Southmont football’s gauntlet of the final four games of the year continues on Friday when the Mounties will travel to take on Lebanon. South comes in with a 4-3 (2-3 SAC) record after a 29-6 loss a week ago to Western Boone. The Tigers are 3-4 (3-2 SAC) and coming off a 35-0 win over Crawfordsville last week.
Southmont against the Stars turned the ball over four times and combine that with not being able to establish their ground game, it was cause for disaster. Their defense kept them in the game as long as they could making a few different stop deep inside their own territory. But the problem for the Mounties in their losses the last two weeks has been the turnovers. Southmont coach Desson Hannum knows going int these games there’s little room for error, and his teams can’t afford to turn the football over.
“It’s been stressed since day one this season that we can’t turn the football over,” Hannum said. “Until we play a clean game the results are going to be like what they’ve been the last two weeks. I will give our defense credit especially for last week. We’ve shown glimpses on offense the last few weeks but it does come down to getting our running game going again.”
The Tigers are led by junior QB Jackson Folden. Brendan Shockley is the work horse running back for the Tiger offense. What makes Lebanon go however is the speedster wide out in Kaden Lark. Lark is arguably one of the most talented athletes in the Sagamore Conference and is a matchup nightmare because of his speed and athleticism. Hannum notes how it’s going to be a challenge for his secondary and special teams to be able to contain him.
“He’s a great athlete with tremendous speed and quickness,” Hannum said of Lark. “You have to know where a player like he is at all times. That’s one thing we have to be aware of is where he’s lining up. They have some other great play makers too with Reis and Shockley running the ball gives them a nice option there. We’ll have to stop the run first and then know where their play makers are at on the outside.”
Nolan Boyer leads the Southmont offense and comes into the game 41-84 (48.8%) with 651 yards and three TD’s while also having seven interceptions. Wyatt Woodall for one of the few times this season was held in check a week ago. On the season he has 101 rushes for 761 yards and 16TD’s. Boyer adds 412 yards on the ground while Cale Chadd has 235 and Dylan Howell 193. Kyler McCandless hauled in a 99-yard TD a week ago to up his receiving total to 412 yards on the season on 17 catches.
Kickoff between the Mounties and Tigers is scheduled for 7 p.m and you can catch a live broadcast of the game on 106.3 WCDQ beginning at 6:30 as Riley Woodall and Codey Emerson will have the call.
