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Mustangs to open league play Friday against Devils
After opening the football season 1-5, Smoky Mountain is looking forward to a fresh start Friday in its Western Athletic Conference opener.
Brevard will visit Carr Hooper Stadium/Babe Howell Field for the 7:30 p.m. game.
“We’re glad to be going into conference play,” Coach Dale Galloway said. “It’s a second season for us. We got our bearings about us a little more offensively last Friday night, and hopefully this week we’ll get our bearings back defensively.”
The Blue Devils bring a 2-4 record into the game, but Galloway pointed out that is misleading.
“They’ve played a killer non-conference schedule, but so have we,” he said. “We have played two of the best in Western North Carolina in Murphy and Tuscola. We’ve taken it on the chin, and so have they.”
The teams have one common opponent in Tuscola. The Mountaineers routed SM 56-7 Friday and beat Brevard 49-28 earlier in the year.
Mark Barnes is in his first year as Brevard’s coach. He came from Scotland County where he coached Cameron Sexton, who is now the starting quarterback at North Carolina.
Barnes was joined in the move by quarterback Walt Clark, who transferred from Scotland. Clark has missed part of the season with an ankle injury but returned to throw for 155 yards in Friday’s 28-7 win over Burns.
The Devils operate from a spread formation and use a lot of option, according to Galloway. They play a base 3-5 defense.
Jacob Thompson is Brevard’s leading rusher, and A.J. Zandecki is the top receiver.
The Devils opened the year with a 61-20 rout of Q Foundation.
In addition to Tuscola, their losses have been to Roberson (27-7), Asheville (28-25) and Shelby (31-0).
“We only have two regular season home games left,” Galloway said. “We are happy to be back in conference play and feel we stand a good chance in our conference. We had a tight game with them last year, and we anticipate it will be that way again.
Last season’s 13-3 game extended Brevard’s winning streak in the series to 14. The Mustangs’ lone win was in the first meeting in 1989.
“We haven’t done a great job of forcing turnovers,” Galloway said in looking to a way to change that trend. “We need to get some field position.”
Despite Friday’s 56-7 loss to Tuscola, Galloway saw some positives.
“We moved the ball a little bit more like we want to and expect to,” he said. “That was the good part of it.”
The Mustangs had 19 first downs and 309 yards of offense.
With the point total, it’s obvious that the Mountaineers had a big offensive night.
“They moved the ball extremely well, but they’ve moved the ball like that on a lot of people,” the coach said.
SM made a quarterback change Friday as Logan Buchanan went from halfback to under center. Colton Hunt moved form quarterback to the backfield and wide receiver. All six of Buchanan’s completions went to Hunt.
Buchanan had played some quarterback in the previous game against Franklin.
“It’s something we’ve done at piecemeal times,” Galloway said of the switch. “They’re both real flexible. Colton is probably a little more comfortable running in the open field. Logan does a great job with the option. That’s getting back to the nuts and bolts of what we tried from the beginning. We were just fingertips away from putting up some pretty good passing yardage. Hopefully, we’ll get a little bit more efficient.”
The coach was also proud of the execution of an onside kick. It gave the Mustangs momentum as it came in the first quarter just after they had tied the game 7-7.
“That onside kick is something we had worked on all week and something we felt like we could get,” he said.
“Our offensive line played the best they’ve played in a while,” he added. “They got off the ball better.”
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