Welcome back to The Deep Post, a notebook/column that dissect the happenings of the week past and ahead. This week’s offering digs into Independence’s defensive experience, Westside’s early down woes, the Princeton-Beckley matchup and game balls.
Checkmate Patriots
I came away from the Westside-Independence game thinking the same thing I did going in – Independence, which won 51-13, is a nightmare matchup for the Renegades.
To be fair the Patriots are a nightmare for almost anyone they play – they’re 3-0 against rated double-A teams this year and have led by at least three scores in all three of those contests. But what Westside does well was stymied by Independence. The one advantage the Renegades have against most teams is a dynamic playmaker at QB in Kadien Vance who can hurt you with his legs and arm. Vance isn’t the fastest kid, but he’s elusive and difficult to bring down.
He’s more of a Patrick Mahomes or Dak Prescott than a Lamar Jackson when it comes to his ability to extend plays and elude sacks on designed pass plays.
Independence has already seen two QBs with better atheltic profiles than Vance in Dane Hatfield (Herbert Hoover) and Devin Richardson (Oak Hill). Hatfield ran for 140 yards on 30 carries in a more traditional designed rushing attack while Richardson rushed 13 times for 102 yards. Having seen it, Independence didn’t have to take time to adjust and track Vance. As a result the Patriots sacked him four times in the first half.
Landon Riddle played wide as a pass rusher most of the night and learned from last week’s 21-20 loss at Oak Hill. His pass rush plan helped him net three sacks in the first half.
“Last week I was running past Richardson a couple times, just not breaking down,” Riddle said. “He’s really shifty athlete. I just knew this week we’d have to break down in the open field and make a tackle to get (Vance) down.”
Westside’s Early Down Woes
Independence head coach John H. Lilly probably said it best after his team’s win over Westside.
“Everybody does their homework.”
There wasn’t much surprise Friday as Westside struggled to sustain drives on offense. None of their seven first-half drives netted more than 28 yards. Half of them lasted four plays or less.
The Renegades faced third-and-long (third-and-5 or longer) on eight of the nine third down plays they ran in the first half. The average yardage needed to gain to convert on third down in the first half was 14.5 which is an impossible situation to be in against any defense, especially one that can unload pass rushers from everywhere (Independence has four players with multi-sack games this season) along the defensive front.
Good teams are able to key on Vance and make life difficult when he’s hunting for shots to Kyler Kenneda. Vance accounts for 1,591 yards of total offense, which is all but 344 of the 1,935 the team has accumulated this season. I double checked at halftime and the Renegades had just one player not named Vance register a carry – running back Noah Ellis who had one carry for one yard.
I’m not a “Run the ball!” guy. There’s so much that goes into that from personnel to the number of bodies in the box. My takeaway is that the Renegades need to find a way to win on early downs to make those third downs more manageable.
It’s not really been a major issue up to this point because the schedule hasn’t been overly difficult with the Renegades’ five wins coming against teams that are a combined 8-23. The talent gap swings heavily in Westside’s favor but when it shrinks or swings the other way it’s difficult to generate explosive plays (pass plays of 20-plus yards, rushing plays of 15-plus yards).
On Westside’s first drive of the second half it scored, marching 68 yards in 14 plays, facing third down three times. Only two of those were third-and-long situations – a third-and-goal from the six and a third-and-10 – neither requiring 14.5 yards to convert. While losing is never ideal, this was Westside’s first look at the quality of team it would likely see in the quarterfinal or semifinal round of the playoffs. It comes with a month to go in the regular season and gives Westside an opportunity to work on those issues as the schedule ramps up.
If they can fix that there’s still a lot of reason to be optimistic. If Westside makes a tackle on a third-and-16 check down and gets off the field on a third-and-9 play that resulted in a touchdown pass that was initially ruled incomplete, the Renegades likely go into the half Friday down just 14-0.
If you’re Westside you can feasibly talk yourself into it being a 14-7 game halfway through the third quarter if you make one or two plays on defense.
