris up high, so we’re going to have stay low, tackle him low, take his legs out from under him and he’ll go down I think,” Arrington said.

During North’s season-opener, Caldwell exploited the Maroons via the running game, taking advantage of the undersized defense.

Despite Caldwell’s success with the rush, Snodgrass said he’s sticking with his game plan.

“We’re not going to change much,” he said. “We’ve been doing it quite some time and the kids feel very comfortable. The main thing is execution. We’re not going to trick anybody.”

Like North, Snodgrass said he feels his offensive attack is a dual threat, led by running backs Keith Couch and Troy Dale Rorer.

“Both those guys are playmakers whether it be throwing a little pass to them or handing it to them,” Snodgrass said. “We feel like they’ve got the ability to take it to the house at any given time.

With quarterback Jake Powell behind center and a core of receivers to choose from, the Storm can pose plenty of problems for North’s secondary as well.

No matter the type of game though, Central players on both sides of the ball will be aiming to accomplish something they’ve never done before.

“It’s important for me because we’ve never beat them since I’ve been at Central,” Arrington said. “I want this bad. I want my senior year to be the year we beat them.”