HATTIESBURG – Despite the loss last week to Sumrall, a lot of good things can be taken away for the Sacred Heart Crusaders, and they’ll try to use the confidence of hanging with a 4A team against this week’s opponent, North Forrest (1-2).
Sacred Heart (2-1) didn’t necessarily play well, but it did show flashes of success, and it left plenty of plays on the field with dropped passes and penalties. But, it doesn’t change the fact that Sacred Heart was a couple of plays away from making it an interesting game.
“Yeah, I think it should help our confidence,” Crusaders’ coach Lonny Schraeder said. “We’re going to get better, and we’ll continue to tweak our offense and defense where we can play with the people in our district. We’re still a work in progress, but we’re close.”
Sacred Heart’s offense generated only four first downs – one in the first half – and 116 yards of total offense against the Bobcats. The Crusaders will have another tough task this week against North Forrest, too.
“Their defensive front is a good size, they come off the ball and they attack you,” Schraeder said. “We’re going to have to play well, because they swarm to the ball and they’re fast. To me, they’re very scary.”
On a positive note, the Crusaders’ defensive line can use the momentum from a dominant second half into this week’s game, because North Forrest has some playmakers at the skill positions. Grady Leek, Mike McElroy and Tanner Blakeney make up the defensive front three, and Schraeder was happy with their second-half performance against Sumrall.
They filled running lanes to allow linebackers to make plays, and they also exploded through the line of scrimmage on some plays to record tackles themselves. Linebackers Hudson Garner and Garrett Crowder owed the line a “thank you” after the game, because the two led the team in tackles with 16 and 15, respectively, because of their help.
“That’s how it’s supposed to work,” Schraeder said. “(The defensive line) is going to get their share of tackles, but they made more than their share of plays. Everybody can rush to the ball and make tackles, because of them.”
Schraeder said his defense will have to play well against the “slippery” North Forrest quarterback, Daylyn Croom. The plan is to contain Croom, but not only just that, Sacred Heart will have to get to him, as well.
Schraeder said if his players don’t get to him fast enough, he’ll find an open receiver down field.
“Their quarterback, it looks like they greased him down with Vaseline, because he’s so slippery and athletic,” Schraeder said. “He has a really good arm and he has some receivers who can go get it. They’re going to go fast, and we just have to be ready and contain the quarterback.”
