Redskins look to slow down Indian Valley’s run game
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GNADANHUTTEN -- When Indian Creek and Indian Valley take the field Saturday night in the opening round of the Division IV, Region 15 postseason, it will be a battle of two teams that similarly like to run the football.
"They really do run the football well," Indian Creek head coach Andrew Connor said of the Braves. "They do a lot of things we like to do, a lot of pre-snap motion. They try to take advantage of out-flanking and using misdirection. They have a lot of people involved in running the ball, and they do a lot of different things. They've been able to establish the run all year."
Both teams are coming into the game off of a win in their pre-playoff regular season finales. The Redskins, who sit 2-4 and are the No. 19 seed, knocked off rival Brooke, while No. 14 seed Indian Valley has won its last two games and sits at 3-3.
"It's always important when you're able to win a game," Connor said. "It was important for us to do a couple of things we did. We established being able to run the football, we were able to use multiple backs -- and that's an important part of our offense -- and we were able to win on first down."
The teams did meet a season ago, with Indian Valley taking a close 14-13 win, Creek's lone defeat during the regular season. This year, the Redskins look to learn from that experience and improve, as they allow an average of 337.33 yards and 29.5 points. The Braves average 29 points and 339.6 yards, with 242.2 of those coming on the ground.
"Last year, we didn't have a lot of success stopping them, so hopefully we take what we learned against them last year schematically and present them with different twists with our defense to make them uncomfortable," Connor said. "Our goal is to make them uncomfortable and indecisive to help us slow them down."
Indian Creek's offense goes in averaging 17.5 points and 231.5 yards per game.
Jeremy Brown and Matt Schaefer lead the way, with Brown rushing for 373 yards and five scores, while Schaefer has 356 yards and six scores despite missing two games.
Same Coleman has hauled in 20 passes for 232 yards and a score.