Yoe looks to end regular season on high note

Everyone knows that Cameron is going to be the heavy favorite heading into their regular season finale on Friday when Lago Vista travels into town. Winning is obviously the most important key in any game, but you generally look for a little more if you’re a Yoe fan in what will be the last tune-up for the playoffs. Cameron not only wants to win, but they want to be impressive in every facet of the contest.

“We want to go into the playoffs hitting on all cylinders,” said Yoe coach Tommy Brashear. “I felt like we missed a lot of opportunities in the Troy game and left a lot out there on the field, both offensively and defensively. But, we don’t want to do that. We want to play sharp and look sharp. We have had our whole offense on for a while now and we rep it. I feel like we have been getting better and better and we need to go into the playoffs on a high note.”

Lago Vista had traditionally played Cameron tough, but this year’s team has not fared well, going just 2-7 and 1-4 heading into the season finale.

“This Lago Vista team only has six seniors, so they are very young,” said Brashear. “They also have had to deal with some injuries and they have had a tough year. They are kind of scrappy but are young and inexperienced.”

Injuries did play a big role in the most recent 62-0 loss to Troy, as five starters were out, including the top two rushers on the team.

Lago Vista’s season results: Blanco (L, 20-7), Lampasas (L, 42-7), Comfort (W, 30-14), Llano (L, 38-7), Jarrell (L, 31-15), Academy (L, 27-19), Rockdale (L, 49-28), Manor New Tech (65-6), Troy (L, 62-0).

Cameron has won five out of the six all-time matchups: 2010 (W, 42-17), 2012 (W, 31-7), 2012 (playoffs, W 41-20), 2013 (L, 27-20), 2014 (W, 33-14) and 2015 (W, 51-14).

Offense

A big positive for Cameron coming into this game is that they have seen this same offense that Lago Vista runs. That would be the run-heavy flexbone.

“What they do offensively is tough,” said Brashear. “If they keep working over the years, I could see them being pretty tough. They do seem to still be physical. They will try to come over here and get an upset, which would make their season. We are telling the kids that they want to finish their season on a good note. We better be ready.”

Lago Vista is averaging 19.7 points per ball game, which is down from the 26.7 points per game that earned them a second seed in the playoffs last season.

With the flexbone, Lago Vista will be fairly predictable as they will want to run the ball a large percentage of the time. The only unknown at this point is if some of the starters will be returning.

“We are not sure if their starting quarterback will be back or not,” Brashear said. “The backup quarterback is not near as good at running the offense as the starters was. We will prepare like he is going to be there, just like if the starting fullback would be there. Those are the two guys that carry the ball for them the most and they were not there last week.”

Defense

Lago Vista is giving up an average of 32.1 points per game, which is actually down from the 36.2 points per game given up in 2017.

“They run a 3-4 defense and they like to tighten those outside linebackers if they can get away with it,” Brashear said. “I don’t think they can do that with us, so I’m not sure if they will try to start that way or not. With them tight, we need to be able to execute in the passing game, and with them out wide we have to execute in the run game.”

In the secondary, expect Lago Vista to change things up a bit as the Yoemen present speed, which is something that the Vikings are lacking this season.

“It looks to me we will have a huge speed advantage based on what I’ve seen on film,” said Brashear. “A lot of teams that we have played already that we were faster than look to be faster than them. I think it will play a big part in this game.”