Game of the Week: Laurel vs. South Side Beaver
Written: Aug 30, 2013
By Joe Sager
New Castle News
The learning continues for the Laurel High football team.
However, the Spartans hope to do more teaching tomorrow night when South Side Beaver visits at 7 p.m. for a WPIAL Class A Big Seven Conference battle.
It marks the Laurel debut for coach Pat Cuba, who took over following the retirement of Jerry Holzhauser. Cuba and his staff have kept many of the same systems, but with a few alterations. That’s allowed the Spartans to adjust quickly entering the season.
“Things seem to be pretty good. The kids are excited and ready to go,” Cuba said. “The kids are picking up on things. It’s not like we’re reinventing the wheel or anything. Laurel has always had a lot of good things going on out here. We’ve just tweaked some things and added our own touches to them. I am very happy with these kids. It’s a good group of young men.”
Laurel hopes to use its familiarity as an advantage against the Rams. The Spartans stormed to a 36-0 win in last season’s opener at South Side Beaver. Many familiar faces return to the option-based offense.
Senior quarterback Josh Dando leads the way. He paced the team in rushing (798 yards) and passed for another 483 last year. He is a player who worries Rams coach Glenn McDougal.
“Their quarterback is outstanding. His decision making is off the charts,” he said. “We’ll have our hands full with him.”
Dando helps orchestrate Laurel’s ground game, which is unique to what South Side Beaver normally faces during the season. Running backs Dalton Rosta (633 yards) and Matty Conway (352) enjoyed success running the ball last season and cause the Rams concern, too.
“It’s not necessarily a different look, but they block it in so many different ways. They are predominantly an option team. The option is what we will have to slow down. If we can’t slow it down, we’ll be in for a long night. If we slow the option game down, we’ll have a chance,” McDougal said. “That’s easier said than done. They have double and triple options. It’s very challenging. It’s not easy to scout it and get your kids to understand all the ways they will block it in a week. Their quarterback really makes it go. We’ll have to try to do something to make him indecisive. He is a good one.”
The Rams like to run, too, from their wing-T offense.
“They are big up front. They have some nice-sized kids. They run the wing-T. Basically, we have a plan for it. We’ll see how it works,” Cuba said. “They probably haven’t seen much option, either. It’ll be interesting to see how we match up against them and how they match up against us.”
South Side Beaver graduated its quarterback (Jon Magusiak) and top running back in Cameron McCoy, who had 732 yards a year ago. Jacob Berger, a tight end last year, is at quarterback this season.
“We are a young team. We only have four seniors on the team. It’s a work in progress. We’re trying to get better every day. We’re excited about these younger kids. They just don’t have a lot of the experience,” McDougal said. “It’s tough with the teams we play if you don’t have experience. Hopefully, they grow up in a hurry and we keep building for the future. In a year or two, we’ll be very experienced, we hope.”
The Rams return three starting offensive linemen, too, and hope to run a balanced attack.
“We try to stay balanced and mix things up. We have some different weapons,” McDougal said. “We have three or four guys carry the ball and we throw to a number of receivers. We’re looking for a balanced attack, but that always looks good on paper.”
Cuba does not want his troops to focus so much on stopping the run they are surprised by a big passing play.
“They do throw the ball some, maybe more than last year. It all revolves the wing-T action with a lot of play-action and stuff like that. We’ve been telling the guys to just do your job and keep everything in front of you,” he said. “We want to make them drive the field and, if they make a mistake along the way, it’ll be ours.
“We have to protect the football and not turn it over. Our players need to focus on doing their job and not worrying about someone else’s job, carry the responsibility,” he continued. “If we start sticking our noses where they don’t belong, then we’ll have problems. We’re just looking to try to control the football and do what we have to do to win the game.”
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