The Eldon Mustangs are running on all cylinders at the moment.
They are coming off consecutive dominating performances in which they scored a total of 117 points against conference opponents. After trouncing Warsaw 65-7, they went to Versailles and spoiled its Homecoming festivities with a 52-14 victory.
This week, Eldon will have their own Homecoming matchup and they'll hope keep the ball rolling.
That won't be easy tonight however, as they'll face another Lake area rival in the School of the Osage. These two teams have been the top rivalry at the Lake and that continues this season. While the Mustangs are riding high, the Indians are coming off of a rough loss to Blair Oaks. Osage hung with the Falcons for a while, but they were shutout in the second half to lose 51-22.
Despite the final score, Eldon head coach Shannon Jolley is expecting an extremely tough matchup from his former team.
"We've got a huge opponent in Osage coming up and they're playing really well. We'll need all three phases, not to be smooth and fluid, but we'll need all three phases to win the game," Jolley said.
Neither team is going to take this matchup lightly and it is a matchup that will put each team's strength against the other.
Eldon is a team that runs the football at will and has put up points all season. On the opposite sideline, Osage is a defense-first team that will use athleticism to beat you. These are two very athletic teams that will use quickness and agility to their advantage.
Eldon's best plays come from sweeps or bootlegs to the outside with either Levi Shinn or Nick Hendrix. Both of those players have the lateral movement to make guys miss and find the end zone from anywhere on the field. On the flipside, Osage makes up for a lack of size by having one of the quicker defensive fronts around. Its ability to get to the edge will make a difference in this game.
According to Osage head coach Devin Johnson, it's going to come down to matching Eldon's physicality when his defense is out on the field.
"We're going to have to play a very physical style of defense," Johnson said. "We're gonna be outmatched up front, we're smaller than them, at some positions we're almost 100 pounds less than they are, so we're going to have to use our speed and athleticism to make plays and try to keep them guessing and keep them on their heels. But this is a game that's going to be a grind. It's gonna be a four quarter grind."
Offensively for Osage, things are a little bit more uneven. The Indians are a very young team and that starts with their sophomore quarterback Zach Wheeler. Wheeler has improved every week, but the offense has had trouble gelling at times. It will be important for the Indians to work together on offense this week, because they can move the football when they do.
That comes from having several different weapons across the offense, which is new, according to Jolley.
"In the past they've had one or two go-to guys. This year they're spreading the ball around a little bit," Jolley said. "It'll be tough to defend them. You have to make sure you're playing sideline to sideline and to understand that you're not necessarily focusing on one player."
Defensively,Eldon will look to shut down the running game for Osage. The Indians have a good mix of speed and power in the backfield; they have Dylan Riley to pound it up the middle, while Brandon Pierce provides a change of pace and speed on the edge. They'll also need to stop Wheeler in the passing game. Wheeler has two very talented and tall receivers in Jason Edwards and Britton McLaughlin, who will provide a challenge for the Mustang secondary.
In a matchup of a great offense against a great defense, the difference maker, according to both Jolley and Johnson, will likely be special teams play.
Eldon is coming off of a game in which they had some ups and downs on special teams. The only negative play they really had all night was on a fumbled kickoff return. Possibly their biggest, however, came on a 51-yard field goal by Levi Shinn, who has also been an electric punt returner. Conversely, Osage has a steady kicker in Jason Edwards and has made their share of big plays in the return game.
"I think special teams are going to be big (tonight)," said Jolley. "I think the team that wins the special teams battle will have an advantage for sure."
One challenge for Eldon may be the fact that they'll actually need to play a full four quarters to come out with a win. With blowouts in their last two contests, their starters haven't had to play more than half of either game. The Mustangs have also seen some struggles late in games, so this could come down to which team is ready to step up in the fourth quarter.
For Jolley, he's trying to prepare his football team for not only the next four quarters, but the next four games to close out the season.
"I don't know how you necessarily handle that other than just continuing to work," he said. "Our goal this season is to win out and try to put ourselves in a great position week 10. You can look at it a couple different ways. Playing four quarters, but what we're actually talking about is four games. We're continuing to work on ourselves."
Johnson, on the other hand, it hoping it comes down to the fourth quarter. He prepares his kids to thrive in the final quarter of ballgames and he expects this game to be a "grind it out for four quarters" type of game.
"We always feel like we're gonna be the strongest team in the fourth quarter," Johnson said. "We've based our whole program on the philosophy that we're gonna be better in the fourth quarter with our conditioning and our tempo and everything that we do. We wouldn't do what we do offensively if we didn't feel like we were gonna wear out our opponents before we wear out. We always like our chances in the fourth quarter whether it's us or anyone else."
The environment in this one should be a good one as well. Jolley is a big fan of the Homecoming environment and Johnson is expecting a lot of fanfare. This isn't just Homecoming, this is a rivalry game, so there will be plenty of excitement.
"It will be a fun game, because of the atmosphere and the rivalry and everything," said Johnson. "They're gonna have a packed house and I anticipate us bringing quite a few people so it'll be a good environment and a fun game."
This should be an interesting matchup between two very talented rivals. The Mustangs will have the momentum and the Homecoming environment, but the Indians will be looking to come in and spoil things, just like the Mustangs did last week against Versailles.
At the end of the day, Johnson doesn't think it matters how well either team has played coming in, this is going to be a great ballgame.
"Any year we play them it doesn't really matter who's better or what they're good at, it's going to be a good game," Johnson said. "This is just one of those games where you can just kinda throw everything out of the way and it's just two teams that are gonna go fight and slug at each other."
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Eldon hosts School of the Osage - Updates on Twitter: @LakeTodaySports, @EldonMustang and @SOTOsports. Listen live online: cool1027.com. Watch live online: Lake TV
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