Eagles stepping up

ADAM RAEDER
Star Beacon

August 28, 2008 03:50 am

— It may see like a simple question, but as it turns out, it’s deceptively hard to answer: When’s the last time Geneva beat Madison in football?
“I can’t — I know it’s been a while,” Eagles coach Tony Hassett said. “... I have no idea, to be honest with you.”
Neither did his players.
“Oh, no,” quarterback Tyler Erb said. “I know all these coaches have been telling us when they beat Madison. But we all know how long (ago) that was.”
Maybe it make sense that the Eagles have a little selective memory — who wants to remember losses anyway?
But even the Blue Streaks had trouble putting their finger on just how long their streak was.
“I don’t know how many years it is, but it’s probably been more than 10,” Madison coach Tim Willis said.
Geneva’s Jake Buckey decided to take a different spin on the question, shifting the focus from varsity to JV.
“It’s been a long time. It’s been a while,” the senior said. “But our JV, a lot of us when we played JV, we beat Madison’s JV. And a lot of them are starters now.”
Finally, Geneva assistant coach Don Shymske chimed in with an answer: “1997.”
“He would know,” Hassett said. “He was playing then.”
But both sides recognize that this Geneva squad — one which will travel to Madison for Friday’s 7:30 p.m. contest — isn’t the same one that served as Madison’s hapless younger brother for the better part of the past decade.
“Geneva is much improved,” Willis said. “They have some very good personnel. I think their quarterback (Erb) and tailback (James Murray) are very, very good. Their receivers are very good. (Caleb) Strauser and (Alec) Muller are two very good players. They’ve got a balanced attack. You’ve got to prepare for a lot of different things.”
“We knew this year we had a lot of talent, that we would be a lot better than most of the Geneva teams that have come through,” Erb said.
But are they good enough?
Last year, the Eagles hung tough with Madison for a half, before the Blue Streaks’ superior size and strength wore them down.
“They’re nowhere near as big as they were,” Buckey said. “Last year, that definitely was a factor. We came out strong, because we were all good the first half. Then it all wore on us. They were really big last year.”
Not only are some of the Blue Streaks’ big bodies gone, but Geneva has another year of weight training under their belts.
They also have plenty of confidence after last week’s 42-7 thrashing of Wickliffe.
“No one expects us to do that (win big),” Erb said. “When we go and blow someone out, we’ve got people coming up to us and telling us we did a great job last week. They keep telling us, it’s going to be this year.”
In fact, after years of struggling to put together four solid quarters, their performance against Wickliffe increased the feeling around practice that this was a whole new Eagles team.
This week could go a long way to proving that feeling right.
“If we can beat Madison, we should beat everyone else on our schedule, definitely,” Buckey said. “This week is huge. This week should determine how we do the rest of the season.”
Even with 11 straight wins to their credit, Madison’s not about to take anything for granted.
“We’ve been really working hard and focusing on trying to beat them again,” senior linemen Frank Wrobleski said.
And while the Eagles gained confidence from their Week 1 blowout, Madison is taking heart in their woulda, coulda, shoulda loss at Normandy.
“We proved to ourselves we’re a good football team,” Willis said.
“The key to last week is, you try to learn from your loss,” the coach added. “You try to turn everything into a positive. The key to it is, we try to improve on the things we did not-so-well last week. We’re going to look at last week as a positive, and try get better.”
That means improving on a running attack that averaged just over 2 yards a carry against Normandy.
“Offensively, we’re still trying to get our running game going a little bit. Defensively, we’ve got to tackle better,” Willis said. “Special teams, we’ve just got to work on the little things. But overall last week, the kids did a really, really good job. It was just a few little things. We’re just going to work on being a complete team for 40 minutes.”
If Madison does that, they believe they can be successful against anyone — including Geneva.
“There’s nothing more for them to beat Madison,” Willis said. “They want to beat us. I know they want to beat us. So we’ve got to prepare just that much more to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

