BLUE STREAKS DEFENSE KEY TO WIN VS SHAKER
Shaker’s multiple threats, potent offense will keep Saratoga defense on its toes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » The offensive game plan for Shaker Friday night heading into Saratoga is expected to be the same, run the Bison offense and run it well. It’s appeared to work at Shaker has racked up 132 points in its first two games and the challenge now falls to the Blue Streaks and their defense in the battle of unbeaten squads.
“They have a lot of weapons, four or five backs who they love giving the ball to,” Saratoga head coach Terry Jones said. “They spread the ball around well, they have some great speed with some of their backs and then they bring in a couple of guys who are big and they’re going to pound the ball at you.
They possess a lot of threats and the quarterback has played well.”
The Blue Streaks also come in with a 2-0 record, an opening win over Christian Brothers Academy, 27-6 and a sputtering road win over Albany, 32-8.
“For whatever reason, we didn’t play well at times; at times we played very well,” Jones said. “The third quarter our kids played very well,
fortunately we had some turnovers and missed snaps on our center/quarterback exchange.
“We moved the ball well and defensively played well at times and at times we had a couple of breakdowns, a lack of focus.”
That issue has been resolved with Shaker heading in Friday night and a focus on controlling the explosiveness of the Bison offense.
“Our kids have responded very well this week to understanding everything we are trying to tell them, what needs to be done because the way they run their offense you have to do your job,” Saratoga Springs defensive coordinator Jon Coons said. “If you get overly aggressive or don’t do what you have to do, they can gas you for big yardage and we’ve seen that in the two weeks. You get slightly out of position, they get the block on you or the back makes a move and he’s gone.”
The Shaker multitalented backfield includes Ravion Burt and Logan Sousza who are both on the Blue Streaks game plan along with 280-pound power back Joe Toutai combined with the Bison passing game.
The Saratoga defense will not have any time to analyze during each offensive play that Shaker runs, it will need to be instinctive.
“They have to see what we tell them in front of them and they have to be able to react quickly to that because if they are too slow reacting to where we need them to be, they’re going to get pinned inside with a block,” Coons said. “They have to be able to process quickly what’s happening in front of them and then get them to be where I need them to go to be in the mix to make a play.”
Both Saratoga coaches said the defensive line success is one key to Friday night’s game plan.
“The D-line has to be able to take on guys pulling and trapping them and being able to take that on and disrupting their blocks,” Coons said. “Your linebackers have to be able to defeat blocks and run to the point of attack.”
Then Jones and the Blue Streaks offense needs to find its rhythm once again.
“We have to get back to the way we played against CBA, especially in the end of the first quarter, second, third quarter where we moved the ball very well and were able to run our offense the way we wanted to,” Jones said. “We’re going to have to be able to do that.”
While the two are familiar foes, previous regular season meetings were outside the division and didn’t have a dramatic impact to the postseason. Now with a single division system and only the top four teams advancing past Week 8, Friday’s outcome carries more weight.
“Both teams are 2-0 and whoever comes out of this is going to have a great advantage,” Jones said. “One, you’re going to be 3-0 and two, you’re going to have a head-to-head win against the other opponent, which if it came down to a tiebreaker scenario, that’s the first tiebreaker.
“There is a lot of importance early, we knew with this format with only four teams going, but we don’t stress it any different this week than we did last week.”