LAURENS — Newberry Academy Head Coach Benji Sease said they have concentrated most of their work this week on the defensive side of the ball to get better after a tough 70-28 loss to Greenwood Christian last week.
“We could not stop Greenwood Christian on offense all night,” Sease said. “They scored every time they had the ball except for their last possession.”
However, Sease said offensively last week, the Eagles did some good things including running the ball, which they have not done much of this year. Sease said they threw with some success.
The Eagles travel to take on Laurens Academy tonight with a kick off time of 5 p.m. The game time was changed Thursday due to impending severe weather.
Although the Academy’s middle school team did not play Laurens Academy last year, Sease said they played their middle school team two weeks ago and were able to pull out a win on the last play of the game.
Two years ago, the Eagles played them twice and lost to them both times, Sease said.
Sease said offensively that Laurens is very much like them.
“They will run the spread mostly and try to throw the ball a lot,” Sease said. “They have a very good quarterback who has a cannon for an arm.”
Laurens Academy will score, Sease said, but Newberry Academy will have to make some stops.
“If we can do that we will be OK,” Sease said.
On defense, Sease said Laurens runs a three-man front and a four-man front, but will probably stick with the three-man front against the Eagles.
“They have some good athletes over there,” Sease said. “Laurens will also be very well coached on both sides of the ball.”
For tonight’s game, the Eagles’ game plan is simple on offense: to get a few stops.
Sease said he knows Laurens will score but as coaches they need to keep their players from getting dejected when that happens and help them keep their heads in the game.
“Our offensive strategy is simple: Score more points than they score,” he said.
The Eagles will run their offense as normal, Sease said, which he thinks will help them score against Laurens.
“Hopefully we score a few more points than they do when the horn sounds,” Sease said.
Sease said the team has been well supported by its fans this year, even including last week when conditions were sloppy.
“We hope they take the short ride up to Laurens to hopefully cheer our team to victory this Friday night,” Sease said.