North Santa Rosa

Mid-Week Report with Coach Brian Watson

It’s Baker week! The annual rivalry game takes place this Friday at Merle V. North as the Royals (3-2) hosts the Gators in the “War on Highway 4.” The rivalry has been quite lopsided as of late; Jay last beat Baker in 2009 under Elijah Bell (21-7 at Baker). Northsantarosa.com sat down with head coach Brian Watson for a little Q and A session.

Q-Let’s talk about last week. After Destin took the first drive down the field and scored, your guys really seemed to buckle down defensively and shut them out. Were there adjustments made?

A-We didn’t really have to make any major adjustments. Just do your job, type stuff. After the first series they only had 4 1st downs. We had two trips to the red zone in the first half that resulted in zero points (blocked FG and fumble). We were just one block away here and there from really opening things up in the first half.

Q-Really came out after half time and seemed to lean on the run game.

A-We challenged our offensive line and backs at the half. And they responded well. 3 out of 4 second half possession we scored on in the second half, all while controlling the clock.

Q-How’s this week going? Baker week…any homecoming hangover? Healthy?

A-Boys are focused…way less distractions than last week, obviously. We came out of the Destin week pretty healthy. About as healthy as we’ve been since before the season began.

Q-Since we’re midway through the season, what has surprised you about this team?

A-Our defense has been a pleasant surprise. We’ve gone through stretches where we’ve really shut people down and played very stingy defense. Our offense is catching up. We were so limited at the beginning of the season because of injuries. We’re now starting to catch up on that side of the ball.

Q-Baker has a new coach. What do they look like?

A-Run heavy. Have thrown the ball very little. We feel good about being able to throw the ball. We are optimistic that we’ll be the more balanced team on the field. We just have to stop them.

Posted by on Oct 6 2022. Filed under High School, Jay, Local, Sports, Top News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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