Jonathan Alder High School head football coach Brett Glass gave a predictable answer when he was asked how he was doing in the past few days.
“I’ve had better times, but Clear Fork is a good football team,” he said. “That’s how it goes.”
Glass’ comments reflected on the Pioneers’ (2-1) loss last Friday to the Colts, who are state-ranked with a 3-0 record.
Alder will try to get back on the winning track tonight when they host Benjamin Logan.
The Raiders (2-1) are a spread team that has four or five solid receivers at its disposal.
“Their quarterback (Derek Coy) distributes the ball well,” said Glass. “We have to be concerned about covering all of their guys.”
Grant Ward, Ben Whitten and Cole Waugh are the Raiders’ top receivers.
Coy operates behind an offensive line that protects him well, according to Glass.
“They do a good job with what they do on offense,” he said.
“We’ve got to put pressure on their quarterback,” said the Alder boss. “We can’t let them make any big plays. Our defensive backs will have to read their keys and stay on their man. We gave up a couple of deep passes to Clear Fork and we have to shore that up.”
Benjamin Logan will confront the Pioneers’ offense with a 3-4 defensive front.
“They run to the ball well and are also good at covering the pass,” said Glass.
One thing that the Alder coach hopes to see tonight is a better ground attack that what was displayed against Clear Fork.
The Pioneers, a team that uses its running game as its bread-and-butter, was stifled for just seven rushing yards a week ago.
“We need to be able to consistenly run the football,” said Glass. “They forced us to be too one-dimensional when they loaded the box on us. I’m concerned that Benjamin Logan will do the same and we will have to make some adjustments so that we can run the football if they do that.”
Glass said Alder will have to balance its offense between the ground and air.
“We had some success throwing the ball last week, but we have to be balanced,” he said. “The stuff that went wrong are things we can correct with film study and practices.
“There is no such thing as a ‘good loss,’ but the guys can use last week as a learning experience.”