Yoemen prepare for new opponent in area round

It’s always a good thing when Thanksgiving rolls around and you get the opportunity to talk a little Yoemen football.  After you get your fill of turkey on Thursday, Yoe fans will be making the trip over to Madisonville to see their team take on Diboll in the area round of the class 3A playoffs.  

“It’s always a goal and you want to be playing football on Thanksgiving,” said Yoe coach Tommy Brashear.  “In the coaching profession you are having a good year if you are playing around Thanksgiving.  In Cameron we get to play a lot this time of the year and a lot of people do not get to do that.  I am very blessed to be a part of Cameron Yoe.”

Cameron is coming off of 49-28 win over Whitney while Diboll had to erase a two-score first-half deficit in a 31-26 win over Buna.  What makes this matchup intriguing is that these two programs have never played each other previously.  

“I kind of like playing different people,” Brashear said.  “It’s fun to see a different person and a different challenge.  Diboll has some history throughout the years.  They are a good football team and they are well-coached.”

With Diboll’s win last week, the officially ended a 15-year drought of winning a playoffs game.  

Season results: Bridge City (W, 42-7), Huntington (W, 55-0), Cleveland (W, 42-0), Liberty (W, 9-6), Crockett (W 39-28), Coldspring (W, 15-13), Elkhart (W, 41-14), Westwood (W, 69-0), Franklin (L, 34-20), Trinity (W, 48-0), Buna (W, 31-26).  

Offense

Diboll comes into the contest averaging 41 points per contest, which is exactly the same from last year’s team which played 4A ball.  

As you would expect with a team from the mid to southeast Texas region, Diboll relies heavily on their running game. The same could be said about teams such as Newton and Woodville, which Cameron has played in recent history.  

“On defense, first downs are big because they want to run the ball, as they are 80 percent run and 20 percent pass,” Brashear said.  “We need to make first downs a short gain and put them in second and third and longs.  They want to run the ball and they want to control the clock.” 

Running the ball a majority of the time will be junior D’aris McMillan.  Last week, Cameron had to deal with a shifty quarterback, and this week McMillan presents a more bruising, right-at-you type of style.  

“I am told they had a really good running back earlier in the year that got hurt, but this guy is nicknamed “baby hulk”,” said Brashear.  “He is a stout, power type of runner.  He is not very shifty like the quarterback from Whitney, but he is a big, thick kid.  They will want to pound it with him and try to wear out our defense.”

Defense

The Diboll defense is giving up an average of just 11.6 points per ball game, which is down from the 26 points per game given up a season ago.  

“They base out of a 3-4, but one of their outside backers is more of a defensive end type of kid,” Brashear said.  “They like to tighten him down more, so we could see some more 4-2.  Two of the films we had were spread teams, but they were spreading you out to run the ball.  The other two teams were slot-t, so we don’t have great film on that.”

Since Diboll has not played many dual-threat teams this season, it may be a mystery as to how they will actually play Cameron on Friday.  With that in mind, Brashear noted that his team may line up in a few different formations early in the game just to see what the Lumberjacks’ approach will be.  

An additional challenge this Friday will be the size up front for Diboll, which is a strength of their team.  

“They have a very physical front on the offensive and defensive lines,” Brashear said.  “We will have to match that physicality and play hard.”