n SS. JOHN AND PAUL at CONNEAUT (7, WYBL)
It might seem unusual that a team on a 15-game skid would take anyone too lightly. But SS. John and Paul coach Jim Timonere thinks that’s exactly what happened to the Heralds last week against Oberlin.
It’s a mistake they won’t make twice.
“We’re definitely not doing that,” Timonere said. “This is the closest thing to a city series we have.”
And the Heralds feel like it’s also a good chance to snap their now-16-game losing streak.
Last season, SS. John and Paul fell to Conneaut, 13-0. Two years ago, it took a 21-point lead before seeing the Spartans overtake it in the fourth quarter.
“Our kids remember both those things,” Timonere said. “So they want to go up to Conneaut and make an impression while they’re there.”
In order to make that impression, though, Timonere will have to see an improved performance out of his line.
The coach still believes he has the type of offensive weapons that can take over a game — if they have time. But time was something the Heralds offense had precious little of against an Oberlin squad Timonere said was “twice as big” as the team they faced the year before.
As a result, the Heralds ran just 37 offensive plays.
“We’ve definitely got to be more physical than we were versus Oberlin,” Timonere said. “We’ve got to fire off the ball offensively and defensively.
“Unfortunately, with the way that Oberlin just dominated the offensive and defensive line of scrimmage, we didn’t get to show off our skill guys. So we’re working hard this week .... getting our line ready to roll.”
Timonere hopes that will open up Jake Phelps and a passing game that threw for 121 yards against Oberlin .
The toughest part, though, remains to be growing his team’s confidence, which makes a fast start a near-imperative for Timonere’s squad.
“The big thing for our team is we’ve got to come out fired up. We’re a good fundamental team, but we’ve got to get that emotion back in,” he said. “When we get that emotion, I think we’ll be a different team.
“Sometimes, when we go out there and they have a big play on there, we have in the past had a problem getting that out of our heads. We’ve worked hard in the offseason to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to battle back.’ But that’s because we’re too used to loosing. We’re not used to winning.”

n JEFFERSON at PERRY (7)
If there’s one rock-solid truth about coaching, it’s that there’s always work to be done. Even if everything is rosy in the big picture, there’s always the little things to be corrected or tweaked.
Even on an experienced team like Perry. Even after a strong showing like last week’s resounding 30-6 win over Riverside.
So what is Matt Rosati and his staff focusing on this week as they prepare for Jefferson?
“Discipline,” the second-year coach said. “We need to be more disciplined. We can’t have procedure penalties, things like that. Other than that, we played a pretty solid football game.”
The Pirates tallied six penalties last week for 55 yards.
Not much else went wrong for the Pirates last week as they held Riverside to nine first downs and 28 rush yards.
Now they’ll look to improve upon those marks as they face a Jefferson team they beat 55-0 when the two teams squared off last year at Falcon Pride Stadium.
“They’re big and they’re physical and they’re going to come off the football,” Rosati said of the Falcons. “So, we’re going to have to be disciplined and go from there.
“We’re really not too concerned about Jefferson — and that’s no disrespect to them. We’re just more concerned about how we play than anything else. And that goes for anyone we play.”
If there is a concern for Perry, it’s that they’ll most likely take the field without starting cornerback Erik Petrecca. Rosati said the junior was “probably” going to be sidelined with an injury.
The Pirates will also have to make due without a pair of backups, guard Doug Kintop and running back Robert Russell.
“They’re backup guys,” Rosati said, “but they’re key important guys to the operation.”
Like the Pirates, the Falcons have turned their focus inward this week after penalties and turnovers cost them in their overtime loss to Grand Valley.
Despite outgaining the Mustangs in total yards to the tune of 262-141, the Falcons suffered a 27-26 loss.
“We’re working on turnovers, hanging onto the ball,” Jefferson coach Jimmy Henson said. “Obviously, we felt that was a big thing (last week). Eliminating some mental mistakes. We had quite a few penalties.”
With their good size across the line, the Falcons know their best chance of hanging in this one is to pound the ball, and, in the process, keep Vinny Hokavar and the high-powered Perry offense off the field.
“We’re bigger than they are, but I’d say they have more speed. I don’t think anyone is going to question that,” Henson said. “We’ve got to try to lean on them for four quarters, keep the ball game tight and try to give ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter.
“The best way to slow down their offense is not let it on the field.”

