BURLINGTON - It's gonna be hot on the turf of Bracewell Stadium tonight.
The 100-plus heat index will be even worse coming off the field in the bowl that is Burlington High School's football field.
But the heat could also come from two teams that have battled four quarters the past two years, splitting last-minute victories that determined a playoff spot in 2022.
Derek Doherty is in his fifth year leading the Bloodhounds, moving back and forth from 3A to 4A and now settled in 3A for at least the next two years. During that time, the Bloodhounds have a 3-1 record against Burlington, but last year’s come from behind 28-24 win in Fort Madison wiped out a 26-24 loss in 2021 at Bracewell.|
Doherty said BHS Head Coach Jim Krekel runs a tough offense that’s hard to prepare for.
“He knows the ins and outs of it and he’s in a good place for it. Burlington High School is a big school and they have a lot of big bodies walking through it. He does a great job of recruiting those big kids to come and play that offensive line,” Doherty said.
Burlington threw the ball just 32 times last year, choosing to hide and slide skill players with misdirection behind a traditionally beefy front five. This year the Bloodhounds again will have to contend with bigger opposition on the lines. Doherty said the two coaches didn’t exchange video this year prior to Friday’s game.
“I’m not surprised to hear they are big up front. For as long as I’ve known them, they’ve been big up front, and they have some skill guys. It’s gonna come down to our guys doing their job. It’s 11 on 11. Do your job,” Doherty said.
The Grayhounds will likely feature senior Caden Schissel carrying the ball. As a junior he amassed more than 1,000 yards on the ground on just 152 carries for a 7.1 per carry average.
Gabe Robinson and Dmitri Donald are also back for their senior year. Robinson had 661 yards last year and could see time calling plays Friday night. Donald had 50 carries for just over 200 yards for BHS in 2022.
If the Grayhounds do try to air it out, it will be to some inexperienced wideouts. No underclassman caught a ball in nine regular season games last year and Burlington only completed 13 passes all year.
Doherty said he thinks Krekel may try to drop back a little more to keep the Fort Madison dawgs on defense off kilter.
“With Robinson, they may try to drop back a little more. I do think with him they will try to drop back a little more, but we’ll see. We’ve gotta be ready for everything and anything.”
Fort Madison will be looking to junior quarterback Marcus Guzman to control the offensive side of things. Guzman had a nice showing Friday night in a scrimmage at Mediapolis running and throwing the ball.
As a sophomore Guzman, who has the biggest frame of any quarterback in the past seven years at FMHS, took a few snaps in a reserve role but has taken all the snaps with the first team this spring and summer.
Guzman has developed a strong connection with senior Henry Wiseman who had more than 500 yards in catches as a junior last year.
“Henry and Marcus have a really good relationship. They spent time together outside of practice and there’s a relationship there. But whatever “it” is, Henry has it. He’s a special player, just the plays he can make. As a quarterback, that’s probably a little bit of a safety blanket and, going into his first live look, he wanted his safety blanket,” Doherty said.
“When we looked at tape, we saw a lot of ah-ha moments and we watched him this week spread the ball. So he’s starting to understand the offense more and more.”
Wiseman will be complemented by Leif Boeding, Cade Denning, and Caleb Bolander. Doherty said there are other playmakers, including Henry Morris and Ben Ramatowski.
“We feel we can take the top off and score that way and, at times, we’re going to have to.”
The Hounds will be shuffling a bit out of the backfield using Hayden Segoviano, who came on strong in the latter part of the season last year when Fort Madison needed a different type of runner to complement the bruising style of senior Teague Smith.
Smith was still sidelined Friday night with a knee injury he suffered during the wrestling season last year. Doherty has turned to Segoviano and Brody Cashman to give options to carry the ball, as well as some keepers from Guzman.
Ike Thacher and CJ Arnett will anchor both sides of the line for Fort Madison this year. Arnett has moved over the center at nose on defense and mucked things up for the Bulldogs regularly Friday night. Thacher is strong off the snap and can push pulling lineman around to cause some havoc in the backfield.
A surprise of sorts at Mediapolis was the play of defensive back Ben Ramatowski who had several deflections and an interception in the first quarter. The real value was that no Bulldog got behind Ramatowski while he was patrolling the home field side.
“CJ had a really good summer. He went to camps and he’s getting really physical with his hands. I credit wrestling with that. He was in the hunt to go to state in his first two years wrestling,” Doherty said.
“Ben, Wow, what a guy that has continued to build in the dark and then just ‘boom’ appears on the scene. We’ve been impressed with him as a coaching staff and getting some shout outs from the staff. Even playing scout team, he’s been a frustration for us offensively.”
Segoviano had a solid season last year and Doherty said he will be moved around a little bit making room for names like Cashman and Jamarkus Kline, who got special notice from Doherty Friday night.
“Jamarkus played really well. Another kind of silent assassin, if you will. He’s a really good ball player and I don’t think he knows how good he is.”
Friday’s start time has been moved to 7 p.m. to allow for more frequent water breaks due to the extremely high heat index predicted for the game.
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