The Gosnell Pirates open the 2014 3-4A conference season Friday night on the road against the Brookland Bearcats. The Pirates (2-0-1) are coming off a hard fought game last week against Rivercrest that ended in a 29-29 tie. When asked about the psychology of a team coming off of a game that they neither won nor lost, Pirate head coach Gary Moody said his team has moved on and ready for Brookland.
"Our kids came in Monday ready to go to work," said Moody. "We're ready to start the conference season. We know we have a lot to improve on but we're determined to do what we have to do to get better. We've moved on from last week. We know we did some great individual things but we have to improve on our team play."
The Bearcats (2-1) are coming in off a 30-16 win over Manila. It's the third year of their football program and they're looking to improve on their one win conference season a year ago. Quarterback Drake Rainwater leads the Bearcat spread offense.
"He's a big kid (6-foot-4 210 pounds) and he's a good runner," said Moody. "They will throw some but they like to run him a lot."
Rainwater threw for over 1,000 yards and completed 12 touchdowns a year ago.
On defense, Brookland lines up in a 4-4 base attack with Aden Sharp leading the front four and senior inside linebacker, Trey Newman, leading the four linebackers. Newman led the team in tackles a year ago with 103.
"The 4-4 is not something we've seen this year but it's something that we're familiar with," said Moody.
The Pirates have won both games that the two teams have played by a combined score of 82-41. Despite the Bearcats struggles over their first couple of years, Moody and the Pirates are not taking them lightly. There is plenty on the line with every game here on out.
"The kids know what this week means," said Moody. "It's everybody's first conference game. When we look at the schedule, we can't afford a loss, especially early in the season, if we want to contend for the title. We have back-to-back games at Pocahontas and Highland later on. We're expecting both of those teams to be undefeated when we play them. So, we can't look past anyone. We have to stay focused right from the start Friday night."
The Pirates played banged up last week with leading rusher, Carolos Blackman, out of the starting lineup and he played limited snaps in the second half.
Moody called on a running back by committee approach with Brian Anderson and Tiberius Real leading the way along with Ronnie McShan and Mike Gates, but the shuffling of the players led to issues later in the game.
"Brian and Tiger (Real) ran the ball great," said Moody. "In fact, all our runners ran well. The problem was, they ran the ball so much, I think it hurt them on defense. I think that's why Rivercrest was able to break a couple of those big plays. We're banged up now. We're going to try get Carlos ready, but if he's not, we're going to have to find a way to get those players some rest. We moved some people around and put some people in that we weren't expecting to but everyone has to be ready to go."
Blackman is still nursing a deep bruise he got in week one against Harding. He re-aggravated it late last week before the Rivercrest game. Quarterback Dwight Griffin injured his throwing hand against Rivercrest but is expected to play as are T.J. Anderson and Michael Miller.
"Last year at this time, we weren't playing great," said Moody. "Right now, we're not where we want to be either but the effort and desire to get better from the players is great. We're just trying to get better every week."
Friday night kickoff at Brookland is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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