October 19, 2007 Prep football notebook:

Nitro-Hurricane game tough to figure

By Rick Ryan, Assistant Sports Editor

Scott Tinsley isn’t sure what to expect tonight when his Nitro team, situated squarely on the playoff bubble, visits Hurricane.

If the Wildcats’ last game with the Redskins is any indication, look for a defensive struggle. Nitro edged Hurricane 7-3 last year, a game in which quarterback Michael Scott was held without a touchdown pass — the only time that’s happened over the past two seasons.

But if you figure in Nitro’s most recent game — a 56-48 shootout loss to Cabell Midland last week — then you can see there’s a lot of room in between those efforts, which leaves Tinsley scratching his head.

“How would I know what’s going to happen?’’ Tinsley said, chuckling. “I never dreamed it would be that kind of game last week with Cabell Midland. I thought all week long it would be kind of a grind-it-out game, that they’d try to keep the ball from us. I thought it would be a low-scoring game, then they came out and I don’t know if they ever had a running back line up in the backfield.’’

Wide-open Midland racked up 548 yards against Nitro, with more than 250 rushing by quarterback Tyler Bartley. Lapses in tackling have cost the Wildcats dearly this season, as they’ve given up 33 or more points four times and are 1-3 in those games.

“We have to guess right,’’ Tinsley said, “and have the right combination of people there to stop the run, or the right combination of people to stop the pass. We guessed wrong last week, and we guessed right the previous week against St. Albans [a 58-14 win]. Last week I thought we’d run into another power-I type football team and they came out five [receivers] wide. I did a poor job preparing.’’

Another loss by the No. 16 Wildcats (4-3) would temporarily knock them out of the postseason picture, as only the top 16 teams in each class advance.

Hurricane (6-1), ranked No. 8 in Class AAA, has been a little more susceptible to big plays on defense this year. After shutting out eight opponents the previous two seasons, the Redskins are allowing 21 points per game to their Mountain State Athletic Conference rivals.