Webb City v. Carthage 2007

I'll keep this short (as short as I can).

This was a great game early on. The Carthage offense is for real. They have a very good passing game, which was able to pick apart the WC secondary much more than I expected. I felt like WC controlled the line of scrimmage most of the game and ultimately this was a deciding factor.

Carthage has 2 or 3 receivers that are big for class 4 high school football. This combined with accurate throws from the QB made for some matchup and coverage problems - particularly early on.

WC - as they always seem to do - just kept coming. That's the killer edge for WC, they just never quit coming at you, never quit hitting you. And at the end of the day Carthage couldn't match WC's intensity or physicality for 48 minutes (though they hung tough for the first 24). As the game wore on you could see that some of the Carthage players - the QB specifically - was just tired of getting hit and didn't really want to hit the WC players when WC had the ball.

The surprise for me so far this season with WC has been the play of Mack Kyle. I wasn't impressed with him last season, a few flashes of raw talent, very little indication of standout quality on a consistent basis. But through 2 games he has shown a raw determination combined with great speed and power as a runner that made the difference offensively last night. There were several carries where he just refused to be denied. He initiated the contact with the defenders - rather than outrun them. He is still learning the offense and has a ways to go, but shows a lot of promise - in my opinion.

For WC to go far this year I see two major things that need to happen. The offense needs to continue to come together. So far their passing attack has been pretty weak - despite having a stellar receiving corps. So far I've been more impressed with Austin Lepper than any of the wide receivers. Whoever it is catching the ball, the passing game must be a real threat in order to open up the ground attack. That is why the 2006 squad faired better (especially late in the season and in the playoffs) than the 2004 and 2005 squads (depsite those earlier teams having more speed and talent in the backfield).

The second key for WC is on defense. Just like last year, they are still finding themselves in these early games and will have to come together for WC to march through the playoffs. Last year it all changed for WC in Pittsburg when they had their backs to the wall. At some point, the light has to go on and the defense has to decide that no matter what we're going to stop people.