El Dorado welcomes an open date after going 2-1 in non-conference action. The Wildcats won at Texarkana 42-20 on Friday and won’t play again until they go to Little Rock Catholic on Sept. 27 in the 6A East opener.
Coach Chris Hill said the week’s itinerary includes lifting, film and meetings on Monday and a discussion of last week’s game. The team will practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, lift Tuesday and Thursday and will have Friday off.
“We’re looking to improve,” Hill said. “We’re going to spend a lot of time going back to fundamentals - tackling, blocking, getting your eyes right, taking the correct steps. I told the coaches, every day we’re going out with a specific part of the game we want to get better at. We want to be very specific with the kids and what we want to accomplish in that practice. We’ll cut practice down 20 minutes or so, try to get our legs back under us. We’ll unload the weightroom. We’re not going to lift heavy. We’re going to unload a little bit, let the body recuperate and then start getting ready for Catholic.”
The Wildcats have won two in a row since a season-opening loss to Little Rock Christian. Hill felt it was a successful non-conference season.
“I think it was good. We played some good teams,” he said. “Got beat by a good Christian team. Of course the Camden game was wire-to-wire. Texarkana game was a lot closer for a long time than the score was. That was just such a crazy night with the delays.”
At Texarkana, the game was delayed more than two hours due to a power outage.
“You never know how kids will react to that. I thought our kids did a great job of responding,” said Hill. “They responded to the adversity, responded to the change of plans. I’m proud of them. They showed some maturity there plus we got our first road trip out of the way. I’m pretty well pleased with where we’re at, right now.”
After three games, junior quarterback Cannon Jacobs has completed 28-of-59 passes for 433 yards with four touchdowns and four interceptions. AJ Gilmore has 13 receptions for 225 yards and three touchdowns. Jeremy Samuel has 53 rushes for 281 yards and five touchdowns.
Offensive statistics were provided by KIX 103’s Bill Evans.
Defensively, Jakori Lumsey has 23 tackles, including five for losses, with an interception. Bretaveon Brown has 18 tackles with two for loss. Gilmore has 13 tackles with an interception returned for a touchdown. Tahmadai White has 13 tackles.
Hill credited El Dorado’s defense for their effort against the Razorbacks.
“I thought our defense played really well. Our starting defense gave up seven points. I thought our starting defense did a good job,” he said. “We have to shore up our tackling for sure. We missed way too many tackles. We’ve got to get more consistent on that.”
Senior defensive back Jeremiah Mitchell was injured on Friday but Hill is hopeful he can return for conference.
The coaches will travel to Little Rock on Friday to watch Catholic take on North Little Rock. The Wildcats will begin preparing for the 2-0 Rockets, probably on Thursday.