Week five thoughts

[cardsfan]

SOUTH SHELBY 33 MONROE CITY 0. Another strong effort from SS defense Friday at MC. They have not allowed more than a TD in any of their 4 games other than Macon (when they allowed 5 in the 2nd quarter). This game was a 6 - 0 game at halftime. SS got the ball to start the 2nd half and Bertrand hit a long TD run on the first play of the half. After a defensive stop, Bertrand had another long run to the 1 yard line, TD on the next play. This really put the game away as MC was really not able to get much going offensively in the 2nd half. MC had chances in the first half but several key penalties backed them up an d they were unable to cash in. I continue to be concerned about SS's ability to consistently move the ball and sustain drives. Defenses are really stacking the box and SS hasn't shown any ability to run wide at all (just not enough speed to get outside) or to throw the ball with any consistency to make teams pay for this. SS's d-line was again the star of this game. I believe I heard they had 9 sacks and several other tackles for loss. MC had no success running the ball at all. SS defense has allowed negative rushing yards last 2 games--Clark and MC. I believe Bertrand had over 250 yards, his move to the feature back role the past 2 weeks has worked well for Coach Wilt.

South gets Palmyra for Homecoming this week. Palmyra had an easy 35 - 0 win over Lousiana on Friday night so they should have a bit of confidence. I understand that Louisiana is missing several starters with injury--according to their coach on the KRES postgame show, they had 5 starters out, 4 lost for the season. For a struggling program with short numbers to start, it's likely most of those would start both ways. So I don't know if we would assume that the decisive score really indicates that Palmyra represents a great challenge to SS this week--I'd tend to think not. Not that SS is good enough to overlook anybody but I still think if SS plays well, this should be a comfortable win.

Clark County apparently found some semblance of a running game against Macon but from comments I've heard I don't know if that game was even as close as the 32 - 14 score might indicate. Clark staggers into the Brookfield game looking to avoid a 4 game losing streak. Maybe the familiar environs of an old Tri-Rivers opponent will allow them to get their mojo back.

Mark Twain tested Centralia for a while at least. Putting up 28 against Centralia is a nice feat. Jameson is a very good player. Centralia chugs along. CCC fans peak ahead to district play with anticipation of the Brookfield/Centralia/Macon matchups. I'd still expect that the district and CCC championships come down to the Centralia/Macon game at Centralia on the last day of the regular season.

Brookfield rolled Highland as expected. What do we make of Brookfield? They had impressive opening game win over Mark Twain. Close win over a good, not great Marceline team in the Bell game, then routine wins over lesser teams. I'm interested to see how they match up with Clark County but their real test comes in first 2 weeks of district, hosting Centralia then travel to Macon.

I hope coaches and players are enjoying this season in the CCC. As a fan, it's certainly fun to see so many games week after week featuring quality matchups. Anybody missing Clark County/North Shelby showdown?

[catnip]

i didnt know macon's 32-14 win indicated that it was close lol.

[TEDNEMO]

"from comments I've heard I don't know if that game was even as close as the 32 - 14 score might indicate." A reasonable person would interpret this NOT as saying the game was close but rather that the game was NOT EVEN as close as the score would indicate. For example, if Macon only beats Highland by 40 this week but they led by 40 at the half, then one could reasonably say that the 40-0 score was "not even as close as the score might indicate."

Or were you just being loony?

[cardsfan]

Thanks Ted. Thought that was clear enough. Will use shorter sentences in future. Avoid confusion.

[TigerDad5]

It was a hard fought game. 12-0 at half. Macon had three drives that should have turned into points but did not, give CC some credit for that. This was the fist game the JV didn't play to run out the clock. Macon was a little off as compared to previous weeks because CC slowed down Macon's ability to run right or up the middle as well as normal, but Macon was able to run left for huge chunks all night. The most impressive feat of the evening, Macon getting the ball back with 9:16 left in the game after CC's second score and running out the clock. Bottom line though, Macon looked human on Friday and CC looked improved as compared to the previous week. I think the game was exactly what the Tiger's needed, a nice home win over a respected conference foe, some adversity, 4 quarters for the varsity, staying fairly healthy, and plenty to work on in the future weeks in preparation for districts. I can't put my fingers on it but I left the game concerned, which doesn't make sense after a 32-14 game, I am not classifying this game as a blow out or "not as close as the score indicated", in fact I would say the opposite, this game was actually closer than the score indicated. If CC could have won the turn over battle, the game could have been very interesting.

[catnip]

i agree. clark county came out in the second half and ran the ball well. if they would have played the first half as well as the second half it may have been a much closer game.