High School Playbook

Tonight the Playbook rolls into the home of the “Big Blue” of Hamilton High School, as they will be hosting The Lakota East Thunder Hawks.

Both coming into tonight game at (1-3); neither team is thinking playoffs, but its pride that’s on the line this week. Last week was tough on both teams; the Thunder hawks lost (27-0) to Middletown, and Hamilton lost a tough one at Mason (17-7).  Both Hamilton and Lakota East will come out hungry; wanting to show the division they’re not chumps—even though they’re going through a down year. Now let’s take a closer look at tonight’s teams.

Lakota East likes to run the ball and wear their opponents down. They’re good at milking the clock, and forcing their opponents to use timeouts. Lakota East has been very successful with running the ball, and they have averaged over 154 yards per game. But that’s where the positive compliments end. LE’s defense gives up, on average, 26 points a game! For all you non math majors; that’s a ton of points! The goal for LE should be to stick to their game plan and run the ball if possible. Now with rain in the forecast for a second straight week; that might be a tall order. In the event they can’t run, they must be prudent with their passing game. I would recommend short screen passes and short come back routes.

If Lakota East can establish their offense, they should be able to take the pressure off their “D”. But like we saw last week at Fairfield, when it rains, nothing usually goes as planned. Lakota East gives up way too many yards rushing; thus they need to load the box with 8 men, and force Hamilton to throw—if they can take away the run, then they might have a decent chance at neutralizing their powerful offense.

Now onto Hamilton…..

Hamilton is a much more balanced team than East; I’ll make no bones about it. While West relies so much on the run; Hamilton will run and mix in the pass to keep teams on their toes. On average Hamilton rushes for 151 yards per game, and passes for 118; much more of a solid attack. But just when you think both teams look so much different, they begin to look a lot alike, and here’s where!

Both teams give up over 25 points per game! So this is either going to be a shoot out, or a blow out tonight. Look for the poor field conditions and rain to play a major factor.

Freland Final Take:

Hamilton: 34 Lakota East:31

WLWT High School Playbook Reporter Mike Freland