Southmont football knows the challenge that lies ahead of them. The Mounties are 5-0 (3-0 SAC) for the second straight season but they want to change their fortunes from the final four games from a season ago and that begins on Friday when they welcome Danville (2-3, 2-1 SAC). A season ago the Mounties lost their last four games and coach Desson Hannum knows it will be yet another challenge, but with a another year of experience under their belts, he believes his team is ready to compete against the best the SAC has to offer.
“We know that the schedule becomes a lot tougher for us starting this week,” he said. “Danville is a team that probably doubles us in terms of numbers and is obviously a talented team. For us we feel like this team can compete and have guys that aren’t going to back down from the challenge. It’s going to come down to us having to play well in all facets of the game.”
The Warriors come into the game after dropping last week’s contest against fellow SAC powerhouse Tri-West 21-24. Southmont was able to use a strong first half and hold off county rival Crawfordsville 26-13.
The Warriors rely heavily on senior tailback Derin Sharp who has tallied 599 rushing yards (2nd in the SAC) on 96 carries and has found the end zone five times so far for Danville. Another facet of the Warriors that can poise problems for the Mounties is their size on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“Danville is always a team that is going to have experience guys playing and hardly anyone playing both ways,” Hannum said. “They’re going to have a lot of talent all over the field and for us this is about seeing how we stack up and where we are and simply just trying to go out there and compete for a full four quarters.”
While Sharp is second in the conference in rushing yards, Southmont junior Wyatt Woodall is third in the SAC in that category as he’s tallied 452 yards on the ground and has a nose for the goal line with nine touchdowns. Southmont’s offense is scoring nearly 40 points a game and holding opponents to right around 13 a contest.
If the Mounties are to compete and maybe even pull off what many consider would be an upset win, that would give them, according to Hannum some serious momentum as they begin the final half of their season.
“For that to happen there’s plenty of things that have to go right for us first and foremost,” Hannum said. “If we were able to get a win on Friday it would jump start the last half of our year and push us in the direction that we want to be headed.”
It will also be homecoming for the Mounties on Friday when the kick it off at 7 pm against the Warriors. You can catch a live broadcast of that game on True Country 106.3 WCDQ beginning at 6:30 as Jeff Nelson and Barry Lewis will have the call.
