Talisheek Cellar's Wineblog

Pearl River Rebels playoff bound

Posted by: Greg on November 7th, 2008

This is our first year following Pearl River High School football mainly because of our oldest daughter who is a freshman at the school. It has definitely been a very rewarding experience for my entire family, going to the games, meeting new people and taking in the excitement of Friday night football. I'm so glad that we was apart of Pearl River football this season.

The Rebels was undefeated and tied for first place in District 9-4A with the Salmen Spartans up until two weeks ago when Pearl River played the Spartans in a key district showdown, but the Rebels couldn't hang on to the win the game and ended up losing 18-13 to the Spartans. Last night, the Rebels matched up against the Franklinton Demons for second place in the district and they put up a good fight but an interception on the Demons 10 yard line with 1:29 to go cost Pearl River the game (21-14) and dropped them to 3rd place in the district. Pearl River finishes the season with a record of 7-2 and 3-2 in district play and will advance to the playoffs.

Pearl River is a good team both offensively and defensely, but one thing I've noticed about the offense is that they are primarily a ground attack team led by their standout sophomore running back James Gillum, who carried the ball 120 times for a total of 1224 yards this season. The Rebels won the majority of their games on the ground against subpar teams, but when they went up against well coached teams like Franklinton (8-2) and Salmen (7-2 District Champs), their running game was more or less shut down and they lost, because they really don't have a passing attack. This season Pearl River threw only 13 of 41 attempts for 282 yards and 6 interceptions. I'll be the first one to admit, that I have no experience as a football coach or analyst, but I do know if an offense becomes one dimensional, opposing team coaches will know how to better prepare their defense to combat the run. I was in the stands for both of Pearl River's losses and everytime the Rebels offense took the field, Salmen and Franklinton's defense antisipated the run by bringing up the linebackers closer to the line of scrimmage. It is almost like those two defenses knew what plays Pearl River was going to run.

I don't know why Coach Joe Harris doesn't use Gillum's speed as a receiver out of the backfield. Opposing defenses are definitely keying up on Gillum when the ball is handed off to him, so why not spread out the defense by dumping some screen passes Gillum's way or use him in play action passes. Coach Harris needs to loosen up defenses by incorporating more passes in his game plan. Hopefully, Coach Harris will mix things up when Pearl River plays Archbishop Shaw in round 1 of the playoffs.

Pearl River 20 Archbishop Shaw 40

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

Archbishop Shaw sent Pearl River home with their third consecutive loss and ended the Rebels hope for a win in the State Playoffs. Pearl River ended their season with a record of 7-3.

The Rebels jumped out to a 14-7 lead in the 1st quarter, but after the 1st quarter, the game belong to Shaw and they dominated the Rebels on both sides of the ball. If it wasn't for Will Reed’s 34 yard touchdown run around right end and James Gillum’s 80-yard kickoff return, both in the 1st quarter, the Rebels would have gotten beaten worse than they did.

Once again, the Rebels didn't have a passing attack, relying solely upon their running game to win, but the Shaw Eagles wasn't having none of that and shut them down, limiting the Rebels to just 134 yards in total offense. I think the statistics say it all.

 

 

Better luck next year Rebels.

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