By Justin Nails
Tribune Sports
PINSON—Pinson Valley will begin region play on Friday as they go on the road to face the Mounties of Shades Valley. The Indians will look to add to their win total after a 41-12 win over Ramsay last week. Shades Valley will try to get their first win of 2018 after losing their season opener to Jackson-Olin 30-7.
The Indians will need to rev up their passing attack as the offense struggled for the second straight week to move the ball through the air. Bo Nix was 10-of-21 for 89 yards and two touchdowns last week and finished the night with over twice as many punting yards than passing yards. Both offenses do get somewhat of a pass as the second half saw a monsoon of a rain storm that nearly wiped out any and everyone in both stands. Indians running back Jay Sharp accounted for 87 yards on 16 carries and added a 76-yard punt return late in the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Bo Nix will continue to try and find a rhythm with his wide receivers as dropped balls continue to plague the offense. Geordon Pollard showed his range as a big target in the red zone last week as he had one touchdown catch while starting defensive back Gaquincey McKinstry had the only other touchdown catch of the game. Keyonteze Johnson did lead all receivers with four catches but only managed 27 yards in the process. Finding multiple receivers that can be counted on to move the chains is going to be a must if the Indians are going to make a run back to the championship game.
The Mounties were only able to muster seven points in their opener and did so on a fumble recovery in the endzone. In the second half of their game against Jackson-Olin, the Mounties were only able to muster 53 yards of total offense and one first down. They’ll need to move the ball a lot more if they’re going to have a chance on Friday.
Defensively, the Indians played well last week despite the weather. They did give up some yardage through the air but given the circumstances of a backup quarterback and the weather, holding any offense to just 277 yards of total offense is still impressive.
The Mounties will probably try and move the ball through the year against Pinson Valley as the Ramsay offense had almost all of their success that way last week. The Rams managed just 277 yards of total offense in the downpour, but only 57 of those yards were on the ground. The Indians defense may have been caught off guard by the fact that backup quarterback Jaih Andrews got the start but it’s an area they’ll need to improve in going forward.
It took overtime last year for the Indians to pull out a 28-27 win against Shades Valley so Coach Nix will need to keep his team on their toes going into the first region game of the season. The Indians are 7-4 all-time against Shades Valley.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.