Preview: Vandalia opens season Friday against Oilers
Going into the first week of any season, every team has questions, whether it has returned every starter from the year before or hasn’t returned any. Every team has doubts heading into their first game and no team has any guarantees.This Friday, the Vandals will get answers to a lot of the questions that have been swarming around in their minds the past few weeks.
Vandalia will be traveling to play EA-Wood River on Friday. The Oilers are coming off a 2-7 season. Their only two wins came against Pana, whhich finished the season 0-9, and Gillespie, which was 3-6 overall.
Last season, when Vandalia played Wood River, it was a one- sided battle, with the Vandals coming out on top, 37-0.
Vandalia’s defense completely shut down the Oilers offense, that managed to get just four first downs and were 1-for-10 on third-down conversions. They amassed just 38 yards of total offense. Wood River was forced to punt seven times. The Vandals intercepted two of Troy Gibson’s passes. Vandalia was forced to punt only once.
The Vandals ran all over the Oilers, literally. They ran the ball 59 times for 389 yards. Drew Bell had a team-high 107 yards and the Vandalia offense scored five times on the ground.
Bell threw just two passes, completing one. Will Cowger had four tackles, two for a loss totaling -20 yards.
Just like Vandalia, EA-Wood has lost a majority of its starters from last season. Gibson, who threw for almost 900 yards, graduated along with the Oilers, top three running threats, Anthony Ballinger, Gibson and Corey Valdes.
This season’s starting quarterback, Colby Hall, has only thrown 11 passes at the varsity level, as he saw limited action last season. Jake Hughes and Eric King will make up Wood River’s running game, and neither of them had more than 20 total yards on the ground last season.
Even though more than 60 percent of the plays the Oilers ran last season were running plays, Vandalia expects a pass heavy attack on Friday. Wood River has its No. 2 receiver back from last season in Hall. But Hall won’t be able to catch the ball, as he will be the one throwing it. He was second on the team with 18 grabs and 180 yards, exactly 10-yards a catch. Hall was tied for first in touchdown catches with three. Wood River’s receiving game will have to depend on whole new group of receiving corps that saw most of the action from the sidelines last fall. John Stimac is the only returning wide receiver who had a catch last fall. He had two grabs for 34 yards and touchdown.
The Oilers defense has sustained just as much damage from graduation as the offense did. Six of Wood River’s top seven tacklers are gone. Hall leads all returning players with 16 tackles from the defensive back position. Last season, EA didn’t force very many turnovers. It had just five interceptions on defense, while Gibson threw 11 picks on offense.
Lack of interceptions and only three sacks on defense show that the Oilers don’t keep much pressure on the quarterback. When Marty Johnson does drop back, he should have a lot of time to pass.
Last year, the Oilers tackling statistics were spread out among 25 players, with most players having more assists than solo tackles. This shows that Wood River relies heavily on gang tackling to stop the ball.
The stat that a running team like Vandalia needs to look at is tackles for a loss. Last season, Wood River had 19 tackles for a loss, totaling 83 yards. That’s more than two a game and more than 4 yards a hit. If Vandalia is only stopped behind the line twice on Friday for 10-yards or less, then it should consider the running game a success.
As stated earlier, the first game of the season is always the hardest to prepare for. Teams have a basic idea about who the other team has back from last season and has some film of the other team, but they won’t really know what they are going up against until the ball is snapped. Wood River may have fixed all the flaws in its game from last year, but with so many new players in the starting lineup, it is hard to tell.
Vandalia will have some of the same challenges that the Oilers have, as the Vandals will be putting Johnson in the varsity quarterback starters’ role for the first time. Running backs Cory Bunker and Drew Stewart will also be carrying the rushing load for the first time.
The Vandals offense, although it doesn’t have a lot varsity experience, should be able to move the ball against Wood River’s defense. The Oilers high numbers in assisted tackles should be in the running backs minds as they take the first hit. They are playing a team that often needs two or three guys to stop the ball. When Johnson is dropping back to pass, he should be able to see that Wood River doesn’t put much pressure on the quarterback and he should use the time his offensive line gives him to hit his targets.
If Vandalia’s predictions are right, and Wood River does throw the ball on Friday night, then they should keep pressure on Hall. With only 11 passes to his credit and an inexperienced group at receiver, Hall will make mistakes when the likes of Cowger comes banging through the line.
Kickoff is Friday, at 7 p.m. at EA-Wood River High School. Wood River is about 1 hour and 10 minutes west of Vandalia.
