Mountain Crest VS Boxelder Football

MC vs. BE preview

Tonight is the 34th meeting of Mountain Crest Mustangs vs. Box Elder Bees. MC currently leads the series 21-12; however, BE beat MC at home 27-0 last year.

Both teams are looking to gain more momentum after opening the season with wins: BE beat Kearns 55-26, and MC beat Hurricane 35-0.

Speaking with MC Coach Visser about BE, he spoke of their tenacity and ability to pound on you offensively. "The word of the week is focus." Coach Visser said, "If we don't focus, they will beat us on Defense,"

The coach said, "They have been doing this offense since they were five, and they are proficient at it."

The offensive coach was happy with last week's efforts and proud of how the boys played. Visser talked about how the team had met its goal of starting strong, and now it will focus on cleaning up the flags and keeping momentum throughout the game.

Speaking with Defensive Coordinator Matt — talking about last week's game vs. Hurricane, I asked how he felt about the defense game; he said, "We are a high-energy, high-pressure team, we get a lot of hats on the ball, and that's great. There are always things to work on and improve, but overall, I love where we are."

He was also excited to be playing BE this week. Coach Matt said about this game, "This is where all those spring and summer weights pay off; they (BE) is a big physical team that will pound on you. BE us a unique offense, and it gives us a chance to be physical."

When asked about the keys, coach Matt talked about the need for the players to understand their assignment pre-Snap and do their job.

Box Elder, as a 5A school, breaks with the tradition of bigger schools that tend to run more modern offenses and play the Wing-T offense.

The Wing T was introduced nearly 80 years ago in the 1950s. The Wing T is popular with Little League teams and small 1A and 2A high schools, which tend to have a smaller skill pool and are simple to coach. However, it makes opponents crazy to play BE, having to prepare for such an obscure and outdated offense once a year. The simplicity and physicality play to the ability to grind on the defense in hopes of a simple misstep. They are using up chunks of time to travel the field.

BE has played this offense since the 1950s, but it has not gained much postseason success since its last title in 1995.

That being said, this talented team has been executing this offense since they were in 6th grade, and they are relentless at it.

MC is finally coming into a season with a returning coach and a sense of pride not felt in a long time at Mountain Crest.

This will be a significant barometer of MC's toughness and ability to adapt. With BE, it doesn't matter if they score, but if you can out-score them. MC will need a big showing on offense and defense to beat Box Elder and their 5A freight train running game.

Author John Olsen