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Published Friday, October 30, 2009 in Sports

East Coweta wary of potential from young Riverdale team

By Stuart Crosby

The Times-Herald

For the second straight week, the East Coweta Indians will face an opponent who is out of the race for a state playoff bid but could take someone else with them and ruin their season.

Last week, the Indians defeated the Morrow Mustangs 35-6 at Southern Crescent Stadium in Riverdale to stay in the hunt and this week the Riverdale Raiders will look to put a dent in the Indians' aspirations for a 13th straight trip to the playoffs when the two Region 4-AAAAA foes meet tonight at Garland Shoemake Stadium.

After the win over the Mustangs, the Indians are currently 6-2 overall and 5-2 in the region which is good for third and one game behind the Westlake Lions who will face Pebblebrook this week and Chapel Hill next week.

In other words, there is no guarantee of a November 13 game either in Sharpsburg, Moultrie or Valdosta which means tonight's game is paramount in the minds of the Indian faithful.

"I am a little apprehensive about this game because I think it will be a struggle and we do need it," commented Indians head coach Clint Wade. "Riverdale has a good team and we will need to play hard on every snap."

The Indians found that out in last year's game when the Indians had to fight a tenacious Raiders squad in a 41-34 win at Tara Stadium.

The Raiders came into Nick Davis' second year of his second stint at Riverdale with a very young team especially on offense where only three players from the 2008 team returned.

Added to the attrition of numbers due to graduation, the opening of Charles Drew High School only moments away from campus has also caused some problems the Riverdale team has been outscored 232-93 but three of the losses were by a combined total of 90 points (Newnan, Westlake and Pebblebrook).

"Their record is misleading. Coach Davis usually gets the most out of what he has and this year it is a lot of youth," Wade said. "They have a lot of skill players that could present some problems for us."

Riverdale is coming off a 21-16 win over the Mundy's Mill Tigers last Friday evening that snapped a three-game losing streak and improved their overall mark to 2- 5 and 2-4 in the region which is currently eighth.

Of the seniors that remain on the Raiders roster including wide receiver/defensive back Lavelle Westbrooks, fullback Juwhan Arnold, lineman Edwin Walton and tailback Deaunte Trigger.

Trigger, who received an honorable mention on the 2008 All-Region team, has lived up to his last name on several occassions this season for the Raiders with a 44-yard touchdown reception against Newnan and a 17-yard touchdown against Chapel Hill.

"Trigger is a real fast guy and hard to stop. We will definitely have to get a lot of guys on him because he is so tough," Wade said. "He wears number one and reminds me of someone with that same number and that guy is Tay Willis who plays for me."

When the Raiders have been on offense, one of the main leaders in the running game along with Trigger has been Arnold who also received an honorable mention on the All-Region team and considered to be a prototype bruiser at the fullback position.

This season, Arnold had a 66-yard run against Chapel Hill and a nine-yard scoring run in the same game.

Arnold, Trigger along with Westbrooks will be among the Raiders that will give a test to an Indians defense led in part by linemen Willie Holloway (45 tackles, four sacks) and Carlton Martin (team-high 53 tackles) along with linebacker Zack Fore and his 45 tackles.

The Indians defense has been successful of late as they have given up only one touchdown in the last three weeks while the other two touchdowns were kickoff returns.

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