By Bret H. McCormick, Journal Sports
The challenge doesn’t get any easier for the Many Tigers this week.
After dropping their second straight game, this one 37-0 against DeRidder, the Tigers will welcome Xavier Ford and the Leesville Wampus Cats to Sabine Parish this week.
The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Ford opened the season with a 298-yard, six-touchdown performance in a loss to Sam Houston. Last week, he was even better, compiling 400 yards and scoring six more times in a victory over Tioga.
Many coach Dillon Barrett said the “million-dollar question” is how the Tigers slow down Ford.
“We’ve got to contain Ford. They have other weapons on offense, but there’s no secret that he’s their main weapon,” Barrett said. “And he’s talented. He’s kind of a (multi-faceted) running back. He can run downhill. He’s fast. For us we have to contain him, obviously. We can’t let him get out into space.”
The Wampus Cats scored on explosive play after explosive play against Tioga, including a 99-yard touchdown pass to freshman Julius Brown.
Limiting explosive plays will be a major point of emphasis for the Tigers, who were bitten by big plays in last week’s loss to DeRidder. The Dragons scored three passing touchdowns of over 40 yards last week, including two to senior Uriah Wade as well as a 70-yard pass from senior Tanner Davis to junior Javaughn Fairley that put Many behind 14-0 in the second quarter.
DeRidder got 245 rushing yards and two touchdowns from its junior running duo of Reed Williams (27-151) and Connor Rushford (14-84). The Dragons led 21-0 at the half and scored two more touchdowns as well as a safety in the third quarter.
“We have to do a really good job of tackling and bringing (Ford) to the ground,” Barrett said.
Offensively, the Tigers must figure out how to get into the end zone after being shut out last week and scoring just once in the Week 1 loss to Logansport.
Barrett said he thought his team did a better job last week of limiting penalties, but they still are being bitten by the turnover bug and missed assignments.
“We have to finish drives,” he said. “We’re moving the ball up and down the field, but we’re struggling to find the end zone. We’re struggling to finish drives.”
He said the Tigers have spent extra time in practice this week trying to get those things ironed out, and he believes they have a good plan in place to attack Leesville.
“We have to get all 11 guys consistently doing their job and executing across the board,” Barrett said.