Lineville used its speed and quickness on defense to swarm to the football, containing the outside runs that hurt the Aggies in the Hornets’ 20-13 victory in 2009.
“Last year, we went up to Ider, and they pushed us around pretty good,” Lineville coach Steve Giddens said. “They got on the edge and hurt us with some outside runs. That was one thing that we wanted to take away this year — them getting on our corner as easy as they did last year.
“I thought our guys did a good job of bumping at the line of scrimmage. We were getting down the line and not letting them get outside on us. I think that took away a lot of what they wanted to do and sort of made the rest of it a little easier to stop.”
With the win, Lineville will now travel to fourth-ranked Westbrook Christian, which is undefeated on the season.
Ider never threatened to score, as the Aggie defense held the Hornets’ three-headed rushing attack of Teague Whitaker, Dylon Overdear and Dillon Blalock to just 82 yards on the ground.
Ider finished with 91 yards of total offense.
“We are pretty quick on the front, not real big,” Giddens said. “Our linebackers aren’t real big, but I think our quickness and ability to get off blocks is what helped us a lot.”
Lineville’s offense moved the ball at will Friday night, but the Aggies only put up 21 points because of some key penalties and a couple of fumbles.
A 15-yard personal foul penalty stalled Lineville’s first drive, but the Aggies would get things going on their third possession.
Daniel Staples started the 8-play, 58-yard drive with a 14-yard run and eventually capped it with a 15-yard scamper, putting the Aggies up 7-0 with 6:39 to play in the half.
Lineville threatened to score again at the end of the second quarter, but Staples coughed up the football at the 28-yard line.
Demetrius Lindsey fumbled three plays into the third quarter, but Ider never got anything going on the offensive side of the ball.
The Aggies went up 13-0 after Jonathan Glenn found the end zone from 32 yards out with 4:53 remaining in the third quarter.
Glenn scored Lineville’s final touchdown of the night on a 9-yard run with 5:08 left in the contest.
The Aggies racked up 271 yards on the night.
“Throughout the night, one play would stop us,” Giddens said. “We would have a little penalty or a bad snap or some little something. Pretty much all night we were one step away from keeping a drive going.
“I thought offensively, to not score any more than we did, I thought we played excellent.”
The Aggie defense stiffened even more in the final minutes of the game. After Glenn’s second touchdown put Lineville up 19-0, Daniel Johnson recovered Whitaker’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff.
After a personal foul forced the Aggies to punt, Travis Ackles came up with an interception. The Aggies drove the ball down to the 1-yard line, but Ackles was stopped for no gain on fourth down.
On the next play, a host of Aggies stuffed Overdear in the end zone for a safety, allowing Lineville to kneel on the ball and run out the clock.
