Finding focus
Despite their 44-13 loss to Beth-Center last week, Jefferson-Morgan coach Jan Haiden said that his football team is now solely focused on their game at rival Carmichaels this week. “Last week, we were beaten by a better team,” said Haiden. “They blocked our first punt and it kind of set the tempo from there. Simply put, we got out-played.”
“But the guys are taking it one week at a time,” said Haiden. “We’re up against Carmichaels and that’s always the big game for us.”
While the loss to the Bulldogs was the first loss of the season for the Rockets, the Mikes picked up their first win of the season by beating Mapletown, 36-6. Still, Haiden and the Rockets expect a supreme effort from the Mikes.
“We have to play a perfect game against them,” said Haiden. “We know they’ll run the ball a good deal, so we have to make sure to close the blocks.”
In its win over the Maples, Carmichaels was able to avoid the costly turnovers that had plagued it throughout the early portion of the season. Then, the game came down to execution of the game plan.
“We had, I think, only two penalties,” said Menhart. “Our defense played better, which was great because my only real concern with Mapletown was that they are able to air the ball out a lot. But our defensive coordinator was able to contain them and help us get the win.”
Menhart said that while the first win was important he hopes his team will not lose sight of how it was accomplished.
“The kids are excited,” said Menhart. “It always feels good when you win. But you have to stay focused. That means not getting too happy when you win or too sad when you don’t.”
The Mikes expect Jefferson-Morgan to effectively control the ball, so Menhart said his team would need to take advantage of all the opportunities it gets.
“I’ve coached against Jan for years,” said Menhart. “They love to control the ball and if the other team has the ball for eight minutes (at a time) it’s hard for you to score. We need to take advantage of our opportunities.”
Meanwhile, the Maples are still looking for their first win and won’t have an easy task this Friday as they travel to California, a 49-21 winner at Geibel Catholic last week.
“We knew they have a quarterback (D.J. Martinak) who is a big part of their offense,” said Maples coach George Messich. “He is pretty much the key. He can run and pass, so we need to stop him.”
Messich said the mood in practice is still good despite the rocky start.
“The guys are still responding and want that win badly,” said Messich. “We’ll get there soon; we just need to stop making stupid mistakes.”
West Greene is also still looking for its first win when it hosts the Gators tonight.
However, things won’t be easy for the Pioneers, as starting quarterback Clay Mason is out with a shin related injury suffered in last week’s 35-6 loss to Monessen.
“We’ll miss him,” said Pioneers coach Charles Harris. “We’ll use freshman Matt Johnson now. He doesn’t have a lot of playing experience because he is a freshman, so this week we’ll work on developing him and getting him up to speed with the offensive plays.”
Harris said he believes that Geibel will present the best chance so far for a win because the teams match up well against one another.
“They have the same size we do and do similar things,” said Harris. “This will be a good chance for us to the win.”
Waynesburg Central will be looking to rebound from last week’s 48-6 loss to Jeanneate.
“I don’t know if I expected this type of loss, but I think who we played affected the team,” said Raiders coach Joe Kuhns. “Our players, I think, had a preconceived notion of what would happen and that got to them. I told the guys after the game that I was disappointed in them and expect better. We’ll see if they listened.”
This week the Raiders will host Greensburg Central Catholic, which lost a 36-35 overtime heartbreaker to Mount Pleasant last week.
“It’s like looking in a mirror for us,” said Kuhns. “They are physical and love to run the ball. We’ll need to play a perfect game to beat them.”