In reaching the state quarterfinals, Junction City has had to slow down two dual-threat quarterbacks.
If they want to advance to the semifinals, they will have to beat another.
Tonight, the Dragons hit the road to take on Poyen in the 2A state quarterfinals.
Game time is set for 7 p.m.
The Dragons (8-2), the runner-ups in the 8-2A, have won six straight and are in the quarterfinals for the 17th time since 2001.
The Indians (10-1), the runner-ups in the 5-2A, are in the quarterfinals for the first time in school history. Poyen has won three straight since suffering its lone loss of the season at the hands of Gurdon a month ago.
Two weeks ago, Junction City shut out Braylan Honeycutt and Marked Tree 38-0. Last week, the Dragons scored 34 unanswered points to thwart Cason Campbell and McCrory 50-30.
Now the Dragons have to find a way to slow down senior Jaxson Carter, who has accounted for 2.285 yards passing and rushing and could surpass 1,000 yards on the ground if he finishes with more than 39 yards.
Carter has 35 touchdowns on the season, including 20 passing, but he has thrown six interceptions.
“He’s bigger, and he may be faster,” Junction City coach Brad Smith said when asked to compare Carter to Honeycutt and Campbell. “He’s a hand. He’s quite a bit like we’ve been seeing. He moves really well, throws it real good. It will be another challenge.”
Poyen coach Vick Barrett can attest to just how tough his quarterback is stemming from his performance against Parkers Chapel in the first round of the playoffs last year.
“He’s a leader and a tough kid,” Barrett said. “Last year at Parkers Chapel, we didn’t plan on him playing, honestly. He told us he was going to play, but he had a broken ankle. He was in a boot all week in practice going through it mentally, but we didn’t think he would play.
“He came into the locker room before the game and was like, ‘Tape me up, my mom said I could play.’ He played that game on a broken ankle, and that’s kind of how he’s been this year. He takes shots and gets hurt, but he just gets back up and keeps pounding. He’s a tough kid. He’s a smart kid. He studies the game. He knows what’s going to work and what isn’t. When it’s crunch time, he wants the ball in his hands.”
Carter’s top target on the outside is senior Brandon Sanchez, who moved to wide receiver after rushing for over 1,600 yards last year.
Sanchez has had a huge year, racking up 1,005 yards and 16 touchdowns on just 32 catches, which is good for 31.4 yards per catch. The senior is still a major threat in the backfield thanks to averaging 12.2 yards per carry.
“He has caught our attention big time,” Smith said. “He’s sure enough fast. He’s for real fast. He runs away from everybody you see on film.”
By moving Sanchez to wide receiver, the Indians have become much more balanced on offense than they were last year.
“We had some running backs last year, but they were both sophomores, and they weren’t ready to carry the load, so Brandon had to do it,” Barrett said. “By the time the end of the year got here last year, Brandon had an enormous amount of carries. He’s such an explosive kid. By moving Brandon out to receiver, it’s really spread our offense out.
“Last year, our passing game was nonexistent. This year, it’s not that we throw it that much, but when we do throw it, it’s effective. It accounts for a bunch of points for us, so you have to respect that. Most weeks, we’re getting two or three guys over Brandon, which allows to get a lighter box and establish the run better.”
One area to watch will be to see how the Dragons will go about defending Sanchez.
“We talked about that in meetings,” Barrett said. “Obviously in our conference, Brandon’s speed is a factor. It makes people nervous, but I don’t see Junction being real nervous about speed. They have got plenty of speed themselves, so I don’t know how they’ll play. We work on a few different things every week in practice, and then we’ll see what we get when we get there.”
The reason Barrett was able to move Sanchez was thanks to the emergence of junior running back Blake Rhodes, who has rushed for 1,130 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“He allowed us to move Brandon out of the backfield and keep him healthy and spread our offense out,” Barrett said. “He’s such a big, strong back, and he’s deceptively fast. He’s not a kid that’s fast like Brandon, but then he’s popping a 40-yard run between the tackles.”
Smith said he was impressed Rhodes’ effort against Gurdon and how difficult he is to bring down.
“He runs the ball super, super hard,” Smith said. “If we wanted a different route, we should’ve won the conference.”
The Indians rank fourth in 2A with 412 points and have rolled up 4,163 yards of total offense this season.
For Smith, slowing down the Indians will not be easy.
“It’s so multiple,” Smith said. “They run out of so many different things. We’ve got to line up correctly, got to read correct things. They’re having to make us do so many different things on defense it’s not funny. We’ve got seven or eight different fronts in.”
On defense, junior linebacker Tony Nannemann leads the charge for a unit that has forced 13 fumbles and recorded 12 interceptions.
“He’s an exceptional football player,” Barrett said. “He’s one of our strongest kids, super smart and likes to hit people, so that’s three key ingredients to a really good Mike linebacker, and that’s where he plays. He’s got a nose for the ball. He flies around and makes plays.”
Barrett said he’s pleased with the performance of his defense.
