The first two weeks of the high school football season have been good for the Vance Co. Vipers as they sit at 2-0. This week they take on Riverside, which is coming off a 42-0 blowout of Southeast Raleigh after an opening season 18-14 loss to #15 ranked Cape Fear. Both Riverside Head Coach Cory Lea and Vance County Head Coach Aaron Elliott were guests on Thursday’s SportsTalk and discussed this week’s matchup.
Both teams are strong defensively. “Vance County’s defensive ends scare me to death,” Lea said of the Viper’s strong defense. “It’s one of the best defensive lines I’ve seen during my time coaching,” Elliott said of the Vance County Defensive Unit.
With all this talk of how strong the Viper’s defense is one would think defense is the key to this game, but not so according to Elliott. He said, “The key to the game will be scoring. I’d like to score on every possession. We need to improve the most on offense.” Elliott has a few new offensive wrinkles up his sleeve for Friday night that will hopefully get the Vipers in the end zone a few more times.
Coach Lea lost only three seniors from last year’s team. “Our babies have grown up,” Lea said referring to his team which features many juniors. “We hang our hats on defense,” Lea continued summarizing his team’s strength.
The Vipers have cut down on mistakes and Coach Elliott has encouraged his team to stay hungry and stay focused. Elliott said the team didn’t have a great practice on Monday, but they have settled down the rest of this week and are playing together.
Friday looks like another defensive battle as the Vipers host Riverside. Airtime on WIZS is 6:50 p.m. and kickoff is at 7 p.m. Join Bill Harris and Doc Ayscue for all of the action of Vance County Friday Night Football.
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