Bruins look to end losing skid to Knights

FLORENCE — For once, the South Florence Bruins have a decisive numbers advantage over their cross-town rivals at West Florence.

Not in terms of players on the roster, but in returning talent.

South brings back 35 players from last year’s squad while West is dealing with the loss of 31 seniors, including four who are now on the field at Division I colleges.

The Bruins look to end a nine-game losing streak against West as the two city rivals meet Friday at Memorial Stadium in the Morning News Game of the Week.
“It’s always good heading into the second year with very little turnover,” South coach Lynn Fleming said. “Everyone knows what our expectations are, everyone knows the system, so we were able to hit the ground running this year.”

South returns a number of players at the skill positions, including quarterback Kaleb Griffin. Griffin wasn’t the starter, but saw significant playing time due to injury.

Running back Terrion Brown is back as well, and transfer Jeremiah Reaves gives the Bruins an explosive option in the kick return game.

“Experience is going to be big for us,” Fleming said. “We have a lot of good athletes that are a year older and have performed well on Friday nights.”

By contrast, West has two new coordinators and 50 players on its roster who have never played under the lights at Memorial Stadium.

“It’s been different,” West coach Trey Woodberry said of his team’s offseason. “There’s been a lot more teaching, a lot more emphasis on fundamentals.

“It’s a big difference from the last few years where we had guys who knew the system up and down.”

The Knights lost most of their skill position players and will start the season with a new QB, new wideouts and nearly an entirely new defense.

“We’re improving every scrimmage,” Woodberry said. “We played against a lot of tough teams in the preseason to get our kids adjusted to the speed and the skill level they’re going to see.”

Friday’s game will be the first for both teams this season, and both coaches are focusing more on improving their teams rather than getting too deep into game planning.

“We’re always going to try to improve ourselves every game first,” Fleming said. “We have guys who know how to prepare, and with West being somewhat of an unknown, that’s what we have to focus on.”

Even with an inexperienced group, though, the Knights are well aware of what’s at stake.

“Most of these kids didn’t have too much to do with any of the previous nine wins against South,” Woodberry said. “But they don’t want to be the team that snaps the streak, either.”