The Camdenton Lakers are coming off of great a Homecoming victory. They watched a sophomore running back blossom into a star with a fantastic 238-yard performance that also included four trips to the end zone. They played shutdown defense in the second half en route to a 43-15 victory against Rolla.
On the heels of that victory, the Lakers are looking to go down to Waynesville with the hopes of gathering another win in a Homecoming environment. Only this time, it's not theirs.
The Waynesville Tigers are hosting the Lakers for Homecoming and they are doing so after a rough stretch of games. They have lost two in a row and neither were particularly close. First they lost to Rolla 40-14, then they made their way to Joplin and lost 55-25.
Even with those two losses coming in to the matchup, Camdenton head coach Jeff Shore isn't sleeping on the Tigers
"Waynesville is a huge rivalry game, if I'm at Waynesville they're probably saying "hey we have a chance here go kinda make amends here after these last few losses, we're playing the Lakers Friday night and if we win that one it gets us back in the swing,'" said Shore of the matchup. "So I think they'll be up and ready to go and I know we'll be ready to go."
Camdenton has put Waynesville in a difficult spot as they prepare for this contest. Camdenton has developed pretty drastically during the course of the season, so it is not the easiest team to scout.
The Lakers have improved in the passing game, as Dyllan Decker has made some great strides in the last few weeks, and their offensive line has improved dramatically. The Lakers have been challenged by tough opponents this season and it has forced this young team to improve quickly.
On the offensive side, Waynesville is difficult because they have just been so inconsistent under first-year head coach Brad Drehle, the longtime head man at Blair Oaks.
"They've spun around on offense a little bit at times then, oh boy, they hit the big play," Shore said. "You can't ever relax on them, offensively I think they're dangerous...their offense, they can go third and 10 and throw one up and come down with a touchdown."
The Waynesville offense just does a little bit of everything. It will line up under center in the power-I on one play, then spread everyone out on the next.
They do a variety of everything, literally a little of everything," Shore said. "It's gonna be a little bit of a hard week to prepare on defense. We're just gonna have to get solid with what we're doing on defense, then just play football."
With a team that shuffles around so much on offense, it can be easy to get lost in everything that is going on. Shore is taking the approach of staying in his base defense and allowing his kids to just play football, rather than overanalyze every formation. The Tigers have a couple of different weapons that the Lakers will focus on this week.
Seth Hedrick has been injured, but Shore is expecting to see him back this week. He plays wide receiver, but has seen some time at quarterback this season as well. Shore considers him to be one of the best athletes in the conference. Raishon Pickett has played well at running back this season to lead the rushing attack. Sam Roberts has been a weapon on both sides of the football. He plays tight end in the Tiger offense, but it's his defensive play that has stood out. He was an all-conference player last season and has made a case to earn that honor again this season.
This game will come down to consistency. The Lakers finally seem to have grown into the team they were hoping they'd be at the beginning of the season. With the emergence of Jay Griffin at running back and the improved play of their line, the Laker offense is not an easy one to stop. If Waynesville has the same struggles with consistency that they've had all year, their losing streak will likely extend to three.
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Camdenton at Waynesville - Updates on Twitter: @lkrathletics. Listen live online: mix927.com
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