Hillsboro travels to London
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The Hillsboro Indians have yet to lose on the road this season, and they are looking to keep the streak alive this Friday night as they travel to face the London Red Raiders in South Central Ohio League play.
Hillsboro currently stands at 5-2 overall with wins over Western Brown, Gallia Academy, Dayton Stebbins, Blanchester and Madison-Plains this season.
The win against the Golden Eagles last week was their first SCOL win of the
season.
The Red Raiders started their season strong, but since then have lost to Clinton-Massie, Jonathan Alder and Miami Trace. The loss to the Panthers came in double overtime last week at Miami Trace High School by a score of 24-21.
Spicer said London has athletes, who compare size wise to the Clinton-Massie Falcons, and are bigger than most teams they've played this season.
"London is probably the second best team we will play all season," Spicer said. "They like to use a pro-slot offense and run a lot of I-Back, off set and Weak back-I. It's a more conventional offense."
The Red Raiders like to get the football to their running backs, with a few plays scripted for their fullbacks. But, the HHS head coach said LHS will mix in some quick hitches if they catch a team napping on their passing game.
"Their quarterback is a solid kid. They like to run him," Spicer said. "That's their style, and he is a field general. We will also have to keep an eye out on their backup quarterback. He also runs the offense well.
"Both of their backs are running threats and with the fullback he usually gets the ball on counters."
Spicer said the Red Raiders weren¹t as physical as Massie, but prepping for LHS was like prepping for Madison-Plains, in the fact they both use a lot of fullback-tailback sets.
Defensively the Red Raiders are aggressive, coming at teams with an odd man front. LHS will have six down lineman near the goal line.
"London has good skill guys in their secondary who will get to the football," Spicer said. "As a whole on defense they don't miss many tackles, and that shows they are well coached. Their linebackers are good and they do a lot of things well."
Spicer said the challenge for his Indian squad will be to see how the LHS defense will attack them. If they try to take away the pass, that could open up the running game, or vice-versa.
"If they load up the box, we will throw more," Spicer said. "That is what Madison-Plains did to us last week and we had a good passing day."
Again, the Tribe's defense keeps improving each week, which is a point of emphasis for the Indians¹ head coach.
"We have improved tremendously on defense since the first week, and we have stayed relatively healthy," Spicer said. "We knew at the start of the season our defense would take time and right now the kids are comfortable.
"When that happens we get more aggressive and as a coach, you get excited about that. We are peaking at the right time."
The Indians are still working on their offense, struggling at times in the past few weeks.
"We feel we should score 30-plus point a game, and gain 300 yards of offense each week," Spicer said. "We will take the wins, but we need to work on our short yardage game. We had a too many third/fourth and shorts where we didn't make first downs last week."
A win this week's guarantees the Tribe a winning season, their first since 2005.
"We are undefeated on the road so far and we still have two left," Spicer said. "To gain a winning record you must win on the road. Winning on the road is tough no mater who you play."
The Indians and Red Raiders play in London at 7:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]
Hillsboro currently stands at 5-2 overall with wins over Western Brown, Gallia Academy, Dayton Stebbins, Blanchester and Madison-Plains this season.
The win against the Golden Eagles last week was their first SCOL win of the
season.
The Red Raiders started their season strong, but since then have lost to Clinton-Massie, Jonathan Alder and Miami Trace. The loss to the Panthers came in double overtime last week at Miami Trace High School by a score of 24-21.
Spicer said London has athletes, who compare size wise to the Clinton-Massie Falcons, and are bigger than most teams they've played this season.
"London is probably the second best team we will play all season," Spicer said. "They like to use a pro-slot offense and run a lot of I-Back, off set and Weak back-I. It's a more conventional offense."
The Red Raiders like to get the football to their running backs, with a few plays scripted for their fullbacks. But, the HHS head coach said LHS will mix in some quick hitches if they catch a team napping on their passing game.
"Their quarterback is a solid kid. They like to run him," Spicer said. "That's their style, and he is a field general. We will also have to keep an eye out on their backup quarterback. He also runs the offense well.
"Both of their backs are running threats and with the fullback he usually gets the ball on counters."
Spicer said the Red Raiders weren¹t as physical as Massie, but prepping for LHS was like prepping for Madison-Plains, in the fact they both use a lot of fullback-tailback sets.
Defensively the Red Raiders are aggressive, coming at teams with an odd man front. LHS will have six down lineman near the goal line.
"London has good skill guys in their secondary who will get to the football," Spicer said. "As a whole on defense they don't miss many tackles, and that shows they are well coached. Their linebackers are good and they do a lot of things well."
Spicer said the challenge for his Indian squad will be to see how the LHS defense will attack them. If they try to take away the pass, that could open up the running game, or vice-versa.
"If they load up the box, we will throw more," Spicer said. "That is what Madison-Plains did to us last week and we had a good passing day."
Again, the Tribe's defense keeps improving each week, which is a point of emphasis for the Indians¹ head coach.
"We have improved tremendously on defense since the first week, and we have stayed relatively healthy," Spicer said. "We knew at the start of the season our defense would take time and right now the kids are comfortable.
"When that happens we get more aggressive and as a coach, you get excited about that. We are peaking at the right time."
The Indians are still working on their offense, struggling at times in the past few weeks.
"We feel we should score 30-plus point a game, and gain 300 yards of offense each week," Spicer said. "We will take the wins, but we need to work on our short yardage game. We had a too many third/fourth and shorts where we didn't make first downs last week."
A win this week's guarantees the Tribe a winning season, their first since 2005.
"We are undefeated on the road so far and we still have two left," Spicer said. "To gain a winning record you must win on the road. Winning on the road is tough no mater who you play."
The Indians and Red Raiders play in London at 7:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]