The North Butler football team returns to district action on Friday when they travel to Guttenberg to take on Clayton Ridge, a team they have never played before.
The Bearcats are 2-1 in the district with an overall record of 3-2 after last week’s non-district win over AGWSR.
Facing an unfamiliar opponent brings added challenges, but Head Coach Jordan Vanderloop says there are ways to bridge the gap.
“Just watching a lot of film, seeing if we can see any tendencies or what they like to do,” Vanderloop says. And sometimes you can compare them to a previous team that you played. If we’re able to tie them to a team that we’ve already played before, it’s nice to do that, kind of get the feel of how they’re gonna play.”
The Eagles (3-2) have 732 yards passing and 647 yards rushing this season. Even though the offensive attack is balanced, Vanderloop says their defensive plan centers around being sound in coverage.
“We feel like we’re going to have to have our pass defense ready to go, get our defensive backs, linebackers, make sure coverage wise that they know who they have or where their zone is if they’re dropping back to it,” Vanderloop says. We just need to make sure that everyone’s accounted for and we do our job and don’t try to do too much and make a mistake.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Clayton Ridge High School.