n GRAND VALLEY at MINERAL RIDGE (7)
Now, the Mustangs have to prepare their encore. One week after snapping a 10-game losing streak with an overtime win against Jefferson, Grand Valley looks to continue its winning ways against Mineral Ridge.
And one important piece of the Mustangs’ winning formula is going to stay the same.
After filling in admirably for injured starter Trenton Doing, quarterback Anthony Oscar will stay behind center for the Mustangs — even if Doing returns to health.
“He’s going to stay at quarterback. He did a great job. He earned that right,” Grand Valley coach Tom Henson said. “If Trenton gets healthy, he’ll back up and we’ll find a place for him to play. He’s too good of an athlete to sit on the bench.”
While Grand Valley is happy with its passing game, Henson is looking for a lot more production out of a running attack that amassed just 46 yards on 23 carries against Jefferson.
“Most importantly, we’ve got to improve our blocking up front,” Henson said. “I thought we did a respectable job in our passing game, but we weren’t moving guys on the run. We’ve got to force them to respect the run. We didn’t do that well against Jefferson.”
The difference, though, is that while Jefferson forced Grand Valley to try to move its big bodies out of the way — a task the Mustangs proved incapable of — Mineral Ridge has more speed than size along the line.
“They stunt all over the place,” Henson said. “They bring pressure and have man coverage in the secondary. We’re hoping we can improve our blocking and exploit that.”
On defense, the Mustangs will have to focus on their run defense.
In Mineral Ridge’s season-opening 27-7 loss to Mogadore, it threw the ball just three times.
“Their first-string quarterback broke his ankle in the second scrimmage of the season,” Henson said. “They have a lot of youth at quarterback.”
And a lot of talent at running back.
“They have three or four kids who really run the ball well, and they mix it up a lot,” Henson said.
That’s a worry for the Mustangs, who struggled to stop the Jefferson running attack, allowing 231 yards on the ground.
“Obviously, we’re a little concerned,” Henson said. “The difference between Mineral Ridge and Jefferson is that Mineral Ridge doesn’t have the size on the line that Jefferson had.
“My concern with them is that they’ve got a little bit more speed. We’ve got to contain them in the off-tackle area, where they love to run a lot.”
Those off-tackle runs burned Grand Valley last season as it fell 67-0 to Mineral Ridge. And for Henson, making improvement starts with his defensive line.
“We have to have more support from our defensive ends and our secondary fill people,” the coach said. “Our linebackers did a good job against Jefferson flowing to the ball. Our defensive ends have to be much more physical.”

