By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
St. Joseph Academy and La Villa each have a certain offensive style.
The Bloodhounds are an explosive, run-or-pass, catch-us-if-you-can offense, and the Cardinals prefer to run the ball at will and wear down the defense. Neither is better or worse, but each is tough for an opposing defensive coordinator.
“They run that nasty slot, so anytime you run that it’s tough to stop,” St. Joseph coach Tino Villarreal said. “They try to grind you 2, 3 yards a play, and eventually they bust one open.”
La Villa agrees its opponent will be tough to stop in The Herald’s Game of the Week at 7:30 p.m. Friday night.
“On offense, they’re very explosive, it’s obvious they have a phenomenal football player in No. 12, Kai Money. I know he’s just a sophomore,” La Villa coach Shawn Alvarez said. “The kid is outstanding, we’re going to have our hands full trying to stop him. He does have a good supporting cast around him … so I feel we have our hands full defensively.”
With each team set to do what they do on offense, it likely will be up to the defense that comes up with the better game plan, which defense can cause the opposing offense to alter what it likes to do with the ball and gets a few takeaways.
“It’s going to be a big test for us,” Villarreal said. “Can we play some tough defense against the run? It’s going to be a test to keep our offense on the field and keep our defense off the field, so that’s what we’re looking for. (We have to) be physical, the aggression level up. I think we’re more aggressive than last year. We have to be more physical, not be shy to control the line of scrimmage, because that’s where you’re going to win or lose games against a running team.”
The Cardinals’ coach hoped his defense could limit or slow down the St. Joseph offense.
“We’re going to have to take care of our business on defense,” Alvarez said. “We’re going to have to up our game this week and do everything we can to contain No. 12 and all of his teammates. Offensively they are a very good football team.”
Offensively, La Villa hopes to get going. The Cardinals have scored just 28 points in two games, and that won’t be enough to match the Bloodhounds offensive output. The more La Villa can work the clock, the less opportunities the St. Joseph offense has to score.
“We’re hoping that we have a good offensive game,” Alvarez said. “That we’re able to move the ball on their defense, put together some key drives and hopefully come up with some scores at the same time.”
For St. Joseph, it will be a good test with district play coming up.
“We don’t face that formation in our district, but we did face it in the playoffs a couple years ago,” Villarreal said. “Any chance you get to face it is good, because you never know what team you’re going to face in the playoffs at some point and our eyes are set at getting back to the playoffs this year.
“The game is going to be won or lost in the trenches, and we have to be physical to win those.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.