How the San Angelo Central Bobcats Will Defeat Del Rio on Friday

SAN ANGELO, TX — Central head coach Brent Davis relayed a message of confidence during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.  His team took on Shoemaker that ended in a 54-21 loss Friday, but the evening provided a much needed test for a group of former JV players who were initiated under the Friday night lights. 

“We’re playing a lot of kids that played JV football last year.  A couple of them played freshman football last year,” Davis said.  “We just have to grow as a football team.”  

This inexperience makes minimizing self-inflicted errors the main point of emphasis in practice this week.  The Bobcats racked up mistakes against Shoemaker, especially on offense. It seemed as if the team was out of sync and often started possessions five yards further from the sticks than they should have been due to penalties.  The good news is, these errors are manageable and will become less frequent with more experience, Davis said.

Coach Davis was confident that will be the case.  “We got the film watched, got it critiqued and talked about and we’ve moved on,” Davis said.  “We moved on Sunday morning. Practice yesterday was awesome and today was even better. You can’t dwell on it.  You learn from it, and you move on and that’s what we’ve done.”

In addition to tightening things up to reduce penalties and turnovers, the Bobcats are preparing for a much different battle with a Del Rio team that also lost its season opener.  Finishing 2-8 in 2018, the Rams have a new head coach named Roderick Taylor who is eager to turn things around. Del Rio, with only eight returning starters from last season, will face a young Bobcat team that might be a comfortable matchup in terms of experience and location of talent.  

On Friday, Shoemaker was able to avoid Central’s greatest asset in their defensive line by capitalizing on its speed and getting the ball to the edges with wide receiver screens or making defenders miss when running backs made it to the second level.  This week, however, it will be strength on strength. Del Rio is expected to use a power running game behind a big offensive line and a pair of talented tight ends. 

Bobcat Bradey Allen, who had a fantastic game at left guard last week, is expected to play the majority of his snaps on defense because he is simply too valuable a defender to not have on the field.  Coach Davis did not clarify what his smaller role on offense would be this week.  

For the offense as a whole, Davis pointed his focus to the passing game and its impact on opening things up for the running backs.  Quarterback Malachi Brown had his share of ups and downs throwing a career high four interceptions to three touchdown passes against Shoemaker. On Central’s best possessions Friday, he was able to mix up the attack by finding open targets as well as scrambling out of the pocket when things broke down.  This run/pass balance hinges on his ability to make open throws, because without it, the offense becomes one dimensional.

Coach Davis ended his press conference with this, “There’s nothing worse than a losing streak to begin the year… Getting one [win] under your belt makes everyone feel better.  Del Rio feels exactly like we do. They’re going to come in here trying to get one too, so we’re both in the same boat.”