High School Football Preview Week 5: Tigers want to regroup; host MP for homecoming

GREENFIELD — Not only will this be the annual homecoming game for the McClain Tigers this Friday, this is a bounce-back week for a team who lost to the London Red Raiders, 55-0 last week.

This week, the team looking to ruin the homecoming festivities will be the Madison-Plains Golden Eagles. This year, MP has lost its first four games, including its South Central Ohio League opener to the Washington Blue Lions, 49-14. Thus far, the Golden Eagles have allowed 148 points on defense, while scoring 54 points of offense, the second-lowest in the SCOL, just ahead of the Miami Trace Panthers who have scored 50 points.

This season, MP has suffered losses to Cedarville, West Jefferson, Southeastern Local and Washington.

In their previous two meeting s, the Golden Eagles have outscored the Tigers 35-6, shutting out MHS in 2008 by a score of 28-0 and winning last year 7-6.

This year, the game could go either way as the Golden Eagles return a majority of their core players, and the Tigers have had a good season until their bump in the road last week, as they enter the game at 3-1.

"Madison-Plains have young athletes," McClain head coach Randy Closson said. "Their running backs are fast, and on defense their lineman do a very good job for them."

On the offensive side, Closson said the Golden Eagles use a variety of formations and looks when they step onto the field.

"They use shotgun-spread and then will go into a Wing-T," he said. "They like to run both and are diverse. I'd say some of their skill kids are just as fast as the kids from London."

In their game last week (vs. Washington), MP scored all 14 points in the third quarter. For the game, they were led by Stephen Lemieux with 10 carries for 34 yards (six receptions for 66 yards). QB Seth Castro rushed for 27 yards on 12 attempts and passed 140 yards going 12 of 29. Castro had a 10 yard TD pass to Winston Smith. For the game, MP gained just 63 total net yards on offense.

On defense, MP uses a tradition 5-2 defense and will walk off the ends to look like a 4-3 scheme.

"They will bring pressure with their front five guys," Closson said about the MP defense. "On films, their linebackers flew to the ball and their secondary covered the field."

Besides the Golden Eagles, the Tigers have other challenges in front of them, including regrouping after a 55-point loss, while adding in all the homecoming events.

"It is a set of challenges," Closson said. "People are getting ready for homecoming and we do have some distractions trying to get ready for the game. But this is a fun time for the kids, though the entire weekend is centered around the outcome of this game, It's a busy time, and we need to focus on football."

Asked what his team needs to do to avoid another letdown like the previous week, Closson had a few items that needed improvement.

"We have to tackle better, especially in the open field," he said. "We need to read our keys and we need to block better on the offensive line. We need to identify the defensive schemes and do our job and take care of our responsibilities."

When asked what are some of the details the offensive line needed to fix Closson spoke about footwork.

"We need to take care of our assignments and move our feet," he said. "We just need to do a better job. London got off our blocks and they got to the football. We can't allow Madison-Plains to do the same thing."

With each team having younger players on each side of the football playing pivotal roles, Closson said the argument for inexperience is over.

"We are at the point of the year where the players are settling into their roles," he said. "I don't think that is a factor anymore."

The Tigers and Golden Eagles kickoff at 7:30 p.m. at McClain Field. Before the game starts, the Tigers will have homecoming ceremonies on the field.