The Cardinals will travel to Danbury to face the North Stokes Vikings, who come off a 28-8 defeat at the hands of West Stokes a week ago.
The two teams are natural rivals and have enjoyed heated games over the years. Coach David Diamont said while North has had tough luck in years past with some teams, the Vikings always find a little something more to give to the Cardinals.
“As far as East Surry, North Stokes has never been a push over,” Diamont said. “We know each other well and the kids that go to East and North run into each other a lot socially and through school and athletics and we tend to play hard against each other.”
The Vikings Wing-T look boasts a tough backfield of senior tailback Patrick Hargrave, senior fullback/linebacker Dylan Lewellyn and the speedy Alek Ottaway. Lewellyn is the leader of a strong defense and Diamont said the Cardinal coaches, just as the rest of the Northwest 1A/2A, have taken note.
“We felt like when we watched the video we were impressed with their linebackers,” Diamont said. “They like to run down hill and are aggressive and are hitters. The second thing is the improvement of Patrick Hargrave. We’ve seen him a couple years and he is a senior and is powerful and I think he’s having a great senior year.”
Diamont also said he think North Stokes coach Frank Sessoms has done a great job of finding the best way to maximize the Vikings talent.
“Coach Sessoms uses his people extremely efficiently,” Diamont said. “He’s done some good stuff with his offensive sets and we are preparing hard for them. We have a lot of respect for North Stokes.”
The Cardinals are riding a string of strong defensive performances over the past several games. East Surry limited West Stokes to just 12 points, then held Bishop McGuinness, the highest scoring offense in the conference heading into the game, to just seven points.
Diamont said that no doubt East sees its defense as a strength.
“Our defense is pretty consistent,” Diamont said. “We’ve been real pleased with what we’ve done on the defensive side.”
Before Bishop two weeks ago, East Surry quarterback Hunter Diamont sat out a week of practice and was uncertain until game time due to a leg injury. Coach Diamont said his son has been back on the practice field this week and should be fine heading into Friday’s matchup.
As for East Surry’s progression as a football team, Diamont said the Cardinals are continually working to make sure blocking assignments are second nature, but that the ability to find depth begins to become more and more important as the season progresses.
“Every week we have one or two players missing and we want to make sure that the folks that take their place know what they are supposed to do and are comfortable doing it,” Diamont said. “And of course the people behind them have to move up. Moving someone in is like hitting one domino and four or five of them falling over.”
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