Westside doesn’t have an Independence on its schedule the rest of the way but games with Tug Valley and Shady Spring should be competitive and give the Renegades an opportunity to test their adjustments against quality opponents.
Princeton-Beckley showdown
I refrain from attaching my opinions in the weekly preview articles I do. But I can add those here.
The Beckley-Princeton matchup this Friday is amongst the most intriguing of the season for me. For those unaware, Princeton running back Marquel Lowe and receiver Brad Mossor will be serving a one-game suspension this Friday after their ejections from the previous game against Winfield were upheld.
Lowe and Mossor have combined for 1,609 yards (989 receiving, 620 rushing) and 25 touchdowns from scrimmage. That doesn’t include the three touchdowns Mossor has on special teams or the impacts those two have on defense where they’re second and third on the team in tackles.
Beckley starting QB Gage Price dressed but didn’t play Friday against Riverside but it’s my understanding that was a coaching decision as opposed to anything injury related. He should be available to go against Princeton.
What makes this matchup intriguing to me is how Princeton’s offense elects to attack the Beckley defense. The cupboard isn’t bare. Chance Barker was a first team all-state QB a year ago and is on pace to earn such honors again. Daniel Jennings, a Penn State commit who’s made his name as an edge rusher on defense, averages 10.8 yards per carry on 29 rushes and 11.8 yards per catch on five receptions. I’ve been told several DI coaches were recruiting him as a tight end, so he has the talent as a receiver.
It seems likely most of Princeton’s offense will funnel through Jennings in some capacity Friday. The question is how they do it? The coaching staff likes some of their younger skill players at running back so there’s a world where Jennings could work as a receiver, drawing the attention of defensive backs Preston Clary and A.J. Thomas. That would keep some of the attention off of secondary receivers Wyatt Cline and Garrett Mays, giving them more favorable matchups.
Cline had the best game of his career last year against Parkersburg South when he caught five passes for 90 yards and a touchdown when South keyed on eventual Kennedy winner Dom Collins, so he’s capable of stepping up in a spot like this.
Or maybe it’s an Occam’s razor situation and you hand the ball 25 times to the D1 athletic freak who has an extremely talented offensive line in front of him and a QB that can punish teams that load the box.
For Beckley I wouldn’t expect a deviation from what it’s done all season and that’s run the ball. The Flying Eagle offense has a big offensive line and a run game that uses misdirection. That’s a formula for success against a team down two linebackers.
There’s been an assumption that the absence of Mossor and Lowe spells certain doom for Princeton. The Tigers are too talented across the board to assume the outcome one way or another. They’ll still have Barker, Jennings, Landyn Moore and Kalum Kiser as blue chip talents. It should be a fun matchup for football enthusiasts.
Game Balls
- Brock Green, Independence – Green had a few passes that should’ve been intercepted but he doesn’t seem to dwell on the mistakes. He followed the game plan and hit his receivers in space when the box was loaded to stop running back Sylas Nelson. It led to a 200-yard passing half and win.
- Willis Wilson, Bluefield – Wilson rushed for 129 yards and three touchdowns in a win over PikeView. Wilson now has a 100-yard rushing game and a 100-yard receiving game. The only other area player to accomplish that feat this year is Princeton running back Marquel Lowe.
- Layton Dowdy, James Monroe – Dowdy threw 27 touchdown passes two years ago as a sophomore and 17 last year. As it stands he’ll likely finish below the double digit mark with just three touchdown passes through seven games. But he’s leaned on his legs to help provide his team with production, rushing for over 400 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns. On the defensive side he’s moved up to linebacker to help shore up the defense that hasn’t yielded more than eight points since Week 2.
- Nathan Easley, Shady Spring – Through six games Easley has seven interceptions which is believed the be tops in the state.
- Landon Riddle, Independence – Riddle was a force player Friday against Westside with three sacks. His fumble recovery touchdown felt like a perfect reward for that level of effort.
- Korbin Nunn, Montcalm – It flew under the radar but Montcalm’s defense had a nice effort Friday. Nunn led it with two interceptions on a night where the Generals forced four turnovers.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter/X @tjack94
