Grenada brings potent ‘O’ to WC|[9/01/06]
Published 12:00 am Friday, September 1, 2006
In its three previous meetings with Warren Central, Grenada High has yet to taste victory.
That fact was on the mind of both Grenada coach John McCrory and WC’s Curtis Brewer this week.
“We hadn’t had much luck with them,” McCrory said. “They’ve basically outplayed us. They haven’t made many mistakes against us, but we have.”
Case in point, last year’s meeting in Grenada. The Vikings pulled out a 22-11 decision, largely on the strength of an 86-yard fumble return by Tiger Robinson.
“That fumble return and then we hurt ourselves in the kicking game when we muffed a punt on our own 2,” McCrory said.
Brewer remembers a Viking team that was struggling emotionally and with a stout Charger defense.
“We lost Chico (Hunter) in the middle of that game and that had an effect,” Brewer said of last year’s top returning player who injured his knee against Grenada. Hunter never got back on the field.
“Then our offense wasn’t making first downs,” Brewer said. The Vikings had just 127 yards in total offense for the game.
Grenada’s defense is strong again with seven returning seniors. They were impressive in dismantling Greenwood 55-6 in their opener last week.
“They’re very aggressive,” Brewer said.
Four of the seven are in the front four which consists of Brandon Miller, Sean Turner, Antonio Drinkwater and Willie DeLoach. Maurice Gray and A.J. Topps key the Charger linebackers.
“The four linemen are excellent run stoppers and bring a great deal of pressure when defending the pass,” Brewer said. “All four of the linebackers are very good. They are fast and play hard nosed football.”
The Vikings will counter with an offense that did to Memphis Kirby what last year’s unit could not do against a handful of opponents, including Grenada, and that is move the chains.
“We did an extremely good job with holding on to the football,” Brewer said. “We had some holding penalties that backed us up, but overall I thought our line did good with their blocking assignments. The only negative was when we went to a power-I, we couldn’t make a yard.”
The Vikings beat Kirby 37-0 and in the process got big games from the backfield. Fullback Vic Tyrone picked up 101 yards while tailback Michael Holt chipped in 93 and quarterback Jakoby Johnson had 68.
Grenada’s offense is potent, led by a new quarterback in junior Oliver Hughes.
“They are an explosive team and can run the option well. But I think their strong suit is the short passing game,” Brewer said.
Hughes completed 12 of 17 passes for 219 yards and four touchdowns in the Greenwood romp. Three of the TD tosses went to split end Demarcus Tidwell.
“Our quarterback had a good night,” McCrory said. “He made good decisions and accounted himself well. We just need to avoid mistakes and execute better.”
“They really like the zero-hitch screens and then run a deep 7 route with the tall receiver (Tidwell),” Brewer added.