Pioneer quarterback Tabor Headings eludes a Bloom Carroll opponent. Jonathan Alder will travel to Northwestern on Friday. (Photo submitted)
Something will have to give Friday night on a football battleground in Clark County.
The Jonathan Alder Pioneers and Northwestern will kick off the Central Buckeye portion of the 2021 schedule with both squads still looking for that elusive first win of the season.
The Pioneers aren’t used to being winless at any time of a given season, much less as the fourth game of the campaign looms on the horizon.
Northwestern will present JA’s defensive unit with a spread formation that employs trips out wide.
Quarterback Jacob Shaffer has the ability to get the ball out to receivers such as Austin Dewey and Braydon Moore.
Shafer has completed 20 passes in 54 attempts for 264 yards. He’s thrown a couple of TD passes.
Dewey and Moore have both caught five passes for a combined 173 yards.
When Northwestern isn’t going to the air, they will get the ball into the hands of running back Kolten Berner (48 carries, 198 yards).
Northestern, however, doesn’t appear to be a team that will fling the ball all over the field.
“They use primarily a short passing game,” said Pioneer head coach Nathan Snedeker. “They will throw the ball to the extent they want to get bodies in front of the football.”
The first-year Pioneer boss said Alder’s defense will have to be disciplined and not give up big plays.
Even so, that hasn’t been the main problem for the Pioneer defenders.
“We’ve got a good defensive unit,” said Snedeker. “That’s where most of our experienced guys play.”
The biggest difficulty for JA’s defense lies with the team’s other side of the pigskin.
“Our offense has been so inconsistent, our defense has been spending too much time on the field,” said Snedeker.
Developing a more consistent O unit has been a big focus for the Pioneer coaching staff during the early portion of the season.
“We keep working on getting our offensive line to take better angles on their blocks,” he said.
That, he said, will open up holes for the skill position players.
Snedeker feels first-year starting quarterback Tabor Headings continues to improve.
“He’s getting better in reading defenses and connecting with our receivers,” said the JA coach.
Headings is 22-of-36 for 168 yards so far this season.
Jonathan Keith has caught seven of those aerials.
The Pioneers may need to go more to the air this week.
Northwestern will employ an odd-man defensive front in order to stop Alder running back Will Heisler in the ground game. Heisler has rushed for 210 yards.
“They’ll walk up some linebackers in order to put five-to-seven guys in the box,” said Snedecker. “They are going to want to clog things up in the middle against our ground game.
“Berner is also a good linebacker,” he said. “Northwestern likes to quickly get into the backfield and disrupt the other team’s offense.”
Still, the Pioneers will have to establish their long-time offensive bread-and-butter, which is the infantry attack
“We’ll still have to get our quick passing game going, especially if they clog us down in the middle,” Snedecker said.
“We just have to continue to work on executing our offensive game plan.”
Special teams plays is another area that needs more work.
“We have to improve on getting into our blocking assignments in our return game,” he said. “We also had a high snap on a punt attempt last week against Bloom Carroll.”
Although the Pioneers are winless after three weeks of the regular season, Snedeker isn’t anywhere near panic mode.
“We’ve been right there at some point in all three games,” he said. “We had the lead against Thornville-Sheridan.
“We just need a little more burst out of our offense.
“If we get that, I feel we can turn the corner…. we’re close.”