GUYTON, Ga. – After scrimmaging a football team that relied on the ground game last week, the South Effingham Mustangs will shift gears to prepare for an expected aerial attack from New Hampstead in their season opener 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Corral.
Last season, the Phoenix, who averaged 322.7 passing yards per game, defeated the Mustangs 56-35 in the opener. South scored all 35 points in the second half.
“I don’t know if playing a passing team (after playing a running team) is as physically difficult as it is mentally difficult,” Mustangs coach Loren Purvis said. “You have to get your mind right. New Hampstead throws a lot of formations and motions and passing concepts at you. They do a bunch of stuff. They can run the ball too when they get into a heavy set. We have to be ready for all of it.”
Passing attack still a threat
A year ago, New Hampstead (4-6) was among the top passing teams in the state behind quarterback Ra’Shawn Truell, who threw for more than 3,000 yards and 31 touchdowns.
Kamari Maxwell, the Phoenix’s leading receiver, caught 87 passes for 1,344 yards and 15 touchdowns.
In an 80-47 loss to Perry, Truell set a Georgia high school single-game passing record with 635 yards and six touchdowns.
Truell (now at Savannah State) and Maxwell (Austin Peay State) graduated, but New Hampstead has a unique duo hoping to keep its passing game flourishing — twin brothers quarterback Erik Hockman and wide receiver Ben Hockman, who are coached by their uncle, Kyle Hockman.
Joshua Bey and Jaiden Washington are key players on the defensive line.
New Hampstead lost its scrimmage last Friday to Calvary Day, 31-13.
South struggled in a disappointing 14-7 scrimmage setback to Screven County, but the Gamecocks hardly tested the Mustangs’ defensive secondary. Screven threw only four times during its 48 offensive plays.
Certainly, SEHS doesn’t want to get in a shootout. The Mustangs managed only 137 yards and didn’t score until the fourth quarter in the scrimmage.
“We need the guys who we’re counting on to play well,” Purvis said. “At times (in the scrimmage), they did some things we didn’t see them do last year. But at the same time, we have to make that an every-down thing.”
