Addison looks to avenge loss

Addison looks to avenge loss

Thursday, October 25, 2007 9:00 AM EDT

Prep Football: The Addison High School football team earned the Cascades Conference title this season, finishing 6-1 in the league on its way to its ninth straight playoff appearance.

By Marc Townsend

Daily Telegram Assistant Sports Editor


HANOVER — The Addison High School football team earned the Cascades Conference title this season, finishing 6-1 in the league on its way to its ninth straight playoff appearance.

The Panthers (6-3) will now have a chance to avenge their lone league loss as they take on Hanover-Horton (7-2) in the first round of the Division 6 playoffs at 7 p.m. tomorrow.

Hanover-Horton defeated Addison 28-26 in the fourth game of the season, dropping the Panthers to 2-2 before they ran off four straight wins to qualify for the playoffs.

“We know them pretty well,” Addison coach Mark Beougher said. “We know what they run and they know what we run.”

According to Beougher, the Comets run a single-wing offense most of the time, which is centered around deception.

The Panthers may have an advantage, as its most recent opponent, Hudson, also runs a deception offense.

“I think that it will help when they go to the single-wing,” Beougher said. “It will help because Hudson does such a good job at it. Our defense played well in that game (a 12-0 loss), but we couldn’t put any points on the board.”

For Addison, the offense runs through running back Jaron Butts, who has 1,226 yards in nine games this season, and has scored 22 touchdowns.

According to Beougher, though, the key to success in the playoffs will be to cut down on turnovers and penalties, which hurt the Panthers in the Week 9 loss against Hudson.

“Turnovers or penalties seemed to kill every one of our drives in that game,” Beougher said. “It’s hard to put together a drive when you are getting 10 and 15 yard penalties.”

Beougher believes that there are positives about entering this playoff contest having lost to Hanover-Horton previously.

“You always want to win every game, but if you are going to play a team in the playoffs that you have played before, you’d almost rather be on this side,” Beougher said. “It’s tough to beat a team twice in the same season.

“Another big thing is that we know we can play with them. Sometimes in the playoffs you go up against a team that is just better than you — more athletic, more talented, just better. In this case, though, we know that we can play with these guys.”

The winner of this game will take on the winner of Albion (6-3) and top-seeded Leslie (7-2), which meet up in the other semifinal.

Addison has won its first-round playoff game five consecutive years, including last year when it defeated Clinton 14-8 to improve its record to 10-0 after a perfect regular season.

The Panthers dropped a 10-7 game against Olivet in the second round.


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