September 15, 2023 Waverly 21 - 24 Portsmouth West

[smurray]

This game is slated for Saturday September 16 at 7:00p.m.
Looks like both offenses can put points on the board and if last years game is any indication this could be a shootout.
Which defense will step up??

[SiderBlood]

With non-conference schedule in the books, not a better way to get the big boy games rolling. This game will be one of the biggest of the year for both teams. Can West defend the crown and survive?

So far I see no indication that would say this game will be low scoring. Lots of offense, who will have just a few more stops and force the turnovers. Tough place to play, have to keep penalties to a minimum and not give the tigers a short field. I think Bishop and Parker will be too much. I would like to see another playmaker step up. We have good complimentary players but I want to see someone demand more respect with the ball in their hands.

Can’t help but imagine if we still had both the Hurds from Waverly, Hart at Ironton, and Myles Phillips at ND. Having those playmakers would really separate us as elite. A good team as it is, this would have been elite.

Have a great week of practice, stay focused, and defend the Gold. Go Siders

[Tigernation2021]

Honestly I'm not heart broken that this game got switched to Saturday it will mess with both teams preparations just a bit. However, what better way to fill a stadium from ppl all around the area than to have 2 teams that are 3-1 winners of 3 straight and vying for a SOC2 title than to have this sucker played on Saturday night. Looks like Parker has been a really nice surprise for West and Bishop is one of the top players in the SOC and West is finding different ways to get him the ball. Neither team has played a juggernaut of a nonconference schedule up to this point but I do have to give the nod to Waverly just slightly in this regards.

West has some big lineman and that's where they're going to try and grind it out against our defense and the Waverly offense is going to try and pickup where it left off against West last season. This could be a game where one team is fully committed to the run and the other is committed to the pass and which one will prevail. Love it, love the matchup, love what is at stake for both teams. If Waverly's defense can continue to pickup the stops and slow down the run in this one and force West into more passing situations I like our chances in this one. Seems like I say it every week but this week is going to come down to the LOS 100%.

[Jeaux Burreaux]

Both teams took a tough one to the chin week 1. Haven’t looked back since. This is arguably the game of the week in the area. Looking forward to it

[jujubean]

Can't help think about the teams West could have. Don't get me wrong, the kids we have in place now are excellent. I'm just thinking about how dominant we could be in all sports.

Hurd boys to Waverly. Phillips, Coleman. Kingery to ND (Could add Cassidy and Hart, too) McNeil and Powell to Valley. I wouldn't doubt if I dug deeper we could find a few more. Looks like a pretty RB production to me. Doesn't matter now, this Sider team is pretty special. Hopefully we are in all sports.

[SiderBlood]

Can't help think about the teams West could have. Don't get me wrong, the kids we have in place now are excellent. I'm just thinking about how dominant we could be in all sports.

Hurd boys to Waverly. Phillips, Coleman. Kingery to ND (Could add Cassidy and Hart, too) McNeil and Powell to Valley. I wouldn't doubt if I dug deeper we could find a few more. Looks like a pretty RB production to me. Doesn't matter now, this Sider team is pretty special. Hopefully we are in all sports.

I don’t want to down play the team we have either. Because this is a great group of guys. But you just shake your head looking at the list of athletes that could have made this team a legit regional contender. All this leaving for “greener pastures” , as we are defending SOC champs.

[art_vandelay]

Can't help think about the teams West could have. Don't get me wrong, the kids we have in place now are excellent. I'm just thinking about how dominant we could be in all sports.

Hurd boys to Waverly. Phillips, Coleman. Kingery to ND (Could add Cassidy and Hart, too) McNeil and Powell to Valley. I wouldn't doubt if I dug deeper we could find a few more. Looks like a pretty RB production to me. Doesn't matter now, this Sider team is pretty special. Hopefully we are in all sports.

Had this same conversation last week. Not sure why all those kids left West because they still pretty tough with the kids that stayed. West was flat out destroying teams back in the pee wee days when all those kids were together.*

[Nicknevada86]

West 38-37

[wobycat]

Going with Waverly

[packers80]

Tigers

[YouCantBeSerious]

Will Waverly be able to match West’s physicality, especially on the LoS on both sides of the ball? And will Waverly wrap up and not have missed tackles? I think those are the two things that will determine this game.
West’s oline is solid up front and the guards are good at pulling, at times Waverly’s interior line is questionable, if they don’t play well West will have a good night. And Waverly has a tradition of being average-to-bad tacklers (with the expectation of a few players here and there) and this team at times is carrying on the tradition, they even struggled at times bringing down Valleys players, which ran hard but West will be a whole other beast.

