Continuing offensive momentum key for Culver Academies
CULVER — Putting points on the board has been a point of emphasis with this year’s Culver Academy Eagles and a week ago they answered that challenge scoring early and often leading 9-0 before three minutes had expired on their way to a big win over Woodlan.
“We felt really good about the way our kids responded to the challenge last Saturday,” said head coach Andy Dorrel. “We were able to get off to a fast start set up by our defense and a great kick return we were able to get on the board early. It really set a tone for how the rest of the first half would play out.”
Aside from one first- quarter drive, the Eagle defense took command holding Woodlan under 100 yards of total offense.
“I’ve said many times we are very fortunate for what a great job our defensive staff does getting kids to play hard and understand defensive assignments and bring pressure from different places,” said Dorrel. “It’s kind of a high risk, high rewards type of defense but we feel that the benefits outweigh the risk.”
“We are fortunate to have bright kids,” he said. “They realize that they have to take the time to understand the defense and learn about it to make it successful.”
Offensively the Eagles have been able to grind out the yardage but have come up short of points on many occasions. With 43 on the board last week the hope is the offense has turned a corner.
“I would like to think so, here in week eight,” said Dorrel. “At this point in the year, you expect your kids to understand the goals of the offense and what you’re trying to accomplish Saturday we did and it was really to our benefit.”
This week it’s a rivalry game for the Eagles as St. Joe will play the host.
“We’ve played them throughout the years in very tough and competitive games,” said Dorrel. “We kind of see them as our ‘ northern’ rival. Of course, we have Brebeuf as a rival to the south. We real
ly circle those two games as wanting to be dialed in and on point. You want that every week but it creates an exciting time in the season to have that week to really focus in on an opponent you play year in year out.”
While the Indians come
in 2-5 those losses have come to some of northern Indiana’s best teams in Northridge, Elkhart, and Penn.
“They are a much better football team than their record indicates,” said Dorrel. “Our schedules are really mirror images of each other. It’s a matter of which team is going to be able to out-execute the other and minimize turnovers and mistakes that will emerge as the winner.”
The difficulty from the Academy’s side of the field is which offense will show up for St. Joe.
“They’ve done several things this year,” said Dorrel. “Early in the season, they spread the field with multiple formations, and here the last two weeks they’ve been double tight, three back and really tried to control the clock and move the football.”
“We aren’t quite sure what we are going to get from them but we know it’s going to be a physical game,” he said. “They are well-coached and that their kids will come full force to try to win this game.”
A solid week of work will help.
“The weather has been great to be outside to practice and be around your teammates but coming off the two Saturday games it’s been kind of a routine breaker for us,” said Dorrel. “The good news is we get to play (Friday) and see how well our work has benefitted us.”