Central hopes to best Lee-Montgomery for second time this season

Back on Oct. 20, the Lee-Montgomery Generals gave Central a scare before the Red Devils pulled away in a 52-30 victory. With a spot in the Class 7A semifinals now on the line, the Red Devils are hopeful that Lee’s first shot proves to be its best.

The Red Devils face their Region 2-7A foe at 8 p.m. Friday at Garrett-Harrison Stadium. Central is fresh off a 42-13 rout of Theodore, a game which impressed Central head coach Jamey DuBose.

“I thought we came out and were really fast on the offensive side,” DuBose said. “We tried to turn the game into more of a track meet and go at our tempo and our speed. Defensively, I thought we did a great job of aligning. I thought we played with a lot of enthusiasm.”

The track-meet nature is nothing new to Central, and it’s exactly how the first game against the Generals began.

The two teams traded points back and forth in the first half of the contest in the Cramton Bowl, with the Red Devils holding a slim 28-21 lead at halftime. Central finally put the game out of reach in the third quarter thanks to Peter Parrish’s 83-yard rushing touchdown, setting up the Red Devils to clinch the region title.

After looking over the film, DuBose was able to pinpoint a number of areas which kept Lee in contention.

Lee’s offense was able to match Central nearly step for step early on, which was a product of the Generals’ play designs as well as uncharacteristically poor alignment from the Central defense. Lee made Central’s linebackers clear out from where the ball was headed, and that coupled with the poor alignment within the box led to several big plays.

Now, Central has to fend Lee off once again.

“As the team that wins, you never want to say, ‘Hey, we want to go play a good team again,’” DuBose said. “They’ve got a little bit of a motivation factor coming in. We know we’re going to get their best shot.”

The good news for Central is this sort of test is nothing new. In the second round last year, Central faced Auburn after beating the Tigers 42-14 in September. The Red Devils made the rematch no problem at all, defeating Auburn 48-9.

DuBose stressed that his defense must avoid the mistakes it made against the Generals in October. To do that, the Red Devils must have better alignment, tackle better and shut down a Lee run game which broke several big plays the first time around.

DuBose added it’s imperative for his special teams unit to take advantage of every opportunity, whether that’s blocking a punt or breaking a long return. As far as the offense is concerned, DuBose said his team should be ready to take whatever Lee gives.

“You could say we’ll (run our offense) if it’s by air or by land,” DuBose said. “If we have to run, we’ll run; if we have to throw, we’ll throw. We’ll get there, and we’ll see how they choose to defend us. Our guys will make the adjustments, and we’ll be ready to go.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Central hopes to best Lee-Montgomery for second time this season."