One of the stereotypical pictures of high school football is rainy weather, which leads to sloppy football.
That’s what it may look like Friday night when Athens takes on Canal Winchester.
The remnants of Hurricane Harvey will be hitting southeast Ohio, and the Bulldogs know they might have to change their gameplan to compensate for the weather.
The Bulldogs original gameplan was to throw the ball early and often, especially after the performance of quarterback Clay Davis last weekend. He threw four touchdowns to four different wide receivers in the win against Warren.
With a lot of rain in the forecast, however, the Bulldogs may have to change that plan and keep the ball on the ground.
“The key to success of our running game is going to be how well our guys up front get hats on hats,” coach Ryan Adams said.
Adams, and the Bulldogs, had some questions about how their offensive line would mesh, but now it appears the line has come together.
“We feel like we’ve got that part of the puzzle relatively figured out,” Adams said.
One of the puzzle pieces that Adams is fond of is defense, which returned seven starters from last season. And the Bulldog defense proved themselves in week one.
The Bulldogs forced three turnovers, multiple three-and-outs and only one touchdown — once the game was already out of hand. They will have their hands full this week, however, as Canal Winchester’s running back, Jacob Robertson, is a physical runner.
“He doesn’t typically go down on that first bit of contact, it’s going to take a swarm of people to get this guy down,” Adams said. “That’s a tough thing for 11 guys to do all night.”
Whether the Bulldogs face the challenge of bad weather or a physical runner taking his toll on the defense, there is a little extra motivation going into the game.
Last season, the Bulldogs lost to Canal Winchester 21-14. They also lost their starting quarterback and a running back to injury that game. The injuries in that game put them in a bad spot moving forward, and eventually caused them to fall just short of the playoffs.
“We certainly owe this team a real strong football game,” Adams said. “We’re looking to get a little redemption back from last year.”
Whatever the Canal Winchester game last year did to the Bulldogs, they're certainly feeling better than they did last year.
“We can’t really be in a better spot right now,” Adams said.
