Sep 23, 2022

Bombers and Heat clash in search of midseason momentum

Posted Sep 23, 2022 2:40 PM

By TYLER HENRY
JC Post contributor

As the halfway point of the regular season looms, the Wakefield Bombers and Rural Vista Heat will meet for a week four matchup, each in search of some positive momentum.

The two teams have played a pair of common opponents already, with Wakefield defeating Herington 40-16 but falling to Solomon 50-16 while Rural Vista dropped games to both by scores of 48-0.

Both teams have struggled with exceptionally young rosters, as talented but raw freshmen and sophomores work to get to grips with the speed of the varsity game.

“We’re young and we’re still making a lot of young mistakes,” Bomber head coach Chris Freeman said. “Because of our youth, there’s still some uncertainty and we decided we needed to really intensify practice more to better prepare them to handle adversity on Friday nights.”

Rural Vista has had similar struggles in 2022, often finding themselves as the smaller team on the field in addition to the less experienced.

“We’re going to be the youngest team on the field all year,” Heat head coach Brian Henry said. “You can’t teach age and you can’t teach size but we have to overcome that. We’ve seen a little bit of growth in maturity but I think some of our freshmen have just gotten overwhelmed with the size we’ve gone against.”

While both teams push through early season miscues, each will have a golden opportunity to collect a big win on Friday night. For Wakefield, this game represents a chance to enter the back half of the season at .500 while Rural Vista searches for their first victory of the campaign.

The Bombers will come into this contest as somewhat heavy favorites but have shown a great deal of respect to the Heat in their preparation this week.

“This is just another game for us,” Freeman said. “They have a strong freshman class and despite their scores, they’re not a team to take lightly. There’s some talent there and we can’t go in assuming anything.”

On the Rural-Vista side of things, the Heat have spent the week looking for ways to contend with the Bombers’ size, something they struggled to do in their first three matchups.

“Wakefield is big, they’ve got a back that can get you three yards in a cloud of dust and a quarterback who can scramble a lot. Their longest and biggest plays have come on his ability to run and we have to contain him in this game and plug the middle when they hand the ball off.”

To offset the difference on the depth chart, Rural-Vista has shown their opponents a number of unique looks offensively in the past, and to have success tonight, the Bombers must be prepared to defend those schemes.

“They line up in some oddball formations and test your level of preparedness in the back end of your defense,” Freeman said. “We have to make sure we communicate well as we defend some looks we haven’t seen before.”

Kickoff between the Bombers and Heat is set for 7 pm at Wakefield High School, for continuing coverage of both teams all season long stay tuned to the JC Post.