Falcon Football beginning district play with tall test against MFL MarMac
The Aplington-Parkersburg football team will begin district play by hosting #2 (1A) MFL MarMac Friday night.
The Falcons are 2-1 and will enter with the momentum of a comeback win over South Hardin last week. In that game, the offense started clicking near the end of the second quarter, and the success carried into the second half. But Head Coach Alex Pollock says his team’s defense will need to come to play against a run-heavy team.
"They're absolutely huge," Pollock says. "I don't know what they've got in the water there, but we want some of that. They've got backs that really hit the hole fast. We're familiar with the offense, because that's what we've done here for many years, so we kind of have an idea of what to expect, now it's just a matter of stopping it. They've got some tremendous athletes. But I think the thing that has been consistent over the last couple of years here is that our defense has been really good. We've got a good gameplan. Unfortunately, sometimes the X's and O's don't always tell the story, it always comes down to the Jimmy's and Joe's. I know our guys are going to be gang tacklers, we're going to run after the football extremely hard, and we're going to give a great effort."
The 3-0 Bulldogs have rushed for over 700 yards through the first three games. A trio of running backs have carried the load, and quarterback Carver Blietz-Bentien has proven to be a factor in the run game. Defensively, Tristen Koehn’s eight tackles for loss are the fourth-most in Class 1A.
After four straight winning seasons, Pollock says MFL MarMac is as good as advertised. He’s excited for his team’s opportunity to play a ranked team for the second time in three weeks.
"They're definitely worthy of their ranking, everything that I've seen. Dating back to last year, we felt like they were a team that should've been playing in the dome. They've got a lot of guys back from that team. If anything, they've gotten bigger from last year. We're not bad either, we're a pretty good team. We've hit the injury bug lately. But our kids are excited about the opportunity. Some young guys are going to have a chance to make an impact. We feel like if we play our technique well, if we play as hard as we possibly can and stick with it, we can compete with anybody."
The Falcon run game is expected to be led by Kael Schoneman, who racked up 119 yards and three touchdowns last week, and increased his yards per carry to 6.6. The Falcons will also look to continue spreading the wealth in the passing game after four different receivers caught passes last week.
It’ll be the first ever meeting between the programs. The opening kickoff will be at 7:00 p.m. at Ed Thomas Field.
