By JON WEBB
GLASGOW — Don’t let Danville’s record fool you.
Glasgow coach Rick Wood said his team’s 2A Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl first-round opponent’s 4-6 standing says more about who Danville played than it does about the Admirals themselves.
“They’ve played some top-flight competition,” Wood said. “And they’re really playing their best football right now.”
Danville will host Glasgow on Friday in the midst of a three-game winning streak. In those three games, the team has scored 138 points and has only allowed 34.
Glasgow’s performances in the last few weeks haven’t been top-flight.
Since opening the season at 3-0, the Scotties have gone just 2-5, and are 1-2 since their Oct. 9 open week.
Injuries plagued Glasgow at the tail end of the season as well. The team has been without leading rusher Tavion Parrish, running backs Jaleen Sublett and Griffin Smith, defensive end Hunter Bowles and others at various points.
The injury situation is taking a turn for the better, though.
Wood said he expects everyone but Bowles and Sublett to return for Friday’s game to help Glasgow erase the memory of the 45-6 loss Danville handed the Scotties in the first round of the postseason last year.
The 2009 Scotties, however, are much different than the 2008 version.
After going 0-11 last year, Glasgow improved to 5-5 this season, with its five losses coming against teams with a combined 38-12 record.
“There aren’t a lot of teams that improve by five wins,” Wood said after Glasgow’s loss to 8-2 Franklin-Simpson last week. “(And) the season isn’t over yet.”
Wood said he’s pleased with his team’s efforts to try to improve by six wins.
“I really like the way our kids have prepared, especially mentally,” he said. “They seem really into it.”
Wood described Danville as a “rushing team” that has several players capable of hurting an opponent on the ground.
Defensively, Wood said the Admirals “are really big” and possess at least two tackles that top the 250-pound mark. Surrounding those two tackles are guys with a lot of speed, he said, which makes Danville especially hard to prepare for.
Considering Danville’s recent success, Wood said getting momentum early will be especially crucial.
“The thing we’ve stressed is we want to be aggressive on both sides of the ball,” he said. “(But) it’s so hard to simulate Danville’s speed in practice.”
Thanks to the returns of Smith and especially Parrish, Glasgow will add a little speed of its own.
Parrish rushed for 803 yards and nine touchdowns on the year, despite missing the final two regular season games.
A win on Friday night would be the Scotties first playoff victory since 2006, the same year Danville came within three points of a state championship.
