Republic’s new-look defense didn’t give up a touchdown, but the Tiger offense made up for it Friday night at the pre-season jamboree. Republic got touchdowns from several different running backs against three opponents: Neosho, Mt. Vernon, and Lebanon. Lebanon was the only team that moved the ball with much success on the Republic defense.
Coach Wes Beachler, entering his fourth season as head coach at Republic, liked what he saw.
“There’s quite a few things. I thought our offensive line played really well. We have talented backs and we expect them to look pretty good at times, when they get in space,” he says. “Last year, we’d miss a tackle in the backfield and the kid would go for 6, 8, 10, 12 yards. Tonight, we missed a few tackles, but there were four or five bodies on him and he was going down.”
And Beachler says he was especially impressed with the attitude of the offensive skill players, who broke big plays in a workmanlike fashion. He called out a nifty run by Cameron Flood, who got to the sideline, made several defenders miss, then bulled his way to the end zone.
“One of my proudest moments — Cam Flood’s move down here, they didn’t know what to do. They had no idea how to get a hold of him. And by the time I got to him, I didn’t see a big smile. He nodded his head at me like ‘Let’s go do it again.’ Those are the things — if our skill kids, as talented as they are, have the mentality of ‘That’s what I’m supposed to do. Let’s go do it again,’ we’re going to be in pretty good shape.”
David Feil, Skyler Owen, Jake Jones, and Jaden DuVall each took a turn in the spotlight Friday, with Riley Watkins running the offense at quarterback.
The Tigers have transitioned to a 4-4 defensive set this season, and Beachler liked what he saw on that side of the ball, too.
“They got a lot of different looks tonight and I thought they defended them all pretty well. I thought the variety of offensive plays we saw, I thought our kids did a pretty good job of reading what they’re supposed to read and fitting where they’re supposed to fit and playing pretty solid defense. I thought tackling was pretty solid, too,” he says.
The Tigers’ pre-season practices, coupled with their performance Friday night, has Beachler optimistic about the season.
“We’ve got to stay healthy up front and we’ve got to keep getting better, but we saw some great things on defense. We saw some great things on offense,” he says. “Now we need to put it together for the whole year.”
The Tigers open their season at home next week against Bolivar.
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