East Prairie FB getting creative with its offense, while focusing on its D

EAST PRAIRIE – David Stalker has only been a head coach at East Prairie High School for one-plus seasons, but he is showing that he isn’t afraid to experiment with innovative ways to achieve success, particularly on offense.

“We’re trying to open up our passing game,” Stalker said following a recent loss to Dexter at East Prairie.

That was evident early, as Stalker had junior quarterback Ty Wallace throwing deep routes to not only make “chunk plays,” but also create better opportunities to run the ball with the Bearcat secondary playing back to prevent long completions.

“We have traditionally been a run (offense),” Stalker said. “We want to be run heavy. We want to be known as a run-first team.”

The Eagles (1-3) didn’t abandon the run against Dexter.

Stalker called for 36 carries versus 14 throws, but Wallace’s tosses to junior Connor Marcum (83 yards receiving) and junior Tripp Shoemaker (38 yards receiving) were effective.

Sophomore Tavion Ware ran for 92 yards in the loss while Marcum (61 yards rushing), junior Braylan Cade (27 yards), and senior Rudy Arizmendi (15 yards) were also productive on the ground.

“Their offense,” second-year Dexter coach Chad Jamerson, who coached Stalker at East Prairie, said following the game, “is kind of difficult to defend. “There are a lot of moving parts, and you have to pick up the junk that is coming across your face.

“You have to decipher a lot to find the football.”

The Eagles tallied 312 yards of offense and scored the opening touchdown of the game before the Bearcats tore off 29 unanswered points. Which, therein, lies the concern for Stalker.

“We have to play better defense,” Stalker said.

East Prairie put up 60 combined points in its opening two games but is allowing 48.5 points per game this season, which if it stands, would be the most in well over a decade.

“In practice,” Stalker said of his focus on defensive execution, “that is all we’re going to do, basically, this week.”

Eventually, but not initially, the tests for East Prairie will become more manageable.

Not only will Stalker’s program mature (the Eagles have just four seniors), but following a game on Friday at Kennett, the Eagles face Malden (0-4, Sept. 29), Doniphan (0-4, Oct. 6), and Fredericktown (0-4, Oct. 20) in the latter part of this season.

“You can’t beat the good teams without being able to pass the ball,” Stalker said. “We’re trying this formation a little bit more. It is kind of new to us. I thought that it looked pretty good, but it still has a lot to clean up.

“We’re making progress, but we’ve just got to play better defense.”