Looking Ahead: Friday Football

In a Fall sports season that has been muddied by injuries and tough luck seasons, we still have Friday football to look forward to. And for the first time this season, both of the teams the News-Progress covers, the Knights and Redskins, are coming off of wins.

So, will each team win again this week?

The Sullivan-Okaw Valley Redskins are no doubt excited. After a lot of hard work and enduring some grueling losses, it has appeared recently, ESPECIALLY last week against Monticello, that they have discovered how to move the ball.

They ran the ball for 245 yards this past week on 46 attempts, and they had the defense perplexed as to who was getting the ball, as four backs had 30 yards or more on the ground.

Coach Nate Lorton likes to keep the defense (and the sports reporter!) guessing.

This running game also opens up for a potent passing attack, especially since quarterback Tyler Frerichs can take off with such bursts of speed when receivers aren't open. He had 93 yards last week, including a running play where he burnt the defense for a 60-yard touchdown run at the start of the game.

It's been fun to watch these Redskins advance. Well, it wasn't much fun at first, but it's fun to look back and compare to weeks 1, 2 & 3. Lorton is a coach who isn't about flash, he's about x's and o's and well-executed plays, which usually translates to an effective ground game, and it will always take a while for a team to learn a playbook and for a coach to get comfortable in his setting, and it's obvious that has happened here.

Now, against winless Shelbyville, this game is for the Redskins' taking, but they have to take it. With the game away at Shelbyville, they won't have the hungry Homecoming crowd behind them and now the Rams will be the ones fighting for their first win of the year.

As for the Arthur-Lovington Knights, they aren't going to beat you with strength, but they will with passion. This team has the spunk and heart that every coach dreams of. This spunk adds up to a LOT of yards each week on offense. Last week the team had a very potent and freakishly balanced attack, 203 yards on the ground and 205 in the air, and I see them on a fast track to the playoffs, but they have to stay on track.

They will go up against East Central this week, a team with a bad record (1-5) and even worse point total, scoring 68 on the season while allowing 198, but A-L coach Dale Schuring knows that anything can happen, and he doesn't want to see his team go in unprepared. I have a good feeling about this game, though, after talking to Schuring and team captain Dan Bolsen, and I know that what they will need is integrity and this team has just that.