Cards face defending state champion Anna
NEW BREMEN — With just two weeks left in the regular high school football season, New Bremen is looking to finish out the schedule strong. The Cardinals (2-2) will look to get back into the win column Friday night when they take on reigning Division IV state champion Anna on the road.
New Bremen fell to Coldwater last Friday with the Cavaliers scoring 24 unanswered points, losing 24-7.
“Nothing’s really changed in the sense we’re still trying to harp on execution and doing the little things better across the board,” said Cardinals coach Chris Schmidt. “When you’re playing great teams like Coldwater, those little things can show up a lot more than other weeks.
There’s a couple times where we didn’t execute and get it like on fourth and short. Another time, we were in a 2nd and 3 early in the game and we didn’t end up picking up a first down. Those are situations where you got to be able to string some first downs together.”
Anna (1-3) fell to Fort Recovery last Friday, 24-7. The Rockets are led by quarterback Kohlten Carey, who has thrown for 337 yards and touchdown this season.
“They’re still doing the same offensive scheme that they were last year,” said Schmidt. “They have an offthe-ball tight end that they’ll move around. A lot of motions and misdirections, trying to get you to watch certain things and try to take advantage if you’re not disciplined defensively. They’ve got a pretty good athlete at quarterback.”
Anna went 14-1 a season ago capping off their year with a 48-14 victory over Springfield and securing its first ever football state title.
The Rockets lone win this season came against Parkway in Week 3, with losses to Versailles, St. Henry and Marion Local.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of young kids that have stepped in to try and fill in some roles and spots,” said Schmidt. “They’re still learning and you can see that. But you can also see they’re making strides and improvements each week as young kids tend to do.”
Through four games, New Bremen boasts the third-ranked rushing offense led by Mitchell Hays’ 442 yards and three touchdowns and Zach Bertke’s 287 yards on the ground.
That will look to be an advantage this Friday with Anna ranked 10th in team rushing defense, allowing 976 yards on the ground this season.
“We want to make
sure we can run the ball,” said Schmidt. “We want to be able to throw the ball effectively but we’re a rush-first team so that helps us do a lot of things if you can establish that.”
On the other side of the ball, the New Bremen defense touts the fourth-best team rushing defense and has given up the fewest rushing touchdowns in the MAC this year, only allowing two so far.
New Bremen has only allowed 51 points through four games this year while Anna has given up a conference-high
135 points.
Bertke leads the team in tackles with 31.5 and has recorded 2.5 sacks as well. Nick Alig is tied for first in the MAC with three interceptions.
In a normal year, the Cardinals would normally be preparing for their second league game of the season, but due to a shortened season because of the coronavirus, their end of the regular season is quickly approaching.
“You have to think to yourself that it is Week 5, it’s just different because everything just feels so much
more compressed,” said Schmidt. “You’re like, ‘Playoffs are next’, but in reality this would have been our second league game after two non-conference games so you’re still kind of making adjustments and figuring things out but everything is just so compressed.”
Schmidt said he’s looking forward to
playing Anna as the Cardinals are on the road for the third time this season.
“It will be good to get back out there,” he said. “I know we were all disappointed after last week that we didn’t perform better in some areas so we’re looking forward to getting back out there and playing again.”