FLORENCE — The Wilson Tigers held the city championship for the last three years.
In order to win it a fourth time, they’ll have to go through West Florence and one of the best defenses in the state.
The two squads square off Friday at Memorial Stadium in the Morning News Game of the Week.
Wilson can claim the city title outright with a win over West, having already beaten South Florence earlier this year.
“We set our goal every year to be one of the best teams in the area and in Florence, so this is an opportunity to reach one of those goals,” Wilson coach Darryl Page said.
But it won’t be easy. The Tigers are averaging 358 yards of offense and 33 points per game, but the Knights defense has only given up an average of 261 yards and 13.5 points per game.
“You see them on film, and you know them by name,” Page said. “With those kind of kids, you can never really stop them. We just have to make sure that we can slow them down and neutralize some of the things they like to do.”
Part of that includes keeping quarterback Richard Cue, who has thrown for 553 yards this season, upright. West’s Malliciah Goodman and Sydney Sarmiento, two of West’s four Division I college commitments, have combined for nine sacks.
For the Knights, one of their big keys will be eliminating the turnovers that have plagued them the last two games. West turned the ball over six times in the 34-10 win over Darlington last week.
“I think the main thing is just to get it out of the kids’ heads so they stop thinking about it,” West coach Trey Woodberry said. “We’ve had good offensive yardage and good drives, we just haven’t been able to put points on the board once we get to the red zone.
“That’s going to be our biggest key.”
The running game also will be a factor. Wilson is giving up 280.5 rushing yards per game, including 373 in the 41-34 victory over Timmonsville.
“We’re going to try to run the ball first, no doubt about that,” Woodberry said. “But I’m sure they’ll be ready for us. This game has been a defensive struggle the last few years, and I expect they’ll do what that have to to stop us.”
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