North Union’s Colton Clark (54) brings down a Colonel Crawford ball carrier. The Wildcats will host Fairfield Christian Academy on Friday.
(Photo submitted)
––––
The Wildcats of North Union have big goals for this season and it will take continuous improvement to get where they want to go.
The Wildcats (2-0) have seen that improvement from Week 1 to 2, but head coach Nick Hajjar said that every week is a chance to get even better.
They will look for that improvement on Friday when host 0-2 Fairfield Christian Acaemy.
“It doesn’t matter who is across from you,” he said. “To try and get where we want to go, we’ve got to try and continue to get better each week.
“If it is running the ball faster or staying on our blocks longer on offense… it’s just better with our execution.”
The Wildcats are a team that has the ability to score almost at will as they have amassed more than 100 points, while keeping their opponents to only 23 points allowed.
Hajjar believes that even with an offense as electric as the Wildcats’, he sees areas where his team can improve upon on a young defense.
It comes down to “buying in” to the program, he said.
“It’s a matter of where do you want to go, what are you willing to risk and who are you going to trust to get there,” said Hajjar.
The Wildcat defense gave up more than 450 yards to Colonel Crawford last week, but Hajjar believes that if there is any team that can improve to the level needed to do well in the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference, it is his team.
“This is a great group of kids,” he said. “They are very football-savvy. They work hard and they’ve got to continue to work hard.”
That hard work will have to pay off as North Union faces off against the Knights in Richwood.
The visitors, though, will also bring some things to the table that the Wildcats have not yet faced this season.
“Defensively, they are a 3-3 stack, which is a new structure we haven’t seen yet this year,” Hajjar said.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Knights will run a spread offense out of the shotgun. This is an offense that the Wildcats are familiar with as they faced a similar style in Week 1 against Fairbanks.
However, they will have to keep their eyes on the Knights’ quarterback.
“He is real athletic, dual-threat type of kid,” said Hajjar. “They like to throw a lot of screens and quick passes, with some deception.”
With the possibility of the deceitfulness, Hajjar said his defense would have to be on their toes.
“It is going to be a good test for us defensively,” he added. “We need to make sure our eyes are right and we are sound.”
With his team coming together going into Week 3 the real foe this week has been the weather. With temperatures that have been in the low 90’s Hajjar is trying to get his team ready for the Knights while not exhausting his team come Friday night.
“It is going to be another hot week, so we have to manage to get our work done and not exhaust them to the point where we can’t play fast on Friday,” he said.
The Wildcats will kick-off at 7 p.m. at North Union High School.