CC-A brings big test for Hounds Friday

Posted

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison has been here before.

For the last two years, the Hounds have come out of the gate 2-0 with hopes of finding a winning formula against some of the heavier hitters in the district in the middle of the season.

One of the pretty big hitters, Clear Creek-Amana (1-1), comes to town on Friday. Their loss came on opening night at home to Mt. Pleasant 42-20, They rebounded in week 2 with a 33-7 win over Fairfield on the road.

The Rockets have two twin engines in juniors Alex Figueroa and T.J. Bollers. Bollers is a 6'3" receiver who creates special problems in endzones and in the secondary. He's averaging 31.1 yards per catch.

Fort Madison has capitalized on six turnovers through two games enroute to a 2-0 start on the year. Clear Creek-Amana comes to town Friday having committed just one turnover this season.

Figueroa is the slasher back that's sneaky good through the gaps and has some speed. Despite his 128 yards on 27 carries, the junior has yet to score this year. A sophomore, Gage Freeman, has two touchdowns on the ground with just 11 carries and 34 yards.

Through the air, CC-A leans on a platoon at quarterback with junior Ryan Navara and sophomore Ben Swails. They've almost evenly split throws at 27, and 25 respectively, but Navara has three touchdown tosses to three different receivers.

"They've got fantastic athletes. And their quarterback does a good job of moving the ball around," Doherty said. "Definitely got a dude he can throw to a lot, but he's choosing wisely and making good reads."

All in, CC-A has five receiving touchdowns, all to different receivers and three touchdowns on the ground. Doherty says it will take a pretty clean defensive game to keep the Rockets in check.

"It's the same thing we go into every game with. Attitude and effort. We don't talk wins or losses, but we do talk about bringing it every play and competing, and whatever happens, if we can do those things, we'll be ok."

Defensively, CC-A has had 23 players register either an assist or tackle on the year, with Bollers leading the way with 8.5 including a sack.

The Hounds offensively have been relying on junior Will Larson under center and a platoon of running backs, led by senior Diego Lozano. Lozano has racked up 250 yards rushing on 32 carries for just over seven yards per attempt. Larson, Kali Maestro and Calem Maclearn all have carries for the Bloodhounds. Larson has thrown for 138 yards, a touchdown and a pick on the year through week 2.

Doherty said there's a bit of a different culture with this year's team and the buy in seems to be there.

"I'm not sure it's more or just different. One of the benefits I have is that I think they know I'm here as long as Fort Madison will have me," he said. "I'm not looking for another job, so maybe that produces more of a buy in."

The outside rushers in seniors Quentin Schneider and Romeo Maestro surely seem to have bought in. Maestro went bird hunting again this year and bagged 13.5 Falcons including five for losses and a solo sack that resulted in a Fort Madison fumble recovery for a touchdown.

Schneider leads the team with 15 tackles, two for losses and a sack. Senior Jayden Fedler has 10.5 sacks on the year. The Hounds are also playing opportunistic football stripping three balls from the Falcons in week 2, while picking off three passes in a 17-0 week 1 win over Central Lee.

But the Hounds got called for a slough of penalties in week 2 including about three defensive offside flags.

"My view hasn't changed on that. Its a double-edged sword. I'm glad our kids are aggressive and looking to get after somebody and make a play, but we can't lose our discipline or aggressiveness and be committing penalties."

He said West Burlington did well getting the Hounds to jump, but he said that's something that Clear Creek will do as well, so that was part of the drills this week.

"It's frustrating to be honest with you. We're so close to doing some really great things with the offense," he said.

"Not that we're doing a lot of bad things, but we've sent film off to other places down south asking for unbiased looks and we keep getting - 'stay the course, you guys are so close'.

"That's what it comes down to - taking pride in what we do and the things we're trying to get done. We get this boulder rocking back and forth and we almost break it loose but then something jumps up and bites us."

Tip off is 7 p.m. at Richmond Stadium/ Jim Youel Field


bloodhounds, Clear Creek Amana, football, fort madison, Pen City Current, preview

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here