Friday Night Lights: Old-School Pioneers

When you think of Six-Man football, most tend to think of a wide-open game with lots of points. And while Big Sandy scores a lot of points, the Pioneers don't do it by throwing a lot of passes or running a spread offense.

Instead, Big Sandy does it with old-school power football, and that's a recipe the Pioneers are bringing into the Six-Man playoffs, which they will open as the No. 2 seed from the North Division Saturday at home against White Sulphur Springs.

"We are a physical team," Big Sandy head coach Chuck Terry said. "That's what we do. We want to be physical and run the football and try to wear people down over the game. That's one thing, by the time we get to the second half, people don't want to tackle us."

Behind its brand of tough, power football, Big Sandy finished the season with a 7-2 record, good enough for second place in the North Division. Two of those wins came by forfeit, meaning the Pioneers played in just seven games, and in those contests Big Sandy dominated on the ground, racking up more than 2,200 yards and 36 rushing touchdowns, an average of more than 300 yards and five touchdown runs per game. Many of those numbers came from Strutz, a sophomore running back who put together one of the most impressive statistical seasons in the state behind an offensive line that rotates five different guys: Andrew Sipler, Clint Darlington, Jordan Schwarzbach, Brady Pleninger and Hunter Jappe.

In seven games, Strutz dominated the competition, rushing for 1,600 yards and 24 touchdowns. He also did it on just 124 rushing attempts, equaling an average of 12.9 yards per rushing attempt, which is nearly a first down per run in Six-Man, where you need 15 yards. Yet, Strutz isn't the only threat on the ground as fullback Brock Preaulx is also averaging 14.4 yards per carry for a total of 245 yards, as well as scoring touchdowns on eight of his 17 rushing attempts.

"We run the ball well because we have an offensive line that is big and they are physical," Terry said. "We like to pound people. We have a fullback that weighs about 185 pounds and runs pretty hard, and we got Strutz, who is 5-11 and 195 pounds and runs like a truck."

Because of the Pioneers' ability to run the football, Big Sandy developed one of the top attacks in Six-Man football, and when the season was all said and done the team averaged over 58 points a game. More impressively, though, Big Sandy scored 63 points or more in each of their last four matchups. All season long, it was never held under 28 points, a number that came in a loss to defending state champion Mon-Dak.

While running the football is the team's identity, it has also opened things up for a highly-efficient passing attack that is led by quarterback Parker Preaulx, who completed 50-of-76 passes during the season for more than 700 yards and 10 touchdowns.

"We are throwing the ball successfully, too," Terry said. "Our completion percentage is really high. A lot of teams just try to stop us running and that opens thing us for up to throw the ball."

Due to their size and their ability to pound the rock, Big Sandy is going to be a tough out in the postseason, especially if the Pioneers can replicate what they did in the first round of the playoffs against Richey-Lambert last season. In a blowout win, Strutz racked up 334 yards rushing and six touchdowns. That's the kind of football Big Sandy has played througout the 2018 campaign, and if they can keep their run game cranked up like that in the playoffs, it could wind up taking them a very long way.

"We try to impose our will," Terry said. "We want to bring that physicality to every game and that's what we do."

Big Sandy will host White Sulphur Springs Saturday at 1 p.m.