Cole Dillard (left), Alex Taylor and the rest of the Central Tigers will be going for their ninth win on Friday night when they close the regular season at Warner. (Mike Erwin•TIMES)
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
The Tigers clinched the second spot in the league last week with its 22-0 win over Keota, and Central is 8-1 overall and 7-1 in the district.
Warner is 2-7 and 1-7 after the Eagles beat Porum 41-19 for their first league victory last Friday. The Eagles opened the season with an 11-7 non-district win at Chouteau but they had lost seven consecutive games before last Friday’s triumph.
“They have been hurt by injuries,” remarked Central head coach Wade Couch said.
Couch was not pleased with his team’s offensive performance last week at Keota.
“Effort and attitude will be points of emphasis this week because those are the only things we can control,” said Couch.
Some of Warner’s key players on offense are running backs Cody Coffman and Ray King (6-foot, 185 pounds), tailback Dylan Byrd (5-5, 165), quarterback Glen Norton (6-0, 205), Matt Denton ( 6-1, 235) and Tyler Barbosa (6-1, 225).
Coffman rushed for 133 yards and three touchdowns (11, 4 and 15 yards) on 18 attempts against Porum, and King ran for an 8-yard touchdown and returned a kickoff 85 yards for another TD.
“Their second team quarterback was injured last week, but when he’s in there they’ll run 5-wide and pass the ball. He’s scrappy, maneuverable and athletic. If he’s in there, we have to be really sound in our pass rush. Our defensive ends (Cole Dillard and Joe Gibson) have to continue doing a good job of containing, and we need to improve our pass rush up the middle.”
Three of Warner’s key defensive players are linemen Colton Purdom (6-2, 265) and Scott Sanders (6-0, 205) and linebacker Tim Allison (6-0, 195).
The Eagles’ base defenses are the 4-3 and the 5-3.
“The 5-3 is a concern because it is difficult to run against,” said Couch. “If the field is dry we should be able to get outside and run toss and some misdirection plays, but that was difficult last week on a messy field.
“They are very fundamental and sound on defense. No. 99 is an inside lineman and a big, physical kid who plays very tough, and he is a concern.
“We need to shore up our blocking techniques because they were just miserable the other night. Even our seniors made mistakes and it was very frustrating. We also need to increase our intensity and improve our fundamentals.
“When we do things the right way we can be special on offense, but if we don’t, we’re average.”
