After taking a 42-21 win over Magnolia last week on the road to move to 1-1 in 5A South play, Lakeside is ready to board the bus again as the Rams travel to Texarkana to face off against the Razorbacks on Friday at Razorback Field.
"We're in good shape," Lakeside head coach Jared McBride said. "Our kids played hard, and we went down, got a good victory. Our kids have some bumps and bruises, but we're all good to go."
The Rams (3-2, 1-1 5A South) could not get a handle on the Razorbacks (3-1, 2-0) last season in a 48-14 loss. After a good week of practice preparing for tomorrow's matchup, McBride is anticipating that it will require substantial energy from his team to take down their opponent.
"They were very good last year," McBride said. "You know, one of the best teams in the state. They sent, I think, four of those kids off to play college football. They've still got some good, young talent around. They're gonna be fast and physical, and it's gonna take a full team effort out of us to come out of this with a win.
"And we've had a good week of preparation. They're similar to us offensively, so we feel like we know how to line up to that type of offense. One thing we can't simulate is their speed, and that's something we'll have to adjust to quick in the game."
Texarkana has multiple weapons that the Rams will have to find and shut down.
"They've got football players in all aspects of the game," said McBride. "[We] gotta be careful with who we kick the ball to. The quarterback for them kind of drives their offense; he spreads it around, and he can beat you with his feet. Also defensively, they're gonna be big and fast. We just gotta be prepared in all aspects of the game.
"We've gotta be able to execute. For us, it'll be just be not turning the ball and hopefully getting them to turn over a couple times, giving us more opportunities to score."
To move up in conference play, McBride is looking at a couple of his guys to step up on the ground game, control the ball and start fast, which helped propel them to last week's victory. Quarterback Will Ross is 70-for-112 passing for 1,085 yards so far this season while running backs Dealond Lewis and Isaac Echols have tallied 72 carries for 399 yards and 51 carries for 290 yards, respectively.
"Ross has done a fantastic job at leading our offense," he noted. "Lewis and Echols have run the ball hard for us, and we've got to continue to get them the ball. Chase Cross and Logan White[are] both producing for us at receiver and Brock Garner has done a fantastic job on our offense, but everything kind of goes around Will Perrigo. He does a great job for us on offense and defense, and we've got to continue to do that."
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
Sports on 10/10/2019