5A North State Semifinals:

Lakewood (10-3) at Clay (9-4), Friday, 12/6

THE GOOD
Lakewood has too many athletes on both sides of the ball that should give Clay a tough time. Clay plays a lot of zone coverage in the secondary. Lots of 2,3 and cover 4. Lakewood thrives vs. zone secondary coverage. Inside slot receivers, Ellison and Boykins should really have a great game. This should open up the deep, sideline balls and create space for the seams and skinny post. Ryan Davis should have plenty of time throw the football, as Clay is not a blitz heavy team and not dominate with their front four. Sean Grayer is pretty dang good upfront for Clay. Leads the team with 14.5 sacks and shows a verity of pass rush moves. However, Lakewood has seen similar defensive line talent versus Raines, South Sumter and even Tarpon Springs.

The Clay linebackers look to be a little slow in their zone drops. Do a good job versus the run, but slow to their pass drops. Lakewood should have a clear advantage in the passing game as the Spartans have seen much more athletic and aggressive secondary play than they will expect come Friday.

THE BAD
Bad for Lakewood, Good for Clay. I don’t think Lakewood has seen this type of offense this season with these kinds of threats in the backfield. This Clay offense resembles the Robinson offense last year with Zain Gilmore running the show and Duclos and Ruiz doing the dirty work. It’s not complicated, but Clay does a great job running the same offensive plays from various formations with several ball carriers. Clay has rushed for over 4,000 yards this season. They have 8 games with 300 or more rushing yards. The offensive line is not extremely aggressive, but does a great job of “getting in the way.” The Clay ball carriers do a good job of waiting for their blocks and allowing holes to pop open.

THE “HAS TO HAPPEN”
Lakewood has to stop Clay QB Wes Weeks. He is the catalyst to the Blue Devil offensive unit. Even though Shannon Asbell leads the team in rushing yards with 1154 yards on 214 carries, Weeks runs the show and has break away ability. He will force Lakewood to account for him and not key of either RB Asbell or Ally. The QB outside Zone and sweep are big for Clay. They also thrive off the QB Trap and Power. They run all those plays extremely well. If Lakewood can slow down the RBs and neutralize Weeks, they have a really good chance of beating the Blue Devils. If Weeks gets hot and the RBs get into a rhythm, Lakewood will be in for a dog fight.