Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011

Coaches adjusted for this rematch

Rematches of regular-season games might be a high school football fan's delight, but for coaches facing the same team twice within a matter of weeks, playing the same team twice adds an unwelcome wrinkle.

The coach of the winning team must prepare his team to match the emotion of the first meeting, while the coach of the losing team has to convince his team that it can win.

Leesville Road coach Chad Smothers said he won't dwell on his club's 41-16 regular-season win against Wake Forest-Rolesville.

"This is like a new season," Smothers said. "We won the conference, but now the key is to advance in the playoffs. We have to concentrate on this week's opponent, not the team that we played two weeks ago."

But a coach's headache is a spectator's dream.

Who could ask for better a rematch than Wake Forest-Rolesville at Leesville Road?

This is the second year the N.C. High School Athletic Association has used a seeding process that clusters teams geographically in the first three rounds.

The NCHSAA used to avoid having teams from the same conference play in the first round, but that's not the case anymore.

Leesville Road, Wake Forest-Rolesville and Middle Creek all beat teams from their own conference in the first round and are faced league opponents again Friday.

Leesville Road beat Broughton 62-21, and Wake Forest-Rolesville took a 31-0 victory in a repeat performance against Millbrook in two all-Cap Eight games.

"In the playoffs, we are used to facing new teams," Wake Forest-Rolesville coach Reggie Lucas said. "This is our second year in the pod and it seems like with the pod you end up playing teams from the same conference much of the time.

"The playoffs should be, in my opinion, an opportunity to play other teams. But having said that, let me say that we are thrilled to be playing anybody. ... I had much rather be playing a team from our conference this week than not playing at all."

Hard to adjust now

Lucas said teams can make few changes regardless of the opponent this late in the year.

During this week, the Cougars staff studied tapes from the earlier meeting against Leesville Road and compared that tape with what Leesville Road did against Broughton last week.

Leesville Road is playing a little differently now because senior quarterback Austin Berrios is out with an ACL injury.

"We might stick in a play or two, but basically what you do is what you do by this point," Lucas said. "This late in the season, you are trying to correct your mistakes much more than you are trying to do something different because of who you are playing."

It would be foolish, if not impossible, for Wake Forest-Rolesville to ditch its run-oriented offense and attempt to throw the ball like Wakefield did against Leesville Road in a 67-58 loss.

"We need to do what we do, but do it better," Lucas said. "Leesville played a great game against us and we didn't respond well when we gave up a couple of big plays."

A new season

Smothers said his theme for this week was that the regular season is over and a new season, the playoffs, had started.

"We haven't played Wake Forest during a new season," he said.