Scots, Bucks set for SAC opener

Sep. 12—RAEFORD — The time has come when the games that don't have as much meaning for playoff implications are over, and those that do get underway.

Now that nonconference action is behind them, Scotland will dip into Sandhills Athletic Conference play this week when they play at Hoke County.

"We have to figure out how to slow down a very athletic Hoke County team; they've had some success recently," Scotland head coach Richard Bailey said. "I think we're (as) prepared as we could be. I think we've done some very good things, especially on offense. But by the same token, we're not as good as I was hoping we would be right now."

Hoke County (2-2) played at Seventy-First last Friday, falling 38-0. But it isn't the result that Bailey's focused on from that game — it's the Bucks' opponent.

"Seventy-First is a lot like us, a very run-oriented team," Bailey said. "We run a lot of the same plays. So, in essence, they (Hoke) had a week of practice last week against us. It's almost like they get to practice the same stuff two weeks in a row, which is always helpful from a coaching perspective. So, I do worry about that, that they're going to be even more prepared this week. I do think that Hoke County's going to throw some stuff at us that we probably hadn't seen. But I do think, again, they won't have to spend as much time doing some other things because we're very similar to Seventy-First."

Last season, Scotland (4-0) fell to Hoke County in a 52-35 high-scoring affair. It was the first time the Bucks had defeated the Scots since 2009.

But this year's Hoke County team looks a little different, with running back Ethan Wallace, who ran for 232 yards on the Scots last season, graduated and currently playing at Wingate University.

"I was glad to see that joker graduate," Bailey said. "They ain't got one like him. Now, the rest of them (the RBs) are pretty good. But they ain't got one like that dude. I do think things are a little bit quarterback-centric right now for them. And so it's a little bit more about stopping the quarterback now than it is the great running back. Even though they have some capable running backs."

RBs Q'monte Allen, Jairo Ortiz and Nasir Wells have tried to pick up the production of Wallace, combining for over 300 yards rushing for Hoke County.

QB Brandon Saunders has had a stellar start to his junior campaign for the Bucks, with six touchdown passes and another one on the ground.

"The quarterback worries me; he's a good athlete," Bailey said.

With top wide receiver Warren Avery graduated, Saunders has relied heavily on passing the ball to WR Tre'jan Williams this year. WR X'Zavier Stephens McIntosh is another player utilized on offense for the Bucks.

Defensively, the Scots will have the challenge of blocking a D-line that "has been the area where they've improved the most over the last couple of years," according to Bailey.

"They've become a lot more physical up front," Bailey said. "We're going to have to be ready for that and to deal with that."

Linebacker Jamarie Brown has multiple interceptions for Hoke County and is one of the team's top tacklers, along with LBs Zion Smith and Franajai Ransom and defensive back Darrien Frazier.

As for the Scotland defense, their early-season struggles didn't improve any last week. Scotland allowed 35 points to a Jack Britt team that went scoreless in their previous two games.

"We've got to get better defensively; we just have to," Bailey said. "And so, we've got to get things righted, moving some people around, and we're going to try a couple of different things. It's no secret to anybody coaching the team or anybody in our community we're going to be as good as our defense allows us to be. Eventually, you're not going to be able to outscore everybody. As we learned last year, we scored 55 points and lost in a playoff game. So, we've got to shore up the defensive side of the ball. That's what I'm focusing on. That's where most of my efforts are going right now."

Getting LB Matrice McRae and DB A.J. McCallum back this week will help, but missing players isn't the main reason Bailey's defense hasn't seen much improvement from last season.

Mental lapses have hit the Scotland defense hard, and Bailey hopes to work on it throughout practice this week and have a better performance against Hoke.

"We've got to do a better job of assignment football," Bailey said. "We have people capable of making some plays. But we're not where we're supposed to be. We're not where we're coaching them to be at times. But then, sometimes, it just comes athletically. We're not as athletically gifted as a lot of teams that I've coached. We have a lot of people that miss tackles that aren't good in space. Those are things that are really hard to fix because it comes down to how good of an athlete are you. And right now, we don't have as good of athletes as we've had some years. And so, we're having to try to fix it with effort and schemes. But at the end of the day, players have got to make plays. And right now, we're not making enough plays."

Kickoff for Friday's game is at 7:30 p.m.