(Avoca) AHSTW opened eyes with their 47-12 win against Riverside in Week 5. The Vikings will try to keep the hammer down when they travel to Sidney on Friday.
AHSTW handing Riverside their first loss a week ago wasn’t an outcome a lot of people saw coming. Head coach GG Harris recounts how they got the job done. “The boys came out and played really, really hard. That is the most fire and desire and passion that they’ve played the game with in a long time, definitely all season. It wasn’t just one or two guys, we had a collective group effort to play the game really, really hard. On top of that we were very efficient. We were able to win the turnover battle and get some big plays on special teams. We were 10/13 through the air so we were efficient in a lot of aspects. We were able to able to limit their third downs and get them off the field. Efficiency combined with some incredible effort by our guys allowed for the victory. I’m super proud, but this is not going to be our peak and we are ready to get back to work.”
Next up is a 1-4 Sidney team which hasn’t won since their season opener against Wayne. Harris says his team needs to, “Find a way to generate that same energy regardless of who you are playing and regardless of the point in the season. It’s got to start in practice. We had some really good practices last week. They probably weren’t the most fun and guys were getting after each other. They probably didn’t like me or the other coaches very much. I think it allowed for us to kind of re-ignite the fire in our bellies a little bit. We had physical and intense practices. We had talked the week before about needing to get better right now, but we but we weren’t practicing like that. We had some practices like that and a game like that and I think we all liked the outcome. So we have to have that same approach to practice.”
Coach Harris says Sidney is tough to prepare for and they are really big. “I don’t know if we have any guys the size they have especially in the box. They’ll go from double tight to empty so they can do a little bit of everything. For us the biggest thing is making sure we are prepared and get aligned for everything on the defensive side of the ball and don’t give up big plays. They have some guys that can scrap it up, they are well coached, and we are down at their place.”
If the Vikings continue to play at the top of their game, coach Harris is optimistic about what lies ahead. “We have some size, we have a lot of talent, and are starting to learn how to use it. If you put us on the field with the fire we played for last week and continue to be efficient and consistent I like our chances.”
An advantage AHSTW has over a lot of other Class A teams this year is some depth among their linemen. They have very few, if any, two-way starters on the interior. “I thought we did a very nice job. I don’t think we won every single down in the trenches, but we were able to control the line of scrimmage and really take a big step forward in the box.” Offensive line starters are Jaicob Madsen, Jordan Ratliff, Joey Brenneis, Sawyer Kiesel, and Henry Lund. On defense some of the key linemen are Logan Heller, Quintin Martin, Easten Gubbels, and several of the offensive linemen sub in. “We have a lot of guys that are taking a lot of pride in doing the dirty work up front and really getting after it.”
A former starter on the offensive line had a huge night at tight end in Week 5. Brayden Lund caught seven passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns. “He had a really big game. A lot of credit goes to the line and Kyle (Sternberg) getting him the ball early.” Harris says, “He’s a darn good athlete and he got a lot of yards after the catch.”
A win on Friday would go a long ways towards bolstering AHSTW’s playoff chances. The Vikings play a non-district game with Logan-Magnolia next week and then finish out the regular season against St. Albert in Week 8.
AHSTW coach GG Harris:
