Hot Springs found itself in a similar situation on this corresponding Friday last year, playing De Queen after beating Hope.
Trying to avenge last year's 29-28 loss in Sevier County, coach Chris Vereen hopes the similarities end there when he faces his former team tonight at Reese Memorial Stadium.
Both teams are 1-1 in 5A-South, with "a much improved" De Queen 2-3 and Hot Springs 1-4 overall.
"The guys coaching there now, most of them I coached with when I was at De Queen," Vereen said, explaining the Leopards run their offense out of a Pro I. "They've got a really good fullback, Hunter Earney. Their tailback is a really good player. They're big and physical up front. Honestly, it's almost like playing ourselves. They want to run the football. They're only going to throw it five or six times a game."
Earney "struggled last week against (Watson) Chapel," Vereen said.
"I know the night they beat Nashville (49-42 in Week 2) he had over 300 all-purpose yards. When he played against Hope, he had another 300 yard all-purpose night. He's had some pretty impressive numbers during the year."
De Queen prefers to run the ball, he said, with junior fullback Adrian Mendoza breaking through the defensive line.
Referring to De Queen coach Stephen Sloan, "He's got some big ol' linemen up front," Vereen said. "He's got a big bruiser for a fullback and a good tailback out of Earney. It's almost like our game plan. They want to line up and play smashmouth football."
The Leopards run a 4-3 defensive scheme, and "it's almost like it's a mirror image of what we do defensively," Vereen said. "... They're going to walk some outside linebackers up, put another guy in the box. Sometimes they'll actually walk a safety all the way up on the line of scrimmage trying to play some games."
Hot Springs has prepared for any De Queen trickery, Vereen said.
"This week, we call it a scramble defense period. Every Friday night, we always get a look that we aren't ready for, that we've never seen before, because of the offense we run. We kinda let the players make their own adjustments and spent some time going over blocking rules."
Last week, five Trojans scored in a 34-7 victory over visiting Hope.
"We become so much better offensively when we're able to spread it around," Vereen said. "That was the closest we've been to executing a game plan. We want to keep people off balance, spreading it out that much between our backs."
Moreover, "The last two weeks our defense has really stepped up and got a lot better. They really played a good ball game against Watson Chapel and turned in a really good performance against Hope."
De Queen figures to attack Hot Springs at the Trojans' weakest link, he said.
"We've really struggled with stopping the run. It is concerning. I think our defense has really stepped up."
The 21-14 road loss to Watson Chapel in Week 4 still haunts Vereen: "We had it won. We got the ball with three minutes left to go, running out the clock, and we fumble on second and two. We should be sitting at 2-0. It's going to determine playoffs."
Ball control has been an issue for the Trojans, one that they have focused on daily.
"We've been doing ball security and ballhandling every day of the week," Vereen said. "That's one of the things. With two run teams coming together, that's what it's going to come down to."
Sports on 10/06/2017