By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Williams and Western Alamance are going to do it again with another late-season football showdown.
Western would like to do it differently from a year ago.
The teams meet Friday night at Western with first place at stake in the Mid-Carolina Conference.
“It means a lot,” Western defensive back Jayden Jones said. “A lot of people doubted us.”
The teams hold 7-1 overall records and 5-0 league records. This will be the second-to-last game of the regular season for each team.
“Obviously, it’s Western week, all that is just kind of fun to be around,” Williams receiver William Overby said. “It’s just a new week for us. Just getting ready, like it’s another week.”
The Bulldogs won last year’s encounter, building a 42-point lead before the 49-21 final. Both teams entered that matchup with unblemished conference marks, albeit slightly earlier in the season.
So the Warriors would like to make amends.
“We’re pumped,” Western quarterback Ethan Oakley said. “Hopefully, it’s going to be a dogfight and we’re going to get out on top. We’re all excited for it.”
Williams is taking a business-as-usual approach.
“It’s a big week,” linebacker Vince Coker said. “Everybody knows that. We’re going to treat it the same as every week.”
Western coach Jeff Snuffer said the Warriors have been outstanding at times on defense.
“We’ve been building with that,” he said.
Williams coach Patrick Stokes said the past month has been stocked with opponents that looked capable of contending for the conference title, so the routine hasn’t changed.
“This is the fourth week in a row we’ve had this feeling – a gauntlet of really good teams,” Stokes said. “We’ve been both inspired and humbled by past games.”
For Western, it’s a good time to see how improvements pan out.
“We’ve definitely gotten better. We’re all starting to trust each other more,” Oakley said. “We’re starting to hit better plays. It’s working out well. I still don’t think we’ve played our best football game yet and hopefully (this) week I think we can show that. We’re, hopefully, getting hot at the right time.”
Overby caught two touchdown passes last year against Western. At the very least, he said he’d like to be a distraction.
“Hopefully, they see that and try to game plan for me, that would be pretty cool,” he said. “But we’re pretty well-rounded.”
Western kicker Camden Oliveira, a multi-sport athlete who was helped off the field after a roughing-the-kicker penalty on Cummings in the fourth quarter last week, was back in action on the soccer field earlier this week.
