A 20-point second half rally enabled the Washington football team to erase a 6-0 deficit against Farmville Central and pick up its first Eastern Plains Conference victory of the year on its first attempt as the Pam Pack downed the Jaguars 20-6 last Friday.
The key was a creative move by Washington coach Sport Sawyer, who eyed a soggy J.G. Choppy Wagner Stadium turf and decided to go to an I formation attack that helped spur its string of 20 unanswered points.
“In the second half after (Farmville Central) scored we went to the I formation. With the muddy field we decided to just go straight at them,” Sawyer said. “(Running back) Stevie Green played lights out.”
With Brandon Jackson playing fullback in the I, Green finished the game rushing for 141 yards and two scores on 19 attempts, while Markel Spencer added 112 yards on 20 carries.
Quarterback Brodie West, who connected on six of his 11 pass attempts for 96 yards, accounted for the Pack’s other score as he ran his way across the goal line from a yard out.
Though the Washington (5-2, 1-0) has been primarily a running team, Sawyer has not been afraid to tinker with how it goes about it. So far this year Pack has run the spread, wing-T and the I formations and has been successful with each.
“We’re a little untraditional I guess, we run just about everything on offense,” Sawyer said. “We’ve run spread, wing-T and the I and the guys like it. We run a lot of the same plays, just out of different formations.
“With us, we look at games offensively as far as what our best matchups are, and we have different formations for each. We’re open to everything. Whatever we feel will best put points on the board we’ll do.”
The win over the Jaguars extended Washington’s winning streak to three games and the Pack will look to push it to four tonight when it hits the road to take on Southwest Edgecombe (4-3, 1-0) at 7:30 p.m.
The Cougars, who topped North Pitt 36-22 last week, have won two straight and play a smash-mouth style of football.
“Southwest Edgecombe is similar to Tarboro in the offense they run and the defense they run,” Sawyer said. “Basically, they run a wishbone-type offense with some I and on defense they run a four or a 3-5 look, kind of like Tarboro.
“They play physical football. Earlier this season we were able to beat Tarboro by playing physical football and we’ll need to be physical (tonight). They’re going to run the ball 90 percent of the time and they’re going to stack the box 90 percent of the time so it comes down to being physical.”
The Washington defense, which averages 71 tackles per game while tallying 11 sacks and five picks, has no problem with a physical game.
In seven games this season the Pack allowed over 21 points only once, and that was to defending 3-A state champs Havelock in the season opener. On the year, Washington is holding teams to an average of 15 points per contest.