Defensively for West, they will probably load up and try and stop the run and dare Kelly to make the throw. Waverly’s line will need their best game yet and will need better blocking from the TEs as well.

Think there will be lots of points scored Saturday night… expecting a big crowd as well since this will be the only local game going on. Whoever wins this one will be in a great spot going forward in league play.

Also, heard Waverly charged $5 to park this past Friday to park so if you plan on coming make sure you stop at the atm beforehand

[RJShifko]

I like Waverly in this one. The Waverly team that has been playing the last couple of weeks is a solid football team I like what they are doing. West is so one dimensional that I think they will struggle to beat Waverly

[Jason Vorhees]

West is 35-33-2 all time vs Waverly.
West has the longest winning streak in the series history from 2008-15, at 8.
Waverly has won 5 out of the last 7 games.

Will it be a shootout like last year or will it be a grind it out slugfest?

West is averaging 39.5 points per game and giving up an average of 22.5 points per game.

Waverly is averaging 36 points per game while giving up an average of 19.25 points per game.

West’s opponents are 7-9 so far.
Waverly’s opponents are 7-9 so far.

[MrPerfect]

Should be a game that mirrors last years matchup.
I look for it to be a good one.

[smurray]

Waverly's run defense must improve as Valley had success on the ground. I think this is a MUST win for Waverly, both for the league and the playoff picture - Tigers need to open up the entire offensive playbook in this one - can't hold anything back. Q Hurd is an absolute beast, even with the ball in his hands. Tigers need to get him the ball in various ways. Q had THE HIT of the year (against Valley) returning a kickoff of all things.

[SiderBlood]

West is 35-33-2 all time vs Waverly.
West has the longest winning streak in the series history from 2008-15, at 8.
Waverly has won 5 out of the last 7 games.

Will it be a shootout like last year or will it be a grind it out slugfest?

West is averaging 39.5 points per game and giving up an average of 22.5 points per game.

Waverly is averaging 36 points per game while giving up an average of 19.25 points per game.

West’s opponents are 7-9 so far.
Waverly’s opponents are 7-9 so far.

That’s about as close as you can get across the board. I fully expect the final score to be similar to these numbers. A coin toss.

[SiderBlood]

How is Waverlys bench? Do they run a lot of substitutes in and out and do they have a lot of two way players?

We are limited on varsity ready players. But despite a lot of two way stars, our conditioning has been outstanding thus far. Our physical style really wears opponents by the 4th quarter. I think both teams are gonna rack up the points, but the line of scrimmage is where I think we will prevail on both sides of the ball. Early week prediction, Siders 40-31

[Tigernation2021]

How is Waverlys bench? Do they run a lot of substitutes in and out and do they have a lot of two way players?

We are limited on varsity ready players. But despite a lot of two way stars, our conditioning has been outstanding thus far. Our physical style really wears opponents by the 4th quarter. I think both teams are gonna rack up the points, but the line of scrimmage is where I think we will prevail on both sides of the ball. Early week prediction, Siders 40-31

Like most teams we do have 2-way players but the ones playing both ways are juniors or seniors and very used to it by now. Still have enough depth to get them breaks though when needed, my guess is we're probably about 50/50 in terms of guys who go both ways. I think this is one reason that early on in the season we've gotten better as the game goes along because we don't have a huge number of players going both ways and we do have the ability to get those guys breaks. I do think this game will be very similar to last years only I don't believe Waverly will wait so long to just air it out, West is going to have to make a decision defensively as to whether they want to load the box which really isn't their style or if they want to play more pass coverage play. Likewise Waverly is going to have to decide if they want to load the box more than they typically would to stop the run or play it straight. West has the size advantage across the OL and they've been utilizing that very well going both inside and out but mainly they're going between the tackles, I wouldn't do it every down but if I Waverly DL I wouldn't be opposed to cutting lineman and creating piles to make the RBs bounce and keep them from getting the hard run at the line.

[noreply66]

This game should be a sellout.

[Golfer23]

This game will come down to who can get stops. According to max preps west defense gets a bunch of them. Averaging 113 tackles a game is pretty legit. Fariland ran 77 plays and west had 127 team tackles that tells me their defense comes to play and gang tackles!! Sharpen your pencil smurray!!