Shen ‘D’ readies for Troy
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » Sometime after 9:30 p.m. Friday night the story of the Section II Class AA semifinal contest between Troy and Shenendehowa will be communicated throughout the Capital Region and beyond. For some it will be via text, Snapchat, Facetime, Twitter, Facebook, on television highlight shows and of course, the internet.
There is speculation on the outcome by those planning to be seated at Troy High or in their homes watching the live television broadcast, but no definitive outcome has been yet scripted or printed.
As both teams prepare there is only a framework of what must be done by the Shenendehowa, an idea of what they could see, but most importantly there is a solid foundation of what every player on the Plainsmen defense is expected to do beginning at 7:15 p.m. Friday night. They’ve heard it a thousand times.
“Do your job.” “Everyone has to play their job and take their angles that they have to take on as it’s team football,” Shenendehowa defensive coordinator Ryan Fenton said. “I have to take an XYZ angle because he’s going to respond to my teammate who is taking his angle this way and so there is an anticipatory set on paper, that’s what we’re out to do.
“We can’t have 11 guys playing individual one-on-one football with 11 people, we have to go out and play a unified game where we have trust in each other. We do our assignment football, we do our 1/11th and we try to do our own assignment the best we can and not try to compensate for anyone else.”
While Shenendehowa Coach Brian Clawson said last week’s 3112 win at home against Colonie was the Plainsmen’s best defensive game of the year, his squad will need to one-up themselves Friday night if they have a chance to advance to the Class AA Super Bowl.
“(Troy) wants to utilize their speed out on the perimeter,” Fenton explained. “They have a couple of guys who can get the ball out there. Obviously their main guy they want to get out there is their No. 1 Joey Ward their running back, but they’re also put one of their receivers in at back and they’ll run him to or they’ll jet sweep some of their receivers so they’re not a one-man wrecking crew, they have options.
“They do a vertical passing game and we’ve seen them in 7-on-7, we’ve seen them on film and they have guys that can go up and get the ball and the quar-
terback does a nice job of getting the ball and letting his athletes be athletes.”
The amount of weapons and the inherent skill of 5-foot, 9-inch Joey Ward, containing signal caller Joe Casale and keeping wide receiver Dev Holmes’ big play catches to a minimum are on the Plainsmen’s defensive game plan.
“It puts a lot of pressure on the defense, but I can tell you right now our kids are excited for it,” Fenton said. “These are the games we want to play in; these are the games we train for.
“We don’t sign-up for football to play in the easy games. We want to play these games against these guys and we’re very fortunate to have an opportunity to do so.”