It’s week five of the 2014 football season, and the T.R. Miller Tigers are heading north to Evergreen to take on the Hillcrest Jaguars.
After losing their last two games, Hillcrest comes into the game with T.R. Miller with a 1-2 record overall and is 0-2 in region play.
T.R. Miller owns a 12-1 record all-time against Hillcrest with the lone loss coming in 1997 when Hillcrest shocked T.R. Miller with a 21-13 win. The last time the two teams met was in 2007 when T.R. Miller won 43-25.
TRM head coach Jamie Riggs said when you play Hillcrest, the game starts with their quarterback. Riggs described No. 17, Keyshawn Roach, a 6 foot 2 inch, 200-pound senior as a load to bring down.
“Obviously, everybody knows when one plays Hillcrest that they have an outstanding quarterback,” Riggs said. “He can throw it as far as he needs to. He is a load to bring down when he runs the ball. He is really deceptively fast. He runs really smooth. So I think when you start playing them, that is the first thing you have to look at is how in the world are you going to defend Roach?”
Riggs also noted the play of the Jaguars on offense and defense, calling No. 24 DaLarrish Richardson a threat.
“Offensivley they have really caused people problems with Richardson,” Riggs said. “He is extremely quick. They have done a nice job of opening some holes for him, and they do different things to try and get him the ball. He is obviously a threat to go and make a big play for them at any time. The strength of their team is that and then they have some team speed on defense. They really run to the ball. They just do a really good job with that.”
Riggs said playing Hillcrest is tough, given the home field advantage.
“We are in the situation again here where we have to go on the road and play,” he said. “We better get ourselves ready. Another issue with Hillcrest is they are really tough when they play in Evergreen and they play us really tough there through the years. We know what we are in for when we get there. They just lost two really close games. They could easily be undefeated and are certainly good enough to have done that. Beating us will certainly get their season headed into the right direction. I think this is kind of the deal where we need to get ready to play.”
Game time is set for 7 p.m. in Evergreen.