Woodlawn Heads to Midland Friday

WOODLAWN - The Woodlawn Bears will make the 137mile trip to southern Independence County this Friday night to face the 1-0 Midland Mustangs in a non-conference match-up at Pleasant Plains.The junior high teams are scheduled to play at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity teams at 7 p.m.Both teams opened their respective 2024 seasons last Friday night with victories: Woodlawn knocked off Rose Bud 5018 while Midland came away with a 58-20 victory at Hermitage.This will be a return game for Woodlawn after Midland made the trip to Cleveland County last year with a sophomore-dominated roster. The Bears ended up prevailing in that game, 44-14, but Woodlawn Coach Zach Meyer said he expects the Mustangs to be a much-improved as those sophomores have matured into juniors. Midland's 21player roster includes 13 juniors. Among those juniors is 6-0, 180-pound quarterback Chase Rascoe, whom Meyer describes as a good athlete. Rascoe also started at quarterback for Midland last year as a sophomore.Meyer said junior fullback Aiden McAdams plays a key role in the Mustang offense, and junior running back Brayden York returned a kickoff about 85 yards for a touchdown last week against Hermitage.Like Woodlawn, Midland is primarily a run team relying mostly on counters and play action. When the Mustangs do throw, Meyer said they like to spread it around to a running back, tight end or receiver.While Midland will have the deeper roster Friday night, Meyer said about five of those play both ways.With just 14 Bears available, Meyer said conditioning will be a factor. Last week against Rose Bud, Meyer pushed his starters to starters to stay in longer than they usually would."Sometimes you've got to play your way into shape. We did a good job of that (against Rose Bud)," he said."You can run sprints all you want but it's not the same as playing," he noted.Woodlawn will go into the game in relatively good shape. Despite having a very ...