East Bay’s vaunted wishbone offense has been known to give many opponents fits. Plant City coach Jason Strunk is hoping to avoid that problem this week when the Raiders face the Indians at Durant – and he’s counting on his team’s offense to lead the way.

“The key is our offense,” Strunk said. “If we can put points on the board and keep them off the field, we’ll be in good shape.”

The good news for Plant City is the offense had its best outing of the season last week against Wharton, producing a season-best 21 points. It was finally an encouraging sign for a unit that had struggled mightily all season - Plant City totaled just 26 points combined in its first four games.

The problem was the Raiders’ defense, which had played well all season, had its worst game of the year against the Wildcats, allowing a season-worst 44 points.

The Raiders defense definitely needs a better showing this week to keep the team in the Class 5A-District 7 playoff picture. Plant City (2-3) is 0-1 in district play, and an 0-2 start will be a difficult hole in which to climb out.

The Raiders will have to slow down the Indians’ wishbone attack, which is led by senior fullback Chaz Burrows, and Strunk believes he’s got a good defensive game plan to do the trick – thanks in part to his time spent last season as an assistant coach at Division III Muhlenberg.

Muhlenberg’s first opponent in the Division III playoffs last season was Salisbury, a team that ran the triple-option offense and was one of nation’s most prolific rushing teams at that level. Salisbury entered that Division III playoff game averaging 323 rushing yards per game.

However, Muhlenberg held Salisbury to 154 yards on the ground, less than half the team’s average, in posting a 31-21 win.

“[The wishbone is] kind of the same principles [as the triple-option], playing assignment football,” Strunk said. “We put a game plan together up at Muhlenberg that was just insane. It’s going to be a different look. It’s probably something they [East Bay] haven’t seen before. What we did up at Muhlenberg was pretty unique.”