By Tony Burns
Sports Editor
Football coaches aren’t normally overly concerned with numbers. But, El Dorado defensive coordinator Jake Monden went out of his way, Saturday, to point out Sheridan’s final 64-yard touchdown came against the Wildcats’ second-team defense.
Sheridan fullback Brockton Brown, who averaged 213 yards on the ground, entering Friday’s game, picked up 64 of his 196 yards on that final play in El Dorado’s 48-15 victory.
The Wildcats held the Yellowjackets scoreless in the second and third quarters, shutting down their vaunted ground game and option attack.
“I thought our defensive line did a good job. That’s a hard offense to defend. Our defensive line did a good job,” Monden said. “Time and time again, we’re getting double-teamed at the point, getting cut from the backside. Our guys did a great job of getting up and continuing to play, playing with their hands.
“We didn’t have a ton of tackles out of our defensive line. Playing that type of offense, you’ve got to be real unselfish as a defensive lineman. My hat’s off to those guys for going out there and not doing their own thing and playing hard.”
El Dorado forced five turnovers, including two at crucial moments. On Sheridan’s opening drive of the third, Emmanuel Wheeler took an option pitch around right end, cut back across the field and sprinted 66 yards before he was stripped of the ball.
“That was Rhett Conner,” said Monden. “He actually overran the tackle early in the play. He came across the field and hawked the guy down on about the 12-yard line. Johnathan Hall recovered that fumble. That’s just awesome for our kids because we talk about just keep playing and live to play another down and just get ‘em on the ground. It was a big hustle play. We had three or four guys chasing him down. Randall Coleman was one. Noah Pierce was one and then, obviously, Rhett and Johnathan Hall. It’s a drill we work all the time to get the ball out like that. It’s awesome to see in a game whenever you work something in practice on a turnover circuit and it pays off.”
Trailing 14-8 in the second, the Yellowjackets drove to the 15 before Wheeler took another pitch and appeared headed to pay dirt before he lost a fumble into the end zone. The fumble was recovered by Destin Miller for a touchback.
“That was Rhett again, same thing. It was a trail strip,” said Monden. “We had overran it and misplayed the option. They pitched it and our kids just keep fighting and … same thing. Rhett Conner, once again, trail strips him. It was two huge plays in the game when we’re actually beat on the play and we make something great happen. I’m just real proud of our kids for believing in what we teach and what we preach as far as playing to the whistle and playing forever and being resilient.”
Conner had eight tackles with two forced fumbles.
Sophomore middle linebacker Mon-trae Marshall led the team with 13 tackles. Unterrio Jones had 12 tackles with a tackle for loss and a forced fumble. Hall had 10 tackles with two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble.
“I thought our linebackers were really good as far as getting to the ball and swarm tackling that guy. We watched on film the previous weeks, that fullback had not been hit like he got hit (Friday night) I didn’t think. Our kids did a great job,” said Monden.
“We planned our defensive scheme around (the linebackers) and they did a good job of executing. I thought they did a great job, seeing a different offense and really playing downhill. I thought Unterrio was really good at the outside linebacker position as far as playing the option. He did a great job. And, it was probably the most production we got out of John Hall all year long. They ran away from John quite a bit. He made a ton of hustle plays. The same thing with Mon-trae, seeing that offense, you know, being a sophomore. We had to settle him down a little bit in the first half. The speed of that offense, you can’t simulate in practice. I thought he did a great job of adjusting to the speed of the offense as the game went on.”
Sheridan totaled 305 yards on 47 snaps, including 288 on the ground. The Yellowjackets were 4-of-8 on third down conversions and 0-for-1 on fourth down.
Zach McGhee had seven tackles and recovered a fumble. Lake Tucker had four tackles with two QB hurries and two QB knockdowns. Josh Perry had four tackles on kickoff returns. Miller had two fumble recoveries.
“I thought Tanner McVey probably played his best game. He showed us a lot of stuff as far as being aggressive and knowing what he was doing and playing assignment football,” said Monden. “I was proud of Tanner and the way he played. He made some open field tackles for us on the pitch play. He actually had a tackle-for-loss on a pitch. So, I thought Tanner McVey, from the safety spot, did a heck of a job.
“Also, I thought our kids did a great job coming out at the half with the adjustments. We played a different front than we normally play. They didn’t score in the third quarter and it was because of the front, I think. They went to work on that front. After the first couple of series of running that front, we kind of figured out their answer to it so we stayed in it. Their answer to what we were running played into our hands.”