Woodland snatched crosstown bragging rights last week from Ramay. Now the Cowboys will ride that swagger into a Week 2 match on the road at Springdale George today.
George is coming off a loss to defending Northwest Arkansas Conference champion Springdale Southwest. Woodland jumped out to a 14-0 lead before holding off Ramay, 14-7, in its season opener.
Woodland coach Bobby Crockett listed Ramay as one of the potential favorites in the conference. With the Indians out of the way for now, Woodland’s attention turns to George. This year’s Cowboys lost to George last season as eighth graders. The ninthgrade Cowboys pummeled George in 2005, 28-0.
“ Don’t let George’s loss last week to Southwest be deceiving because they’re a very good football team, ” Crockett said. “ They’re very capable. This is a completely different bunch than last year. They’ve got a good quarterback and an aggressive defense. They can definitely give us some problems. ”
Problems were exactly what Woodland caused for Ramay last week. The Indians turned the ball over on their first three possessions.
“ We capitalized on some turnovers and that was definitely the difference in the game, ” Crockett said. “ We put a lot of pressure on Ramay and a couple of times they carried the ball a little loose and we got lucky enough to recover the fumbles.
“ I feel a lot better seeing the way the new defense performed. We still have a long way to go but a lot of positives came out of that game. ”
Crockett lauded the effort of his Cowboys, who mustered maximum output from a shallow roster of contributors. Crockett said before the season began that a lack of depth would exist as a problem for his team this year. That weakness was masked against Ramay.
“ I thought our guys played extremely hard and competed all game long, ” Crockett said. “ We had several kids who never came off the field. Those are the things that impressed our coaching staff. ”
While the want-to was there throughout the opener, Crockett saw much room for improvement.
“ We have to get better at wrapping up and tackling, ” Crockett said. “ The long screen pass that Ramay had in the fourth quarter that set up their touchdown — we had six missed tackles on that play. Tackling’s going to be an area we need to continue to work on.
“ I think on the offensive line we’ve got to do a better job of taking care of our assignments. ”
Quarterback J. T. McCormick and tailback Michael Heintzman led the charge against Ramay last week. McCormick passed for 39 yards and rushed for 68 yards on 22 tries, including a one-yard touchdown plunge. Heintzman dashed for 54 yards on the ground with a nine-yard scoring bolt and hauled in a 25-yard reception. Crockett said he will need another strong performance from both against George today.
Crockett had called the downfield blocking of his wide receiver corps into question prior to the season opener. But he said that area of concern was corrected with a respectable outing versus the Indians.
Defensively, the Cowboys held Ramay scoreless until the final frame. Middle linebacker Gareth Booth and cornerback Reid Murry earned Crockett’s praise.
“ Gareth was full speed all night and really stood out, ” Crockett said. “ Reid had a great game in the secondary with an interception. The whole defense played well but those two went above and beyond. ”
Crockett said his entire defensive unit will need to assemble that brand of moxie to deter a George offense geared toward misdirection.
“ They will have two, three and four wide and a variation of sets in the backfield, ” Crockett said. “ Any time a team puts a lot of kids in motion, it gets your kids’ heads spinning and worries you defensively. ”
Crockett also expressed concern about a possible Ramay hangover. The Cowboys pinpointed their attention in practice this week on keeping the competitive inferno burning.
“ We talked about staying focused, ” Crockett said. “ We played about as well as we could last Thursday and we’ve talked about how we can’t have a letdown after a big victory. ”
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