Published: October 03, 2008 10:14 am         

Rams hit the road looking for first win

The Mineral Wells Rams travel to Springtown tonight to face the Porcupines, the last team to lose the Rams. The Rams hope their first win this season comes again at Springtown’s expense.

Kickoff tonight is 7:30 p.m.

That Springtown win was 14 games ago, in the 2007 season opener, a 31-14 victory that came in a non-district matchup. This year the two teams meet as members of District 6-4A.

The Rams (0-4, 0-1) opened district play last week with a 52-7 loss at home to Saginaw.

Springtown meantime also opened up district play last Friday with a loss to Boswell, 46-20, marking Pojo’s first loss of the season to go with three wins.

Players to watch for Springtown include LB Matt Pierce (6-2, 180, 4.5); OLB Trace Pawelek (6-1, 195, 4.5); OL Chad Hoffman (6-0, 320, 5.5); and RBs Xavier Sanchez and Dylan Gathings.

Springtown’s usually robust running game took a back seat last Friday against Boswell, as the Porcupines could only muster 64 yards in more than 30 attempts. The second half dealt the telling blow for Springtown, who was outscored 30-6 by Boswell.

Despite an air attack totaling 330 yards, the Porcupines turned the ball over three times and failed to convert a critical first down. Pojo will try to return to the balanced attack that has served them so well early in the season.

The defense will prepare this week for Mineral Wells’ triple option offense that it rarely sees, and that rolled up 31 points against them last year. Stopping the ground game will be key, forcing the Rams to an air attack that so far this year has been infrequent, inconsistent and ineffective.

The ground game is Mineral Wells’ bread and butter, as they try to outnumber the defense at the point of attack. Getting behind early usually produces bad results for the Rams, as taking to the air has failed to net them a victory thus far this year.

Mineral Wells will try to find the combination that propelled them to a win last year over the Porcupines. The defense will need to help keep Springtown under wraps early to help the Rams’ ball control offense have a shot late in the contest.