By Ryan Davenport, WSON Sports Correspondent
The Henderson County Colonels took down the Meade County Green Wave 35-34 at Colonel Stadium in Henderson to open up the 2023 season.
This week the Colonels are on the road in Bowling Green in their first road game of the season.
Henderson County Colonel Head Football Coach Josh Boston talks about the South Warren Spartans and the takeaways he saw in film, “Their size, all across the board. Their running backs are big, their receivers are big, and the quarterbacks got some length to him. They’ve got good size on the offensive line so they’ve got some big guys but the thing is they play a lot of guys both ways. They play more guys both ways than we do and so it’s one of those things that you know we’ve got to survive the surge early, they’re very talented and get it to the fourth quarter and let our depth and conditioning come into play.”
Coach Boston talked about the Spartans offense and playmakers on the offensive side of things as well as the defensive side too, “Very multiple. Number ten is their guy (Ethan Reynolds). Against North Hardin last week he had 243 yards of offense just himself, rushing and receiving, so when they need to make a play he’s the one that gets the ball in his hands, does a great job catching the ball, does a great job running the ball. Number five for them (Bailey Shoemaker), one of their outside receivers, he (doesn’t) drop balls, he’s a magnet. (He) does a good job of whether it’s a possession route or deep route, does a good job of pulling it in, (the) quarterback just does a good job putting it in the stomach. They’re not having to make a whole lot of outstanding catches, (Spartans quarterback) got a really strong arm. Defensively, they’re week to week, mix it up, kind of whatever they feel like they need to be in to defend your offense. They’ve been in three different defenses between two scrimmages and one game. We’ve practiced them all so it’s going to be one of those things where gametime rolls around (and) be ready to mentally adjust and use what we’ve prepared them in.”
Coach Boston was asked if the Spartans run the ball more or pass the ball or if they are a balanced type of offense, “Personnel. They have two tight ends that also widen out and play receiver and so they’ve got guys that can come down in the box and be strong big blockers and then can widen them out and make the catches that they need. They’re are really big with their personnel and what they’re trying to do, whether they’re going to be in four wide or whether they’re going to have two tight ends and so very multiple in how they balance that out.”
When asked the keys to beating the Spartans on the road in Bowling Green, Josh Boston said, “It’s like I said earlier, they’re going to come out. They’re a very very good football team. We’ve got to survive that surge early and make it to the fourth quarter and so do that and let our conditioning, let our depth come into play and continue competing no matter what happens early in the game.”
In his 10th season as the Head Coach of the Spartans, Coach Brandon Smith talked about his success and the program’s success in Class 5A, “We’ve had a good experience. I guess in the grand scheme a relatively young program, I think this is our 13th or 14th year, but (we’ve) been able to win three state championships, two at 5A and one at 4A. We’ve experienced a lot of growth. We started out with about 800 students in 3A and now we’re pushing 1,500 students. We’ve learned a lot, figured a lot out over the years as much as what not to do as what to do. A lot of good people have made a commitment to making the program grow and (are) proud of the level that it’s gotten to.”
Kickoff for tonight’s game against the (1-0) South Warren Spartans is at 8:00 PM in Bowling Green.
WSON AM/FM will have complete coverage beginning with the pre-game at 7:05 P.M.
We’ll also have live updates on the WSON Radio Facebook and Twitter pages.
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