Story and Photo by Rusty Ellis
After taking a 7-0 lead early in their game against Jackson County, things seemed like they were looking up for the Livingston Academy Wildcats.
Jackson County responded with 19 unanswered points and sent the Wildcats to 0-6 on the season, primarily on the legs of senior Jordan Arroyo. While the Wildcats continued their now 18-game losing streak, head coach Dale Flatt says he still found plenty of positives in his team’s effort.
“I felt like we dominated the first half,” Flatt said. “They started running left in the second half and we didn’t have an answer for that…it was a hard-fought game. It was one that was a toss-up, both teams had a chance to win and they’re ones that left with the win. We shut them down early, and they tried several different things. I think we got to the quarterback quite a bit, so we did some really good things.”
On the other side of things, DeKalb County earned another dominant win over Cannon County 55-7 on the strength of a strong rushing game from senior Colby Barnes.
This is nothing new for Tigers head coach Steve Trapp, as he knows just how productive Barnes has been since he put on the DCHS jersey.
“We’ve always known that he’s had this ability,” Trapp said. “His freshman year, he messed up his shoulder, otherwise he would’ve likely been a starter from day one…his sophomore and junior year, he split offensive series with Nathaniel Crook, but he was still getting six to seven yards a carry.”
Barnes has become a real workhorse back for the Tigers, and Trapp made him aware of that before the season. When it comes to running the ball in Smithville, Barnes is the guy.
“I told Colby before the season that there’s no other running back who’s going to go out there unless he needs a break,” Trapp said. “And he hasn’t needed one yet…he’s getting around 25 to 30 carries and he’s still averaging six yards a carry. We’re still capable of throwing the ball, so teams are still going to have to honor what we’ve done through the air, but they’re going to have to honor our capability of running the football and that starts with Colby and the offensive line.”
It helps that Jordan Parker has progressively gotten better in the pocket since taking over for an injured Briz Trapp. A lot of that can be attributed to a more serious and focused approach to film and preparation on Parker’s part.
And Trapp is well aware of his quarterback’s keen eyes when it comes to film study.
“He’s making sure the ball is getting to who it needs to go to,” Trapp said. “His confidence is growing each and every week, and it’s showing on the field…Mondays following games, I’ll ask him what he saw on tape, and he’ll say the same things I saw. He’s just doing whatever he can to help the team.”
As far as Friday’s game is concerned, Flatt knows his team will have his hands full with a DeKalb offense that will give them several different looks and can build momentum in both the passing and running game.
“They do a lot of things offensively, and they get into a lot of different sets,” Flatt said. “They’ll actually run a lot of the same plays from different formations…they’re a good disciplined team, and they can throw it and run it. They’re a really complete team, so I’m expecting this to be a tough team for our guys to go up against.”
Make no mistake about it from the other side however. Trapp isn’t looking at the records when it comes to preparing his team for what they’ll see from an improved Livingston Academy team on Friday.
“They have greatly improved, those guys work really hard,” Trapp said. “Their guys on the defensive line really get in there and work, and they throw the ball more than just about any team we’ve seen thus far…just understanding what they’re doing and trying to do, that’s important for us. Again, the records are what they are, but it reminds me of my first few years, so patience is a thing. Sometimes to get to progress, you’ve got to go through the fire.”