With 15 seniors to celebrate Friday night, East Wake Head Coach Travis Hairston said he hopes his Warriors will be able to fix mistakes from last week’s game and come out of Senior Night against the Vance County Vipers with a win.
Hairston told WIZS’s Scout Hughes and Doc Ayscue the players that take the field to be recognized on Senior Night are a special group; he joined the coaching staff at East Wake when these guys were freshmen. “They pretty much produce, or are intricate parts of our team,” he said on Wednesday’s SportsTalk.
This week’s practice has focused on correcting some mistakes from last week’s 13-0 loss to Franklinton. “Practice has been pretty good,” Hairston said. “We’ve been up tempo – the seniors don’t want to lose on Senior Night.”
The Warriors are 3-1 at home, and Hairston said he’d like to see his team have a clean, penalty-free game against the Vipers, which he described as “very athletic and tough up front. That’s where the game starts – up front,” he said. “We’ve got to match that toughness to bring home a win.”
He’s got the team watching film on the Vipers’ special teams, which have blocked kicks in each of the last five games. Hairston said the Warriors have to shore up its PAT blocking scheme and stay in their lanes on kickoff returns to try to shut down long returns for big yardage by the Vipers.
Sophomore wide receiver Tzion Stone has been “electric” on the offense, Hairston said, and senior wide receiver Dylan Kiser made a couple of big catches for first downs against Franklinton. But the coach said O-lineman Dontrell Ford, running back Nelson Ruffin, receiver Latrell Harris – also seniors – and sophomore Kayden Short will factor big into the Warriors’ game plan.
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