Latta opens playoffs on road against Baptist Hill

   By Dennis Brunson

           hssr.com Associate Editor

           Latta – It took a little while for the Latta High School football coaching staff to figure things out, but head coach Brandon Iseman likes where his team is at as it prepares for the Vikings prepare for the Class A state playoffs.

           After losing three of its first four games, LHS won four of its final six contests. It is taking a 5-5 overall record into the Class A state playoffs after finishing third in Region 6.

           Latta will open the playoffs on November 15 by going on the road to face Baptist Hill.

           “Coming off of last year where we had so many seniors, we had a lot of question marks,” said head coach Brandon Iseman, who led Latta to a 9-2 record last year. “We were filling certain holes, and we had to go through a process of fitting puzzle pieces together.”

           After beating East Columbus from North Carolina 49-6 to open the season, the Vikings lost to Marion 8-7, McBee 28-7 and Mullins 6-0.

           Following the McBee loss, Iseman and his staff decided to get out of its spread offense and switch to the wishbone.

           “We were kind of getting the pieces into place all year,” he said. “Where we ran the spread, throw it and run out of it, that didn’t fit us this year. Game 3 we switched into the wishbone.

“We were not being as competitive as we could be. We decided to hang out hats there, being physical, controlling the game, controlling the clock. Our mentality changed and we shifted our focus. I wish we would have been in it all year.”

LHS is averaging 241.1 rushing yards per game. It is led by Makinley Wallace, who has 119 carries for 885 yards and 14 touchdowns. Amir Rogers has 85 carries for 520 yards and five TDs, quarterback Jayden Alford has 353 yards and six scores on 61 carries, and Fischer Richardson has 50 carries for 293 yards and one TD.

Latta has only thrown the ball 38 times, completing 20 of them with no touchdowns. The leading receiver is Adrian McDonald with nine catches for 184 yards.

The defense is led by linebacker Xy’Mari Bethea with 71 total tackles for 11. Defensive tackle Tyquan Drawhorn leads in TFLS with 16 to go with 65 tackles, and linebacker Gavin Aubin has 54 tackles and seven TFLs.

Drawhorn has a team high six quarterback sacks while Rogers, a defensive end, has four sacks.

Iseman is looking forward to seeing what his team can do in the playoffs.

“All year we’ve been going through a transition,” he said. “We’ve just got to believe, trust and believe in the work we do each week. If we do that, good things will happen. I think we’re clicking at the right time. We’re going to focus on execution.”