With the playoffs set to start in two weeks, Junction City’s offense is not only rounding into form, but they got a major addition with the return of Corey Dubose last week.
Tonight, the Dragons finish the regular season by hosting Bearden aiming to build off of dominant performances over the last two weeks.
Game time is set for 7 p.m. from David Carpenter Stadium.
Junction City (4-4, 2-1), who has scored 101 points in wins over Parkers Chapel and Hampton, can clinch the 8-2A’s No. 2 seed with a win while also ending the regular season on a three-game winning streak.
Bearden (0-8, 0-2) finishes their regular season next week against Fordyce.
Junction City won last year’s meeting 44-6.
“They play hard and like a lot of teams, they have some number issues and injury issues,” Junction City coach Brad Smith said. “It’s been a real struggle for them.”
Smith said the Bears run a variety of looks on offense.
“They run the I, they run a wing look, they run all sorts of spread,” Smith said. “They do a lot of the same things out of each formation, but they’re formations you have to adjust to.”
Smith said the Bears can vary their look on defense some as well.
“They’re a 3-3 look, stuff that they’ve done forever,” Smith said. “They go 3-3, some four-front, play really, really hard, just not very many of them.”
Dubose has been sideline for the last several weeks due to an injury, but he made his presence felt in his return last week, catching a 21-yard touchdown pass while also intercepting a pass on defense that later led to a score.
“We did not put him behind the gun at quarterback,” Smith said.
“We let him play some receiver, let him play some defense, just wanted to get his feet wet, but he got them pretty wet, so we’re going to go ahead and put him in the rest of the way in the water this week.”
When asked if Dubose could return to quarterback, Smith said the staff was still evaluating the situation.
“That’s just something we’ll have to assess and look at,” Smith said. “We’ll make those decisions amongst ourselves.”
Jamal Johnson has been the quarterback for the last several weeks, and he has been on a roll during the Dragons’ winning streak having posted 10 touchdowns total between offense and defense.
And with Dubose back, the Dragons can be more aggressive with how they deploy Johnson.
“Now with Corey back, we don’t have to be so guarded with him,” Smith said. “The next quarterback would’ve been a kid that’s never played it before in a game, so now that we have Corey back, we can be a little bit more free with J.”
AJ Ivory tallied 192 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries last week, and Dubose’s return gives the Dragons another weapon at their disposal.
“The more guys that you have to run the ball, the better off you’re going to be,” Smith said. “Now we’ve got five, and that allows us to put different people in places and make you have to guard the entire field instead of just part of it.”
If there was one area Smith wasn’t pleased with, it was on key missed tackles that led to two of Hampton’s touchdowns.
“We had our usual alignment lapses and assignment lapses that let them out of two big, long yardage situations or we would’ve had the game well in-hand in the first half,” Smith said. “Three guys missed a tackle on a fourth-down play. On a third-and-12, we missed a tackle in the backfield. If you take away two of those missed tackles, you take away two of their touchdowns.”
With tonight’s game being their regular-season finale, Smith is looking for the Dragons to limit miscues.
“Just cut down on mistakes,” Smith said. “We’re still making a lot of youthful mistakes. We told them on Friday night, ‘The youth excuse is gone.’ We were young, but we were young in September. October is here and we’re getting near November, youth no longer is an excuse.”
With the end of the junior high season, Smith said several freshmen have been moved up to the varsity roster with Demarion Henry, Tony Hodges and Mason Jeter having been with the varsity since the Parkers Chapel game.
“They’re competing for spots,” Smith said.
“Special teams spots are open for some of the skill guys, but most of them use this just as a teaching period. They’ve added some depth and some skill. We’re playing some of them in fronts and things like that. We’re trying to get them 8, 10, 12 snaps a game.”
If the Dragons are to finish the regular season on a high note, Smith said the offense must continue to produce, and the defense needs to play well.
“We’ve got to continue to improve on offense because our offense has really played lights out two weeks in a row,” Smith said.
“Defensively, we need to make a really good showing. We need to show that we can focus and do our business for 48 minutes. We need to execute and do things correctly.”