Coming out of week one, only two local football teams picked up victories, while four others suffered defeats. None of the teams faced a division opponent, so a win was just window dressing on a team's record, while the loss is perhaps a temporary blow to a team's confidence.
By no means does an opening victory ensure future success over the next two months of football. On the flip side, a first-game loss is certainly not a harbinger of bad things to come.
Now a few days removed from that season-opener, we asked the six area coaches to assess their team's performances:
* Tim Mattingly, B-G (56-8 losers to Dryden): "I don't think the first game was a true indicator of our capabilities. We have to be more physical on defense, and on offense, we just need to do a better job of blocking."
* Dave Gorton, Greene (21-0 losers to Windsor): "Offensively, we must be more consistent with our line play…we missed crucial assignments last week. It will help that we are suiting up more players for the line this week so we will have depth again."
* Mike Chrystie, Norwich (35-26 losers to Binghamton): "We did a lot of good things, and now our focus is putting together four quarters. We hung with a good Binghamton team for three of four quarters. We talked about not having a second-quarter letdown, and the way we responded in the second half shows a lot about our team."
* Jeff Newton, Oxford (29-12 winners over Elmira Notre Dame: "The Notre Dame coach and the referees came up to us after the game and complimented us on our physical play, and how the kids were class-acts on the field. That was nice to hear to know we are now known as class-acts...it makes you feel like you are doing the right thing for the kids as mentors."
* Mike Jasper, Sherburne-Earlville (34-0 winners over Tully): "It was a dominating win, but if we have any complaints about last week, we had a few little things that would kill us against a team like (General Brown, S-E's opponent this week)."
* Mark Segina, Unadilla Valley (24-18 losers to Moravia): "We have been working all week at cleaning up our inside run defense which has to improve. While we stopped points, we need to get more offensive snaps to win by not giving up first downs. We also have been working with our O-line to clean up our run blocking schemes and adjustments. Our goal this week is to get our ground game on par with our passing game."
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Six games are on tap this weekend, and below is a snapshot of each contest:
Norwich (0-1) at Owego (0-1), Friday, 7 p.m.
Norwich and Owego test the Class B waters this week, albeit a non-division game tonight. While Norwich was competitive with Binghamton, Owego dropped a intersectional contest to Hoosick Falls, 48-21, at the Carrier Dome.
In last year’s matchup between the two clubs, Norwich running back Mike Oralls had 150 yards rushing by halftime, and finished with over 200 in the Tornado’s victory. Chrystie knows that Owego’s coaching staff will have its eye on Oralls in hopes of containing the prolific rusher. “We have to think they’ll try to take Mike out of the offense,” Chrystie said. “We’ve accounted for that and are putting in stuff for other people. In our offense, if you take something away, we have something to counter it. We don’t mind if (a defense) keys on a player because we have an alternate attack.”
What was somewhat lost in the shuffle of Norwich’s loss last week was the outstanding kicking of Norwich senior Zan Stewart. Stewart connected on what is believed a school-record 43-year field goal - one that would’ve been good from 50-plus – and Stewart also launched three touchbacks. “Zan has a strong leg, and we know his touchback percentage could have an impact on a game,” Chrystie said. “It forces teams to drive the field, and even though we gave up 35 points last week, we felt our defense was physical and tough to drive the length of the field. He’s a huge weapon going forward.”
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