The Ridge Spring-Monetta football team has had to figure out a lot of things on the fly this year.
Those things are inevitable with a new head coach, especially one that's hired two months before the season begins.
Still, the Trojans have found plenty of answers. They figured out how to replace the more than 400 tackles that left the linebacker corps. They figured out how to overcome some inexperience on the offensive and defensive lines. They figured out how to win games despite injuries to earn Region 3-A's No. 3 seed in the playoffs.
Once they got there, they had to figure out how to stop a Whitmire offense built for the quagmire they were playing in. They had to figure out how to match muscle in the trenches with Blackville-Hilda and Wagener-Salley, teams that beat them by a combined 62 points during those injury-riddled weeks of the regular season.
They figured all of that out to reach Friday's Class A state championship game (8 p.m. at Benedict College), where they'll tackle their final tough question of the season.
How do you stop Green Sea Floyds?
GSF head coach Donnie Kiefer is of the "do what we do" line of coaching, and who could blame him? His Trojans (yes, they're both Trojans, so expect a lot of acronyms) work on being the best version of themselves every Friday night rather than obsessing over the opposition, and the results speak for themselves – the champs are back to defend their crown, after all.
"... Obviously, we're gonna try to do a great job in scouting and in preparation for what they do," said Kiefer. "Each week, we try to take the attitude that we have to be the best that we can be and make sure we're doing everything we can do to make ourselves better each week as well as preparing for the opponent."
That attitude has resulted in an offense that's scored 40 or more points eight times this season. GSF averages 44.5 points per game, and senior lineman Tanner Cox said the team's work ethic is a big reason why they're so explosive despite being so undersized.
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