LEWISBURG (WVDN) – After a productive week off the gridiron, the Greenbrier East Spartans will be back on their home field this Friday, Sept. 30, when they play host to the Hampshire Trojans on what will be a typical cool, fall night under the lights.
The Spartans are looking to get their season back in their own control after a rather underwhelming 1-3 start.
And Hampshire may be just the team to help that along.
The Trojans come in at 2-3 on the season with wins over Preston (28-21) and Park View (49-0). They average 21 points per game but have allowed their opponents to score at a 32.2 clip.
Last week they lost to Keyser 48-22 and show losses to Frankfort (50-3) and Rock Ridge (42-3) as well.
Hampshire players to watch:
Quarterback- Jenson Fields
Receiver- Zander Robinson
Hampshire’s attack starts with Fields and ends with Robinson. If those two get going, the Trojans have the potential to come to Spartan Stadium and win convincingly.
However, consistency has not been Hampshire’s strong point thus far this season.
In the loss to Keyser last week, Fields completed 14-of-25 passes for 180 yards and ran for 73 more. Robinson hauled in 13 receptions for 157 yards and a touchdown. However, again, consistency is the issue and as noted above, there have been two games Hampshire did not even score a touchdown.
East’s game plan this week is pretty simple. Contain Fields and Robinson and force the rest of the cast to beat them.
The last time the Spartans played, they suffered a 14-3 loss to Stuarts Draft in a game where the offense struggled and the defense, although they did not allow many points, struggled to stop the run and get off the field all night.
East had just 159 yards of total offense in the game and will look to improve on that number and in other facets as well as they try to put another number in the win column.
Quarterback Monquelle Davis and running back Ian Cline matchup extremely well with the the Trojans defense and both could have huge nights if East is able to execute what they want to do.
The wild card player in this contest is Lucas McCallister. The Trojans will try to stop Cline first which will allow McCallister many opportunities to shine and get big numbers.
There will be no score prediction this week. I have been so far off on each game, I decided to take a prediction hiatus for at least the next two weeks. However, the Spartans are going to win Friday, and it will be by a wide margin.
Kickoff time is 7:30 p.m.