Crunch time? Cape Central looks to impart a licking in Class 4

How many licks does it take to get into the mind of a 2,000-yard quarterback?

The Cape Central Tigers hope to find out.

Central (6-4) aims to apply heavy pressure on North County quarterback Reggie AuBuchon tonight when the Tigers take on the pass-happy Raiders (8-2) in a Class 4A sectional game at Houck Stadium. The game will start at 7.

AuBuchon has completed 60 percent of his passes this year for a whopping 1,932 yards in leading North County to an 8-2 record. He has 29 touchdown passes compared to only nine interceptions.

"They love to throw and they're good at it," said Cape Central coach Lawrence Brookins. "They've built a good reputation on throwing the ball. Their quarterback's pretty good and they've got a couple of receivers who can hurt you."

North County's two main receivers have combined for 1,500 yards. Broc Gremminger has caught 32 passes for 649 yards (20.3 avg), while Alex Winters has 46 receptions for 829 yards (18.0 avg.).

That combination poses an interesting matchup with Cape Central's athletic secondary.

But North County's No. 1 priority is giving AuBuchon enough time to throw, a difficult task considering defensive end Adrian Wren has 6 1/2 sacks this season and that tackles Chris Smith (6-foot-3, 315) and Justin Wells (6-0, 250) have consistently rushed the passer well.

"That is certainly a very big concern," said North County coach Matt Haug. "If we have no time, we'll have a big problem."

And Brookins knows that, too.

"What little time we spent on individual work this week with the defensive line and defensive ends, we spent on nothing but pass rush," Brookins said. "They can run when they want to and draws and screens become a factor, but I've told them to just react to it the best they can."

Putting up points

Only one team has held North County to less than 20 points this season and that was Farmington. The Knights, who fell 26-9 to the Tigers Thursday night, beat the Raiders 21-17.

The Raiders' only other loss was Francis Howell Central 37-20.

But Haug said his team played its best game of the season last week in beating Hillsboro 42-0.

"We've had some problems against the run off and on this season and that's probably the best thing we did Thursday night," he said."That was a very positive thing for us."

The Tigers have run the ball well of late, using the one-two punch of Marcus Klund and Monroe Hicks to do most of the damage. Klund has gained 685 yards (5.0 avg.) rushing, while Hicks has 570 yards (5.8 avg.).

Both are also dangerous receivers. Hicks, coming off his best receiving game of the year, has caught 26 passes for 433 yards, while Klund has 299 yards on 20 receptions.

Sophomore quarterback Mitch Craft went over the 1,000-yard passing mark last week. He has completed 77 of his 124 passes for 1,092 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions.