(Logan) A couple of hard nosed programs that have had breakout seasons meet up head-to-head on Friday when #6 Logan-Magnolia welcomes Riverside.
Each team rolls into the 3rd round of the playoffs with just one loss all year. Lo-Ma fell to Oakland-Craig, NE while Riverside lost to St. Albert.
Logan-Magnolia is making their 17th playoff appearance and first since 2016. The Panthers are 21-14 all time in the postseason. Riverside is in their 6th playoff appearance and first since 2014. Prior to this year the Bulldog’s only playoff wins came in 2001 when they made it to the Dome. Panther coach Matt Straight downplays any advantage his team might have in big games due to the fact that the current roster hasn’t directly been involved in a lot of games of this magnitude.
Straight takes a look at the Bulldogs, “Well coached, give great effort, a good group of kids for them. I remember our teams battling on the junior high field way back when and thinking both of these teams are going to be pretty good someday and here we are playing in the playoffs. Offensively they do a lot of different things so the preparation isn’t going to be easy. Defensively they are pretty sound and tackle really well. They are really sound overall. I don’t see any weaknesses and that’s always scary going into a game.”
Both programs pride themselves on their offensive and defensive line play. “They have one difference maker for sure and then a lot of guys that play really hard up there. We take a lot of pride in that too, so that will be interesting to see who wins that battle.”
Eddie Vlcek is the lineman coach Straight refers to as a difference maker. He lead the Bulldogs with 15.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks this year. “You really aren’t going to stop him. He gives such great effort and is pretty active and pretty violent at times the way he plays. He’s going to make his plays. You can’t let him take over the line of scrimmage. You can’t totally avoid him either because they’ll move him around a little bit. You just have to encourage kids to go hard against him, stay low, and move their feet on contact to see if you can at least stalemate it. That will be a challenge. He’s a heck of a player.”
As coach Straight mentioned, Riverside will be a tough team to prepare for. He alludes to their balance on offense and their depth in the skill positions. “We’ve faced a few spread teams, but Riverside is unique in what they do. They have so many weapons in the pass game. Usually you play a team and you see one or two kids that dominate the receiving yards, but Riverside spreads it out you can’t really lean on one guy or another. That’s the big challenge going into this game.”
