Lakeside and Malvern are both looking to take a winning record into the conference season as the Rams and Leopards prepare to face off in Friday's final non-conference contest at Chick Austin Field.
After picking up its first win last fall with a 35-7 rout of the Leopards in Malvern, Lakeside (1-1) looks to pick up its second win in as many weeks.
"They're an improved ball team for sure, and we're going to have to play assignment football to compete," said Lakeside head coach Jared McBride. "They're going to stretch the field for us offensively, so a little different than last week. ... We're going to have to make sure we're solid with our scheme and keep them in front of us."
With a new coach at the helm of the Leopards program in J.D. Plumlee, McBride recognizes a spark of growth in the program while also considering the possibility that the 4A team may introduce new and transitional tactics in every phase of their game.
"It's a different coaching staff for them this year," he said. "They've had a change there so their schemes have changed offensively and defensively. ... You've got to throw that out the window and prepare for what you've seen so far this year. They've proven that they're getting better each week."
Plumlee is no stranger to McBride or the way he coaches.
"I think it's going to be a good game," he said. "I worked for Jared early in my career, and he's a phenomenal coach. He's got a great staff and his kids are going to play extremely hard."
After going 0-10 a year ago, Plumlee has stepped in with a plan to lead the Leopards (1-1) back to the reputation the program held in years past. He anticipates his players will receive good experience playing up against a larger conference team.
"I'm new here, and we're changing the culture trying to get it back to where it needs to be," he said. "We're spending a lot of time just worrying about ourselves. ... We're demanding right now [that] one of our non-negotiables is that we're going to play extremely hard every snap, that we're going to win and lose with character, and build on that. I'm excited about the opportunity.
"We're a 4A school going up against a 5A school; it's only 15 miles down the road, so it's going to be a great atmosphere. Lakeside's a beautiful place and is going to have a good crowd, so we're just excited about the opportunity to play another football game on a Friday night."
In preparation for the 5A South conference schedule, the Rams are still looking to find the ideal lineup while looking at the multiple athletes rotating in for the Leopards.
"They rotate several kids in; they're young like we are," said McBride. "They're trying to figure out who does the job best. We've seen several running backs, several guys that have been able to catch the ball for them, and they've played a couple of quarterbacks, so we've got to just defend whoever's in the game.
"Hopefully we'll improve this week like we did last week. [We're] still trying to put our pieces together to figure out what the best combination is for us to play. We've got conference starting next week with Camden, so we've really got to use this week to continue to get better and get ready for our tough conference schedule."
Despite the 63-34 loss to Lake Hamilton last week, Malvern's Christian Warren stuffed the stat sheet with seven catches for 155 yards against the Wolves and is expected to have another big game.
The Leopards look to junior quarterback Braxton Allen who threw for 197 yards with three touchdowns in the Lake Hamilton game along with freshman Cedric Simmons who will lead the offense after 7-for-10 passing and rushing for 80 yards last week.
"We're going to use both quarterbacks. Try to be methodical and strategic when we take our shots, but also try to keep the ball in our possession as long as we can so we can keep it out of Lakeside's hands," Plumlee said.
Plagued by inexperience, the Leopards see an opportunity to gain knowledge and improvement as the players continue to work and grow in each of their positions.
"Not all of them play, but we have nine seniors, so we are very young," added Plumlee. "We take it as an opportunity to learn and grow through every snap and get better as the game goes on, and we've done that the last two weeks where we've gained more knowledge with our positions.
"We're really young in all of our skill positions, so when you have an oppportunity to go play against an opponent that's going to give a different look or cause different problems, [it's] an opportunity to grow; that's the way we look at it. We've got a bunch of guys who are playing positions that they've never played before, so this will be the third game that they're playing that new position."
With a focus on solidfying the Leopards' offense, Plumlee understands the threat of Lakeside's defense on scoring.
"Lakeside's defense causes problems because they're an odd-front team that moves around a lot," he said. "They try not to give you the same look too much, so you've got to be really sound up front on offense when you're facing a defense like that. Their secondary guys are good, smart football players and offensively, coach McBride has a really good scheme. He's got good running backs. ... The Echols kid is real shifty back there; when he gets in space, he's hard to tackle.
"His quarterback is well-coached; a very smart kid [who] throws a nice football. He doesn't put the ball in danger a whole lot, and that's just a great attribute that coach McBride teaches his quarterbacks to always take care of the football. He puts his team in really good situations every snap, and so we have to be real sound on defense, and we just have to ride to the football, tackle, not give up any cheap touchdowns and make them earn them. For us offensively, we've got to get the ball to our playmakers in space, let them use some speed that we have to get out, and I think it's going to come down to the wire."
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday night.
Sports on 09/19/2019