|
| When foes load up to stop the run, Hayden Bauserman airs it out for Shenandoah. Shenandoah athletics photo by Keith Lucas |
Three of the Mid-Atlantic’s undefeated teams have remained perfect thanks to their ability to adapt. They have found ways to adjust from week to week and quarter to quarter. Through two weeks of the regular season, Franklin and Marshall, Gettysburg, and Shenandoah have done what it takes to avoid the loss column.
No matter the opponent, no matter the weather conditions, and no matter the adversity faced on game day, there is always one desired outcome.
“Whether we win 43-42 or 7-6, that’s the goal. It’s good for the confidence of the players,” said Dips coach John Troxell. “There’s a fine line between winning and losing. We could be 2-0 or 0-2.”
In the season-opening 51-6 win over Gallaudet, the Hornets jumped out to a big early lead and rode the rushing game to victory. Shenandoah rushed for 243 yards and never trailed. Cedrick Delaney averaged 9.5 yards per rush on just 10 carries. The Hornets realize that such domination is going to be a rare occurrence, especially once ODAC play begins.
“In Week 1, everything we did turned out well,” said Hornets coach Scott Yoder. “That’s not how football games usually go.”
The following week, the Hornets found themselves in a battle at Ferrum. The Panthers led 10-7 after one quarter. Shenandoah relied on the arm of quarterback Hayden Bauserman to lead the comeback. The freshman passed for 290 yards and had more touchdown passes (four) than incompletions (three). The Hornets set a program record with 355 passing yards. Jalen Brisco caught five passes for 134 yards and a touchdown, while Deshon Brown and Miles Green combined for nine receptions, 159 yards, and a score.
“We certainly come in with a game plan, but you have to be able to adjust your game plan,” said Yoder. “Our m.o. has been to run the football because we feel our best playmakers are in the backfield. When teams do some things to take that away, we’ve been able to make adjustments and expose some things that maybe we couldn’t do when we were a younger team.”
Winning in a variety of ways gives teams advantages that will play out over the course of the entire season. Now when ODAC opponents watch video of the Hornets, they will have to do more than figure out a way to slow Delaney and Kye Hopkins out of the backfield.
Internally, these teams learned something about themselves through the first two weeks of the season. Coaches often harp on adversity building character. Cruising to victory is nice, but coaches want to see their players dig deep to make big plays in crucial situations.
“Being able to be in a battle and find a way to make adjustments and get some stops on the road was huge for us,” said Yoder. “Week 2 was good for us because we went on the road and faced adversity. It was really nice to see our offense keep us in the game while our defense scrambled to make adjustments.”
Gettysburg rushed for a school- and conference-record 574 yards in the season-opening 49-10 win over Bridgewater. Nobody expected such a dominant effort, but the legs of Sam McDermott made the difference. The senior quarterback rushed for 183 yards, complemented by running back Kyle Wigley’s 173 yards. Much like Shenandoah, the Bullets knew that their Week 1 dominance would be difficult to recapture.
The box score from the Centennial Conference opener looked very different. The Bullets were held to just 134 rushing yards. McDermott completed fewer than 50 percent of his passes, but found Ryan Thompson for two of his three touchdown passes. The defense, led by Kodie McNamara’s 20 tackles, held Ursinus to just 316 total yards as Gettysburg eked out a 22-15 victory. After attempting just 12 passes in the opener, McDermott threw the ball 34 times.
“We did what we had to do to win,” said Bullets coach Barry Streeter. “We go into each game with a balanced game plan and react to what the defense gives us.”
Franklin and Marshall survived an up-and-down, back-and-forth, high-scoring shootout in the season opener on Sept. 3. The Dips needed a goal-line stand to hold off Lebanon Valley and survive, 42-37. Four of Matt Magarity’s 15 completions went for touchdowns. Taalib Gerald carried 28 times for 152 yards and a score. The Dips rolled up 501 yards and averaged 6.6 yards per play in the win. The following week was a different story.
The offense struggled to move through a driving rain on Sept. 12 against then-No. 23 Muhlenberg. Franklin and Marshall trailed 15-3 with under five minutes to play. Then, Gerald rushed for a touchdown, Jon Naji recovered a fumble forced by Vince Moffett, and Magarity led the go-ahead drive which he capped off with a three-yard run of his own. The offense posted just 202 total yards and averaged 3.5 yards per play.
It was an ugly win but the result was just as pretty as Week 1’s high-scoring non-conference win. This one was even more important, as it came against a ranked opponent and conference foe. It also showed Troxell something deeper about his squad.
“You can’t take a lot away as far as X’s and O’s. What you take away is the character of your kids and their will to compete and keep fighting,” said Troxell. “It really just comes down to who fights a little bit longer.”
The bottom line is that after two weeks of play, all three of these squads remain undefeated. Battling through adversity and finding ways to make winning adjustments has the Dips, Bullets, and Hornets feeling pretty good about their chances heading into Week 3.
“The biggest thing is getting kids confidence going into each week,” said Streeter. “When you start off by beating two good teams, your kids have confidence. Our kids are confident, that’s for sure.”
A matchup of unbeatens
In the Centennial, Johns Hopkins and Moravian are also 2-0. The Blue Jays have cruised to dominating victories. The Greyhounds held off King's in the opener and cruised past McDaniel in Week 2. That sets up this Saturday's showdown between the top program in the conference and the team that many pegged as a darkhorse contender this year. Jonathan Germano became the first Blue Jays quarterback since 1989 to rush for more than 100 yards in a game in a 59-7 thrashing of Susquehanna. He has accounted for 694 yards passing and rushing this season. The Hopkins defense will be tasked with slowing Moravian's Chris Negron, who has rushed for 231 yards this season.
ODAC winners, USA South still searching
Every ODAC team has found the win column already this season. Washington and Lee and Guilford join Shenandoah at 2-0. Meanwhile, the USA South has struggled mightily in non-conference play. Five of the eight programs in the conference are still searching for their first win of 2015. Maryville is the only unblemished squad at 2-0 after a win over Division I East Tennessee State on Thursday.
What do you know? Do you know things? Let's find out!
Do you know about any upcoming milestones, big games, or new names in the Mid-Atlantic? Please share them with me. If you have suggestions for next week's column, please reach out to me on Twitter at @adamturer or via email at adam.turer@d3sports.com.