“We’ve played exceptional all year on defense,” Barrett said. “We had the game against Gurdon where we gave up more points than we should’ve. Offensively, we didn’t play very well, and we left our defense on the field a lot. They got a lot of stops that night, we just didn’t put any points on the board.
“Overall, we’re really solid on defense. Most of the time, we know we’re not going to give up a bunch of points. Our kids just play disciplined and they know their assignments and they’re really unselfish. That helps us on that side of the ball. Nobody is trying to get tackles, they’re just trying to do their job.”
Smith was also impressed with Poyen’s defense.
“It looks like a 40 front, 43, 44 looks,” Smith said. “They’ve played some solid defense. They’ve held some good teams down. They get after you. They do things correctly. To beat them, you’re going to have to beat them. They don’t beat themselves. I think I saw three penalties on film, one fumble, one interception and nobody just running free on them. You might run it past them, but you’re not going to trick them into just making mistakes. They’re well-coached and well-disciplined.”
A week ago, the Indians advanced with a 48-26 win over Dierks, handing the Outlaws both of their losses in the 2020 season. The schools first met on Oct. 2 with the Indians winning 21-12.
“The first time we played them, I didn’t feel like we played our best game offensively,” Barrett said. “I didn’t feel like I called my best game. Defensively, we played really well, obviously to hold them to 12 that first time, and we put enough points on the board to win, but we had some mishaps and we didn’t play well in the first half.
“I thought it was good to be able to come back and watch the film and let our guys on offense see the missed opportunities we had. I got to see the missed calls that I made and the stuff I didn’t take advantage of. When we left the field that night, I felt like I didn’t do a very good job of calling that game, so I went back and studied it and tried to make myself better.
“We put some stuff together not knowing if we were going to see them again, and then we saw them again this time. We put game plans back together. We showed the kids the film and learned from it. I felt like our kids responded well to it and came out and played lights out Friday night.”
The Dragons upended McCrory thanks to a superb second half that turned a 30-16 deficit with four minutes left in the third quarter into a 50-30 win.
“We made a lot of alignment mistakes defensively,” Smith said. “We ended up playing quite a bit without some starters who got injured, and had to throw some different kids in there and it made a difference until they got used to it. We got in there at half and fixed a lot of it. We played a lot better in the second half.
“The offense in the second half, that’s what we felt like we should be all year. It just looked like it all clicked and came together. It started in the second quarter. I think from the second quarter on, they stopped us twice. We missed opportunities or I don’t think they would’ve stopped us at all. I know we dropped two touchdown passes and fumbled an exchange on a reverse that was probably going to score.
“Offensively, that’s what we’ve been preaching, so we’re a half happy family here because of that. The offense has struggled at points in time, but they took that game over and ended it. We threw it when we wanted to, ran it when we wanted to and had big success doing both. It was to the point to where whatever coach (Justin) Thompson called, it was going to work.”
Junction City’s special teams came up with two big plays by recovering kickoffs in the second half to keep their momentum.
“We sky kick most of the time,” Smith said. “Coach (David) Carpenter showed me a stat on that 17 years ago, and it’s true. If you kick it off deep down the middle, they’re going to get the ball from the 28 to the 40. If you sky kick it, they’re going to get the ball from the 28 to the 40, so why kick it to their best athlete? Just kick it off and start from there, and anything can happen when it gets up in the air like that.
“On the first one we got, it was one of those no man’s land kicks. Gabe (Richard) didn’t hit it real well. It went over the front line and short of the second line and kids do what they do, they tend to hesitate. The next one, their kid just dropped it. It was pressure time, and with people running at you, even though you’re not going to get hit, it’s one every fan should try to sit there and catch one with about five running to them, then they wouldn’t be so critical of the kid that drops it.”
Being down two touchdowns in the late stages of the third quarter can seem like a daunting challenge for most teams, but the Dragons continued to chip away before breaking through.
“We always talk about blinking when bad things happen,” Smith said. “If you blink, more bad things are going to happen. We preach play to play. If you have a great play, when the whistle blows, that great play is over. If you have a bad play, the whistle blows, that one’s over so you have to play for play. We always believe, and it’s pretty much true, every game you play, there will be a chance to win it.
“If you’re blinking or have your head down, you may miss that opportunity. That’s in 90 to 95 percent of the games you play. There is an opportunity to win it. It may be early, it may be late, and it may be at a point that everyone thinks is insignificant, but if you make that play, then your chances of winning go really higher.”
If the Indians are to continue their playoff run, Barrett said it will come down who can have success establishing and stopping the run.
“I think it kind of mirrors each other,” Barrett said. “We have to establish the run and then we have to help take away the run. Junction really likes to run the football, and they’re good at it. We have to control the line of scrimmage. To give ourselves a chance to win, we have to establish the run and keep them from busting big plays in their running game.”
For the Dragons to advance, Smith said it will come down to several factors.
“No pre-snap penalties, lining up correctly, carrying out our assignments, don’t drop the football,” Smith said, adding that his team is close to 100 percent health-wise. “If you do those things, your winning percentage goes through the roof.”