The newest edition of the Battle For Bradford will happen Friday in Week 3 when Hampton-Dumont-CAL visits Iowa Falls-Alden, a game that’ll air on 104.9 KLMJ and YouTube @RadioOnTheGo.
The Cadets (0-2) will look to bounce back from consecutive blowout losses to begin the season, including 37-0 to South Hardin in last week’s home opener. Head Coach Eric Walkingstick says the team needs to have a sense of urgency in order to turn its season around.
“The biggest thing for us as a whole is just leadership on the field, and that will help eliminate some of the mistakes,” Walkingstick says. “We’ve been really preaching to our kids that they’ve got to take leadership and ownership. Through the summer, we did some really good stuff, but the problem is we had coaches on the field and we were correcting them and kind of guiding them. And so what we run into at this point is we need that team to blossom and do its own thing. And this would be a great week for us to do that. It’s going to be fun to see how much we can gain in a week, how much better we can get and change. But I’m excited and optimistic that we’ll take that step in the right direction.”
The team has struggled with turnovers throughout the first two games, minimizing scoring opportunities.
The Bulldogs (1-1) will look to build offensively, having scored only 15 points on the season. However, seven was enough to defeat Clarion-Goldfield-Dows last week. Head Coach Cole Miller hopes his team can take control early.
“The kids are jacked up about it,” Miller says. “But it just seems like anything that could happen happens in these rivalry games. Last year was a battle, 13-0. A couple of years ago, we got down early on and we had to fight back in the second half. We really want to try and minimize all of that extra stuff this time around and really just work on getting to business when we get there, and focusing and not having those mental mistakes and the energy or emotional mistakes that sometimes come with a big game like this. Ultimately, you’ve just got to play football and not worry about the other stuff.”
The Bulldogs have won four straight in the series, including 13-0 last year.
Coverage will start at 6:45 p.m., followed by the kickoff at 7:30.
Cole Miller interview:
Eric Walkingstick interview:
