Sumrall faced another severe loss as the Bobcats are now off to an 0-4 start to the year.
Even worse, Sumrall has now been shut out in back-to-back weeks. Despite the slow start, the Bobcats will have a chance to reset the season as Sumrall opens region play with Greene County.
“Where you are at in this game certainly has a lot to do with the record you have got,” Sumrall coach Shannon White said. “We have to quickly change the script on this thing heading into district play. We have five weeks to hopefully show that we are a better team than what we have shown thus far.”
Greene County’s game against Sumrall will be the Wildcat’s first since having to shut down for two weeks due to COVID-19. However, the Wildcats were off to a 2-0 start before the shutdown and had defeated Perry Central and Quitman.
“I would hate to have not practiced the last two weeks,” White said. “Nobody takes two weeks off during the season. It’s something I wouldn’t want to go through as a coach, and players wouldn’t to go through as players. How they handle it, though, is critical, and I know their coaches, so I’m sure they will handle it well.
“It’s a typical Greene County team. They are just really big up front on both sides. They are probably the biggest team we will play this year. They just have tremendous size there for some reason. The team looks real similar. It’s a team that comes at you in a lot of ways offensively. It’s diverse.”
Greene County’s offense averaged 26 points per game with its run game averaging 291 yards per game. The Wildcats have four different players with rushing touchdowns, but its main two options are Kayden Miller and Dalarrus Cooper, who combined for 382 yards, averaging 11.1 yards per carry, and six touchdowns.
“They have good running backs,” White said. “They give you a lot of different looks. They hit all the gaps. They run inside zone, they run power and outside stretches. They make you defend every gap in the run game, and they have a complementary passing game that goes along with it.
“They have got two, if not three, running backs they sub in and out. They are a lot like West Marion. They have a lot of running backs, and they are all good. They have speed and size. They have some weapons down there, and most of them are in the backfield.”
Defensively, Greene County runs a 5-2 defense primarily and allowed just 13 points in its season opener as the Wildcats shut out Quitman.
White believes that Greene County’s defensive line is the key part of the Wildcats defense as the team recorded five sacks.
“They changed defenses and coordinators since last year,” White said. “It’s still that plays really hard. It’s a tough scheme and a physical scheme, but players make schemes, and their defensive line has always been difficult.
According to White, the biggest key for his team will be his offense learning to get past a man coverage defense.
“They run a 5-2 in man coverage and man coverage is what we have struggled against,” White said. “We know that if you can’t beat man coverage, then you can’t score. We haven’t scored much against man coverage, so it’ll be a challenging week for us.
“We work hard but just haven’t been able to take it to Friday night. At some point, we have to take our offense on Friday night and deliver. When we do, then we’ll be good. I have a lot of confidence in our players, but we have not taken our practices or scheme into Friday night, which is unusual.”
