Preview: Batesville at Lawrenceburg

Our US Marines Battle of the Gridiron Game of the Week Tour makes its annual stop in Southeast Indiana this Friday. We head to Lawrenceburg where the home team Tigers take on Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference 3A division rival, Batesville.

Both teams are coping with adversity. “The good thing is our team has gotten better every week. We are a very young team, and our kids are learning. It has been fun watching this group learn and grow as a team. We are not happy at 2-3, but we also understand we have a lot of games left and we can still reach some of our goals. I would like to see our team continue to grow as an offensive & defensive unit. Anytime you replace 17 seniors you have a lot of leaning to do. So I would like to see our kids keep grinding and continue to get better each week,” Lawrenceburg head coach Ryan Knigga states.

At Batesville the hurdles are a bit different. “I think our team has been improving from week to week, but we need to have fewer people playing so extensively on both sides of the ball. Fatigue was a factor for us against East Central in the second half. Our team is getting healthier each week. As
that continues to happen, we’ll be able to play fewer people both ways and, as a result, better maintain good play for four quarters,” Bulldogs head coach Eric Heppner says.

With only four weeks left in the regular season time for fine tuning is running out. Both schools hope to be harmonic when the playoffs start.

BATESVILLE BULLDOGS (4-1, 1-0) at LAWRENCEBURG TIGERS (2-3, 0-1)

Kickoff: 7:00 p.m. at Dick Meador Stadium, Neary Field
Follow on Twitter @TSFootball

PLAYERS TO WATCH:
Seth Williamson, Brett Williamson and Derek Davidson are the cornerstones of the Batesville defense. The Bulldogs offense has three main backs. Zach Mears leads the squad with 447 yards and seven total touchdowns. Jacob Koehne and Jacob Gerstbauer are getting healthy after missing time. Gerstbauer has 277 yards and five scores on the ground. Receiver Jacob Wilson has had back-to-back four reception, 80 yards performances and three touchdowns to go along with that productivity.

Reid Strobl has settled in under center for Lawrenceburg. The junior has thrown for 817 yards with nine touchdowns tosses and just five interceptions. Classmate Austin Bowling leads the rushing attack with 592 yards with all nine of the Tigers running touchdowns. In just his sophomore season Mason Parris is emerging as one of the EIAC’s top defensive players. Parris has 67 total tackles, 10 tackles for losses, two sacks and three fumble recoveries. Add in Hunter Privett and Bubba Abdon and it makes for a wonderful Class of 2018. Junior Jake Ruberg has the Lawrenceburg’s only two interceptions.

TEAM TRENDS:
Defense wins championships the 31 points that Batesville allowed to East Central last week were the most that the Bulldogs have allowed since October of 2012, a streak of 27 games. This is the sixth time in the last eight years that Batesville has started out 3-1 or better. This is head coach Heppner’s 20th season on the sidelines of his alma mater. He is 145-83 overall.

Lawrenceburg had its third straight winning season under Knigga last fall. The Tigers haven’t had four straight winning campaigns since 1990 to’93 under former head coach and athletic director Glenn Crocker.

BATESVILLE’ KEYS TO VICTORY: There are plenty of weapons to carry the load for the Bulldogs. There is no reason to put the load on the shoulders on quarterback Leo Enneking. Batesville is at its best when everyone gets involved.

LAWRENCEBURG’S KEYS TO VICTORY: The Tigers have to find a way to keep pace on the scoreboard. They don’t want to fall behind against a veteran Batesville defense that will unleash a fury with a lead.

Prediction: BATESVILLE 28, LAWRENCEBURG 20

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