By DAVID MILLER
Special to The Dispatch
The challenge was simple for the Caledonia High football team: beat man coverage in the passing game to loosen up the box for running back Zion Ford.
The Confederates, who entered Friday’s contest at New Hope with a 3-0 record, appeared ready for it with one of Class 4A’s best quarterbacks in Spencer Unruh.
But a combination of overthrown passes to open receivers, drops and stingy man coverage down the field limited what could have been an explosive night for the ‘Feds, who dropped a 27-24 decision in the Lowndes County rivalry game.
As in wins against Shannon and Okolona, the passing game was hit-or-miss. Though Unruh passed for a season-high 204 yards, he completed just 15 of 44 passes.
“They run to the football and are athletic,” coach Andy Crotwell said of New Hope. “But I felt like if we could get them out of the box a bit, we’d be effective running the football. We just weren’t able to back them up as consistently as we would have liked. If we would have hit some of the passes that were open down the field, it forces them to back up and it’s not quite as muddy inside for us to run it.”
New Hope’s corners Jordan Randle and Willie Ousley combined for seven pass breakups including a trio on passes of 45 yards or more.
“We came in and had to play man a lot,” Randle said, “and whenever they got momentum, we laid back a little bit. That [strategy] helped a lot. Coming in, we saw they ran lot of slants, which had been good for them. We were able to take some of that away, but also the deep ball. I wasn’t surprised because of the work we had done on our deep thirds in practice. We were ready for the deep ball.”
Caledonia’s most versatile player, running back Zion Ford, was held to 48 yards on 12 carries. However, he chipped in 124 receiving yards on just seven catches.
But it was Caledonia’s inability to get Ford going in the running game that led to more pass plays than usual.
“To an extent, we were chasing points,” Crotwell said. “We got cover 0 all night, so we were out-numbered in the box. We tried to throw them out of it, and we had some success at times, but not as much as we would have liked.”
New Hope coach Kris Pickle praised his young corners, noting the fact Ousley is in his first year of playing football, and Randle is just a sophomore.
“Those guys have worked hard to get better each week,” Pickle said. “And we left them in man about 80 percent of the time. We work all week on coverage and trying to put our guys in the best position. We thought whenever they emptied it out, we could get some pressure on them. I think the pressure was the difference. The quarterback is a really good player, makes good decisions. We had him bottled up a couple of times, and he squirts through and gets the ball free.
“We run our base defense, but more than anything, we worked to get pressure on him.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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