RISON - Woodlawn will be looking to bounce back from a lopsided 62-12 loss to Strong last week when the Bears make the trip to Lafayette County to face the 5-1 Cougars in a key South Conference game. The junior high teams play at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity teams at 7 p.m.
It has been either feast or famine for the Bears this season when it comes to their performance on the field. While Woodlawn edged a South Side-Bee Branch team that is now 4-2 overall with a 66-62 win in the season opener, the Bears’ other two wins were by 38 over Friendship Aspire (52-14) and 56 over Dermott (70-14).
At their other end of the spectrum, Woodlawn’s three losses have come by margins of 24 to Rose Bud (54-30), 52 to Izard County (60-8) and last week’s 50-point setback to Strong.
Woodlawn Coach Doug Means said their issues can be narrowed down to three areas: turning the ball over too much, a need to shore up play along the offensive line and solid tackling on defense.
In last week’s loss to the Bulldogs, the Bears had seven fumbles, losing four. They also had an interception.
As for tackling, there were times last week when it appeared the Bears had the Bulldogs locked up at or behind the line of scrimmage on some critical downs only to have that player escape to make a big play.
Means said his young offensive line continues to improve, but he needs them to all play well at the same time. He said individual linemen are running the wrong blocks at different times, which disrupts the play.
“We’re still not blocking everything correctly,” he said. “Every three or four plays, somebody is not blocking someone correctly.”
Means said they will need to see improvement in all those areas this week when they take on a Lafayette County team that is currently atop the South Conference standings with Strong at 3-0.
The Cougars dropped down from the 11-man ranks this season to play eight-man for the first time. Last year they finished 2-8 overall and 1-6 in the 3-2A conference last se…