n RIVERSIDE at WEST GEAUGA (7:30)
The debut of Randy Wolf’s new offense at Riverside wasn’t exactly a dud. The passing game was a roaring success, throwing for 216 yards and providing Riverside’s lone score, L.T. Smith’s 7-yard reception from Kyle Shaffer.
The problem was that the Beavers lacked balance.
Their 216 yards through the air accounted for almost 90 percent of the Beavers offense.
Without the running attack, the Beavers struggled to control the ball, picking up just nine first downs, compared to Perry’s 20.
It’s something the Beavers know they must change against West Geauga.
“I still like our idea, our scheme, and we’ve got to do a better job running the ball. ...They took us out of our run game and made us one-dimensional,” Wolf said. “We can’t do that. We’ve got a good pass game, but we’ve got to be able to run the ball. Otherwise, they’re going to tee off on us.
“That’s a terrible stat for a defensive guy like me to look at. We ran close to 50 plays in that game. Our goal is to run about 70. We have to pick up the pace in the run game.”
Part of Riverside’s struggles came from its inexperienced offensive line. Four of its lineman are new starters, and the other is playing at a new position.
“They came out tentative, worried about making mistakes,” Wolf said. “We need them to just come out and pound people.”
That may be easier said than done against West Geauga. Though it lost a lot a seniors — West Geauga brings back three starters from last year’s squad — it showed in Week 1 that its newcomers were more than up to the task. The Wolverines took Padua Franciscan to the wire before falling, 26-19.
“Padua may have controlled the game from the stat column, but West G didn’t give up,” Wolf said. “They’re feisty kids. We expect them to be the same way against us.”
Looking to keep Wolf’s offense struggling will be a 4-3 front that Wolf describes as “really aggressive.”
“A lot of times, they’ll man up on the outside and say, ‘You’ve got to beat us through the air, because you’re not going to run against us,’” Wolf said. “They’re really quick. They fly to the football at all times. ... They’re basic in a way, but they will come after you.”
That could provide an opportunity for the Beavers offense. If Riverside running back Josh Dennett can get past the first wave of Wolverines, he should find plenty of green space to work in.
“We do feel that way — if we can get some quick hitters in the pass game and the run game,” Wolf said. “By mixing it up, throwing outside, running outside, hitting some counters and stretches, that’s going to help counter an aggressive defense.
“To kind of get them out of their game, put them on their heels a little bit is our goal.”
Defensively, the Beavers are focusing on stopping the option attack that helped West Geauga edge Riverside 29-24 last year.
“Our biggest thing, and this isn’t what we did last year, is just play assignment football,” Wolf said. “Against the option, there’s not a lot you can do except play assignment football. You can’t try to do someone else’s job. We need to be in the right spot and take care of our assignments. If we do that, we can be successful.
“Their quarterback can definitely run. He’s got a really good arm, but he definitely can use his feet. We’ve got to keep him in the pocket, and when he gets to the outside, really punish him. Make him want to pitch it early.”

n EAST TECH at LAKESIDE (7)
You might say Van McWreath feels Anthony Simeone’s pain. Last week, McWreath and his staff traveled to Youngstown to watch the first-year East Tech coach suffer a lopsided loss at the hands of Youngstown Ursiline.
“Ursiline’s a very good team, so they struggled down there,” McWreath said. “But I will say they looked more organized, fewer penalties.
“I think he’s headed in the right direction already.”
He also thinks his team will win.
“I assume we’re going to win. I think what we do is going to force them out of what they do,” McWreath said. “I anticipate them struggling.”
It’s a reasonable expectation. After a 1-9 season, East Tech’s numbers are down, and it doesn’t boast the same speed it did last year when the Dragons chalked up a 66-26 win.
“Last year, they spread the ball and tried to throw some deep routs. That was their answer for us because their fast kids were able to run with the ball against us,” McWreath said. “But this year, they don’t have the fast kids. I think he’s running the ball more because that’s what he has.”
As a result, McWreath and his staff have been focusing more on what they do (and don’t do) well, than then Scarabs.
“We were frustrated coming out of Howland. Even though our kids played hard and were disciplined, we were frustrated with some of our mistakes,” McWreath said. “We couldn’t do things that were open in our own offense. And they did some things against our defense we didn’t expect (them to be able to do).”
As a result, it’s been Focus on Fundamentals Week at Dragons practice.
“We were running three of our base plays over and over and over. .... We really turned that focus back on ourselves,” McWreath said. “Even as a staff, we put in a lot of hours just going over our Xs and Os and our blocking schemes. We’re hoping this is a good chance to get all the wheels spinning the right way again.”

