AMERICUS —
Southland recovered from a 14-point hole to beat Brookwood in the opener last week.
The Raiders may not be able to afford to fall behind tonight.
They travel to Mount de Sales, which scored touchdowns four different ways last week, including two on special teams, as the Cavaliers won 34-14 over Brentwood.
Coach Tim Goodin said MdS will probably the biggest and fastest team the Raiders face this season.
Southland fell behind 27-7 at the half last season to the Cavaliers before rallying for a 28-27 win.
“This is definitely one of the better teams we’re going to play,” said Goodin. “They have a ton of athletes, and they are similar to last year. I don’t know how similar we are. We did it against them last year, and if we get in that situation, I hope we can do it again. I’d rather not get in that situation. I’d like to get ahead and be ahead.”
MdS rushed for 345 yards last week, including 228 from Myles Swain. The Cavaliers didn’t play with the suspended Chris Swain, who is their top running back. Quarterback Bradley Smith had 78 yards on six attempts and passed for a touchdown while MdS also scored on a kick and punt return.
Goodin said the Swain brothers and the MdS offense will be a big challenge for the Raider defense.
“They can run and throw against anybody; that makes it harder to prepare. They can hurt you in a lot of ways,” he said. “We have to keep the ball away from their big-play threats when we punt and kick off. We definitely have to tackle well when they get out to the perimeter. They also have that big fullback (Chris Swain) that runs hard. We have to be tough inside. It’s never good to play anybody who’s big and fast.”
MdS scored three touchdowns that were 68 yards and longer, and the Cavaliers averaged almost 14 yards a rushing attempt.
“Most of the yardage they had were in big plays; they weren’t grounded out in chunks,” said Goodin. “We’ve got to limit the big plays, not only on special teams, but at the line of scrimmage.
“We’ve got to defend what they do best, and that will be hard because they throw it and run it well. It’ll be a tough task. We’ll try to match up and get a hand on some cloth and make tackles in the open field.”
Southland had 290 total yards last week, including 225 on the ground. Collin Holloway rushed for 147 yards and a score and had 201 total yards and two touchdowns. He also had seven tackles on the defensive line.
Goodin said, however, Holloway will start at linebacker tonight.
“I feel like he can play both ways a little better at linebacker because of the wear and tear on the defensive line,” he said.
Goodin said he thought the Raiders were more physical at the line of scrimmage last year, helping them come back to win. He’s not sure what to expect this time.
“I think we’re hoping to be more physical than they are and run right at them,” he said. “To negate speed, we’ll try to run right at them. To win this game against this kind of opponent, we have got to control the ball. We have to keep it long periods of time. If I could pick the way the game went, I’d like to score about five times and each score be 12-play drives that ate the clock up.
“When you’re playing someone that’s a quick scoring team, if you can score and stay ahead and use more of the clock, they get anxious. They’ll try to throw deep and not be as effective.”
Goodin does believe Southland will have to score a lot of points to win.
“I’m confident we’re going to play hard, but it’s a little bit unknown about the opponent we’re playing and us,” he said. “I do know they have enough talent that if we don’t play well, they could beat us pretty bad. But if we play well, we’ve got a good chance to win.”
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Related Photos
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Southland’s Lawton Williams (left) drives Ryan Johnson during blocking drills at Tuesday’s practice. Williams led the Raiders with 14 tackles last week. Chris Whitaker/ATR
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