By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



When the Gardendale Rockets step out of region play this week, they’ll be facing one of the quicker teams they’ll face this season, as they travel to Tarrant to take on the Wildcats.

“They’re fast and they’re athletic,” Gardendale head coach Keith Luker said. “They have very good team speed. It’ll be a challenge for us this week. They’ve got skill guys who can really run.”

The Rockets are coming off a bounce back win in region play over Springville, a game in which the Rockets offensive line and defense dominated.

The Rockets gained nearly 300 yards on the ground, while holding the Springville offense to negative rushing yards.

“Our offensive line played as well as they’ve played this year,” Luker said. “We’re capable of playing that well each week. That’s what we’ve been telling our kids, we need to play week each week, regardless of the opponent.”

Luker said the Gardendale coaching staff has reminded the players that non-region games like this week’s matchup with Tarrant could come into play later in the year as a tie-breaker in the region standing and could determine a playoff spot.

The Wildcats feature the I-formation on offense and will line up in a base 4-3 look on defense.

The Wildcats enter the game with a 2-2 mark after having entered last year’s matchup with the Rockets unbeaten.

Luker thinks the 2007 Rockets still have some work to do to catch up with the Rocket team of last season.

“Overall, we’re not as good a team as we were last year,” Luker said. “But we took a big step last week. We’ve still got a ways to go.”

Luker said he was pleased with how well the Rocket defense preformed last week, not only in stopping the run and covering receivers, but also in the amount of pressure they applied to passer.

“Our defense played extremely well last week against both the run and the pass,” Luker said. “We still need to get better and play week to week, looking to improve on what we do.”