Getting defensive: St. Stanislaus' D pulling its own weight heading into 4A South State
BAY St. LOUIS -- It's hard not to get wooed by St. Stanislaus' gaudy offensive numbers. Of late, the Rockachaws have been one of the Coast's more prolific and consistent offenses averaging 37 points a night.
The defense has been overshadowed for much of the season but deserves its time in the spotlight heading into Friday's Class 4A South State finals matchup at Lawrence County (13-1 overall). For five consecutive weeks, and six of the last seven games, SSC's defense has held opponents under 22 points.
SSC coach Bill Conides points to a back to basics mantra this year as the reason for the team's defensive success.
"I think things really started to click for us," he said. "We simplified things on defense, went back to the way we were doing things in terms of the verbiage and it certainly allowed them to play with a lot more confidence and enthusiasm."
Against Moss Point, the Rockachaws (10-3) recorded nine tackles for loss in the first half and finished the 44-20 win with 12.
"We've done a really good job of getting back to the fundamentals in terms of our gap fits with our scheme and then making tackles and finishing plays; and a lot of tackles for loss as well," Conides said. "A lot of times you don't really keep track of that in the stat column, but the tackles for loss was a big momentum shift as far as positive things for us in the game."
Heading into the game, SSC had totaled 25.5 sacks, 12
In years past, the Rockachaws leaned heavily on collegiate linemen like Jordan Bradford, Kevin Haas and Ryan Gibson -- before his injury.
This year a new group of players has emerged as the Rockachaws' leaders. Heading into last week's third-round game against Moss Point, linebacker Mitchell Walk and defensive backs Mason Favre and Rickey Schaefer were leading the team in tackles with 133, 131 and 109 respectively. Lineman Tommy Reeder wasn't far back with 106 and a team-high 11 sacks. Both Reeder and Favre have a team-high 29 tackles for loss.
Perhaps what has pleased Conides the most is that he's had a good blend of players contributing, with his seniors leading the charge.
"It's been Mason, Mitchell and Tommy. Those are the seniors, the three-year starters and the guys who you expect to play really well. But then you also have a core group of juniors like Rickey Schaefer who has played a lot and played really well," Conides said. "And then, what's been the most surprising to a lot of us, has been our sophomore class. We've got a number of sophomore starters offensively and defensively. We have four or five on defense who have really stepped up. Those were holes where we needed to fill but didn't know who was going to fill them.
"J.D. Rutherford, Jake Greer, Joe Reeder, Lewie Negrotto at linebacker, and then juniors like Rickey Schaefer and Brendan Logan who have played exceptionally well."
SSC will have its work cut out for itself Friday at a Lawrence County team that has scored 517 points overall. In their three playoff wins over Columbia, East Central and Vancleave, the Cougars have averaged 33.7 points -- compared to SSC's 41.3.
The spread-based Cougars are led by dual-threat quarterback Charl'Tez Nunnery, who, heading into last week's game at Vancleave had thrown for 1,252 yards, rushed for 784 and accounted for 27 touchdowns. Running back Quitten Brown is another weapon the Cougars lean on. Through 13 games, the junior had rushed for 1,574 yards and 26 touchdowns, which is good enough for eighth in the state.
"They're going to find as many ways as possible to get the football in their playmakers' hands. They've done a good job of that in the past," Conides said. "We've got our hands full this week."
This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Getting defensive: St. Stanislaus' D pulling its own weight heading into 4A South State ."