Will El Dorado’s open date before the league opener result in rust or rest? The Wildcats will find out Friday when they open 6A East action at War Memorial Stadium against unbeaten Little Rock Catholic.
The Rockets are 3-0 and coming off a 27-17 win over North Little Rock last week. El Dorado (2-1) hasn’t played since winning at Texarkana 42-20 two weeks ago.
Coach Chris Hill believes the open date did his team a lot of good.
“We were able to focus on us,” he said. “We spent a lot of time going over the fundamentals. You look back on ball games, the games you don’t win are usually due to a lack of mastery of fundamentals. So we spent a lot of time on that and just focused on ourselves. We got a couple guys healed up so we’re in good shape physically.”
Catholic beat Texarkana (20-15) and Nolan Catholic (41-7) before its win over North Little Rock last week. Senior quarterback Jackson England threw three touchdown passes in that game.
“Their quarterback is back from last year. They’ve got two really good receivers. Their running back is a tough, hard-running running back. They’re just a good, solid football team,” Hill said. “They play hard like they always have. They’re 3-0 for a reason. We certainly have our work cut out for us.”
England is a two-pronged problem at quarterback as a passer first and a runner second.
“I would call him a dual threat. I’m sure he’d rather pass the ball but several times against North Little Rock he broke contain and got outside and picked up some big, chunk yardage,” said Hill. “We certainly have to do a great job of containing him and keeping him in the pocket.”
England’s favorite targets could be seniors Braxton Burks and Paul Plafcan. The Rockets’ biggest weapon might be senior running back Noel Lewis, a north-and-south power back.
“We’re going to have to put our pads on him. We’re not going to arm tackle him. He’s always falling forward. He’s just a tough, hard-nosed running back, gets north and south in a hurry,” said Hill.
“He gets behind that offensive line and gets four and five yards a carry. Teams that can do that get first downs and score points. We certainly have to put pads on him and do a much better job of wrapping up than we’ve done in the previous three weeks.”
Defensively, Catholic used an odd front last week but Hill said the defense is multiple.
“They’ll show different looks. They move people around, do a lot of twisting. When they go to a four front with inside twists, outside twists,” he said. “They’re not real big on defense but they fly to the football. Every time you look up, there'll be seven or eight guys to the ball at the end of the play. They do a great job of pursuing the football.”
For El Dorado, the key to the game will be handling the Rockets’ offense.
“Always win the turnover battle, that’s going to be huge. We’ve got to limit their big plays. (Burks) and (Plafcan) are very dangerous receivers. They stretch the field vertically and are able to do things with the ball once they get it in their hands. We need to limit the big plays and be able to get off the field. That’s been our nemesis, getting them in third and fourth and long and then giving up the big play. We’ve got to put pads on the running back and tackle him,” said Hill.
“From the offensive standpoint, it’s take what they give us. We feel like we have a good game plan going in. We’ve got to protect the football and take what they give us, make the first guy miss, throw short and run long and we certainly have to establish the running game first.”
Now that conference play has arrived, the coach said everything should pick up in practice as far as intensity.
“The sense of urgency should pick up. It’s just the first conference game but the winner will be sitting a little bit ahead of the other team. We’ve got to take care of business.”
When asked if this will be the first time some of the young Wildcats play at War Memorial Stadium, Hill said he hadn’t really thought about it.
“I’m sure they’re excited about it. We haven’t brought it up. We’re just saying we’re going to Little Rock to play a football game and try to make our kids understand it’s a business trip. We’re not going on a sight-seeing tour. We’re going to play football. I think our kids understand that.”