Wilmington football players Chris Stewart (72), Justin Scarberry (64), Matthew Manson (63), Bryant Conley (52) and Dylan Groves (13).
Wilmington football coach Ryan Evans hopes his team has turned the corner.
After playing down to Aiken in a 28-0 win on Sept. 15, the Hurricane went toe-to-toe with unbeaten, state-ranked Clinton-Massie in a 17-14 loss.
To reach the level he hopes his squad can obtain, Evans knows the Friday night effort must be what it was last week and not the week before.
“I think we played down to our competition (against Aiken) and we knew what was at stake this week,” Evans said. “It shows they can do it. It’s a bummer we didn’t get it. We played them really well.
“It was a great game with two good teams. I was so proud of our boys’ fight. I was more proud of our coaches for coaching such a great game.”
The Hurricane will get a chance to replicate that effort against Batavia this week. The Bulldogs are closer to Aiken than they are Clinton-Massie.
Kickoff from BHS is set for 7 p.m. Friday.
Batavia was 10-0 during the 2012 regular season and won a playoff game. Since then there’s been just two winning seasons at BHS. The Bulldogs have won six of there last 42 games.
“Batavia will come to play,” Evans said. “They lost last week to Western Brown in a shoot-out, so they will want to get back to winning. They are better than last year and have a great WR and QB core. We will have to be sound in all three phases of the game.”
RECORDS: Wilmington is 4-2 overall and 0-1 in the SBAAC American Division. Batavia is 2-4 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
PLAYOFFS: Wilmington is currently ninth in the Div. III Region 12 computer rankings, one spot behind fellow SBAAC American Division rival New Richmond. With the top 16 teams advancing to the post-season in each region, the Hurricane is in good shape to play a game in Week 11. At least Clinton-Massie head coach Dan McSurley thinks so.
“They’re probably going to win out so they’re going to have an 8-2 team, McSurley said. “They’re going in to the playoffs with a real good seed.”
SERIES: Wilmington leads the series 5-1. The results 62-14 in 2022, 49-3 in 2021, 48-8 in 2020, 56-7 in 2019. Batavia last won a shootout 64-49 in 2018. Before that, Wilmington won 23-7 in 2017.