n BERKSHIRE at EDGEWOOD (7)
If there’s one thing Joe Kearney learned about his Warriors, it’s that they’re pretty good about bouncing back from adversity.
A lot of times coaches will say they don’t want to focus on the past. But it’s more rare for their charges to live out that message.
But by the time practice kicked up this week, Edgewood had already put its tough loss to Champion behind it and was looking ahead to Berkshire.
“The kids seem to be upbeat. After a very tough loss, the kids have rebounded,” Kearney said. “They’re pretty resilient. I think everybody’s kind of excited again.”
That’s good news for Kearney, because this week’s opponent should prove to be a second verse that’s the same as the first for the Warriors — at least in style.
One week after being tasked with slowing down Champion’s punishing running game, the Edgewood defense will look to do the same against run-first Berkshire.
“They like to run the football. They’ve got a real nice tailback (Brock Burzanko). They run some counters and they run the scissors trap. They like to run a slot-I. They’ll run some power-I. They’ll throw a pass. All their passing is off play action. But when you run the ball as well as they do, play action passing is pretty effective.”
In other words, it promises to be a lot like the last game.
“They are very similar,” Kearney said. “What we’re going to have to do is slow that tailback down.
“You’re not ever going to stop a team completely, but we hope to slow them down.”
One thing the Warriors have working in their favor is that Berkshire is smaller across the board than Champion, if ever so slightly.
“(Champion) probably outweighed us by 50 pounds,” Kearney said. “Our kids are strong and they’re in good shape. That hasn’t changed.”
And one of the strongest on the team, tight end Ricky Kaydo, might also draw the most attention after putting up 113 yards on four receptions in Week 1.
“He got a lot of double coverage after that first half. We would suspect he’s going to get a lot of double coverage (this week),” Kearney said. “We’ll try to do some things that will break that.”
They’ll also try to do some things to open up their running attack.
“If we learned one thing, we’ve got to be able to run the ball better,” Kearney said. “We did at times, we ran outside well. But we need to run the ball inside. We need to power the ball up inside with the big fullback. We were not able to do that last week.”

n HARVEY at WICKLIFFE (7:30)
It seems like simple logic.
Harvey was resoundingly chosen as the coachs’ pick to win the Northeastern Conference.
Fellow NEC member Geneva, picked to finish second in the conference, pasted Wickliffe last week, 42-7.
So Harvey should have nothing to worry about in this one, right?
Not so says coach Devlin Culliver.
“We got beat pretty bad last week as well,” Culliver said.
Not quite as badly as Wickliffe, though. Harvey dropped a 34-20 decision to Lakeview.
“We learned a lot,” Culliver said of the loss. “Offensively, our quarterback (Richard Barnes) did a good job. It’s his first year as at varsity, and he did a good job. Lakeview was just a little bit better than we were. That’s just what it came down to.”
After throwing for 154 yards on 12-of-18 passing in the opener, Week 2 looks poised to be another big week for the junior as he faces a Wickliffe defense that allowed 190 passing yards to Geneva.
“Geneva was able to run the ball well and pass the ball on them a lot, which was good to hear because we try to do a little bit of both,” Culliver said.
“We need to establish the run game and continue with our passing game,” he added. “Just put more points on the board and try to stop giving up as many points.”
In order to do that last part, Harvey will need to contain Wickliffe quarterback Nick Salter.
“Their offense pretty much runs through their quarterback,” Culliver said. “If we can contain him, we’ve got a good chance of winning the game.
“(My line has to) just stay in their rush lane. ... We’re going to let the dogs out on them, without a doubt.”

n PYMATUNING VALLEY at CARDINAL (7:30)
The Lakers have a simple goal for their game against Cardinal: play like they should.
“Our main goal is to play up to our potential,” coach Jason Root said. “Our sophomores that started last year as freshmen must start to improve and perform better after having one full season of varsity under their belt.”
A big part of that is improving a rushing attack that averaged less than 2 yards a carry against Berkshire.
“The key to victory is our offensive line,” Root said. “They must perform much better than in Week 1.”
They’ll look to improve against a Cardinal squad that lost a large senior class from last year. Numbers have been a problem, with just 33 varsity players, though they do return 6-foot, 268-pound lineman Tripper Duchscherk.
“They are always well-coached and disciplined,” Root said. “They run a wing-T with lots of misdirection. Their defense is very athletic and they cover both the run and they pass well.”

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