New Bremen looks for rebound against Parkway
NEW BREMEN — New Bremen will look to get back into the winning column on Friday as they travel to Parkway for their final road game of the regular season.
The Cardinals fell short against Marion Local in a 41-33 effort.
“I guess we’ve shown that we’re a good team but we feel like we still have some room for improvement,” said Cardinals coach Chris Schmidt. “So hopefully I think we want to try to clean some things up as best as possible here in the next couple weeks. Hopefully we can try and play our very best when we get into the playoffs.”
New Bremen will face the Panthers this week and finish up the regular season at home against Fort Recovery.
Parkway (1-7) is coming off 35-0 loss to the Indians last week.
“They’re a young team. Going over there is always a bit of a challenge because they always seems to play pretty well over there. I don’t know how many kids that we have that have truly played over there either,” said Schmidt.
The Cardinals last played Parkway in 2019 with a 40-18 win in Week 7. They didn’t play last year because of the shortened regular season.
“There’s a little bit of unfamiliarity that you don’t normally have. It just seems like it’s been a while since we’ve seen them,” said Schmidt. “Looking at the statistics, they’ve struggled to stop the run so hopefully we can establish that. They’ve shown they’ve been able to move the ball at times as well. They always play physical and have some hardnosed kids. We got to go over there — I think it might be their senior night — so we have to be ready to play right from the get-go. We can’t take a step backward.”
Through eight weeks, the Cardinals rank third in total team offense and second in scoring offense in the Midwest Athletic Conference, averaging 34.7 points per game.
Quarterback Dave Homan has been the straw that stirs the drink for New Bremen, ranking second in rushing with 945 yards and 18 touchdowns and second in passing, with 1,163 total yards and nine touchdowns.
“He’s one of the reasons we’re able to make plays and put up yards and points last week and really all year long,” said Schmidt.
Nick Alig has been Homan’s top target and the numbers back it up as Alig ranks first in the MAC in receiving with 28 receptions for 570 yards and seven touchdowns.
“I think Nick Alig has started to show himself as one of the better wide receivers in the league and I think it’s a matter of continuing to develop some guys,” he said.
While the Cardinals have been far from onedimensional on offense, Schmidt said he’d like to get some more variance when running the ball.
“We’d still like to see our run game come along here in terms of some of the other kids like Hunter Schaefer and Colten Muether and hopefully get them into a groove where they feel like they’re connecting with the offensive line and playing well,” said Schmidt. “As good as Dave has proven, if you’ve got more weapons and more a defense has to focus on, that makes you harder to defend. Nick Alig has stepped up. Trevor Bergman has shown to be a reliable target and Ben Sailer has caught the ball more from a tight end position. I think it’s just continuing to develop some of that and consistency with that.”
Schmidt feels the same way about the defense.
“We felt we were very hit and miss last week and we just want to shore that up,” he said. “As far as really stressing assignment and responsibility. I guess that’s been a big focus defensively this week.” With two weeks left until playoffs begin, with the Cardinals seeding up in the air right now, Schmidt wants to see complete games on both sides of the ball to build up some momentum.
“Hopefully we’ve seen that we can run the ball and pass the ball. Now maybe it’s just being able to put together a complete game where we can do both,” he said. “Certainly we’d like to build some momentum going into the playoffs. That would be helpful to try to get two victories to do that— to just kind of see and where that puts us in the playoff seedings. We have limited control over that other than trying to win the last two games, but we’re just trying to clean some things up. Hopefully we can stay healthy. We’ve had some kids in and out, and hopefully, from an experience standpoint, kids feel pretty solid about what they’re going to be asked to do, it’s just a matter of executing it on a high level.”
The Cardinals and Panthers will kick off at 7 p.m. on Friday.