By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
This week’s game between Beebe and Nettleton is a potential battle for the No. 3 seed in the 5A-East Conference, but for Badgers head coach Cam Prock, it’s just another tough game. Beebe prevailed last week in another come from behind win against Greene County Tech. The Eagles went ahead by two scores early on, but the Badgers were able to shut them out in the second half, while scoring 31 unanswered points in the process.
Prock says there is no method to the rallying madness that has come to define his explosive squad. He says above all, his kids simply refuse to quit when falling behind. “It’s kind of been typical of our offense this year,” Prock said. “They will sputter and sputter; sometimes they will take off and sometimes they won’t. I thought our defense played really well last week. They were able to get 14 points on us early, but even at that time, I thought we were playing well. We made a few adjustments as far as who would pick up what assignment, but it’s really no big secret that it usually just comes down to kids playing harder and making plays.”
Nettleton is easily the most improved team this season. The losing teams of the past few years have been replaced with a playoff-hungry team this year. Prock says that if his team is going to have success against the Raiders this Friday, the defensive line will have to control things against their offensive interior. That and try to stop standout tailback ??? Lawson.
“They have a good offensive line,” Prock said. “They block extremely well, and they have a good running back. He is one of those guys that is a strong runner and carries a lot of speed. It will be a good test for our defense.”
This time of the year finds many coaches crunching numbers to see what needs to happen in order for their teams to clinch a particular seed for the playoffs, but not Prock. He says all he is concerned about is his team playing at the top of its ability, and worry about the state brackets once the season is done.
“We have to go out and compete every down, it’s as simple as that,” Prock said. “When you start looking at what team is ranked where, it can become a distraction. You still have to go out and face the same competition either way. We are just going to compete hard and let everybody else do the math on all of that, we just want to win out.”