(Exira) Exira-EHK hosts CAM Friday night. The Spartans are 2-3 overall and 1-2 in the district. CAM is 3-2 overall and 2-1 in district play.
Exira-EHK coach Tom Petersen is impressed with CAM. “They look pretty good all the way across. I think they are kind of finding their stride right now. They put multiple people back there at quarterback. They’ll line up (Austin) Williams and he’s extremely fast and runs hard. They’ll put (Chase) Spieker back there who can throw and run. On the receiving end Sam Foreman is having a tremendous year along with Jack Follmann. They have guys up front with experience and they are big. Obviously well coached. Barry (Bower) does a fantastic job down there. We know that we are going to have our hands full.”
The Spartans are just a couple of plays away from being in a much better position heading down the stretch. Two of their three losses were decided boy four points or less. Coach Petersen is optimistic they can right the ship. “Absolutely, because I still feel we haven’t played our best football. We do some great things at times and then we just don’t focus on every single play. You can’t do that, especially against good football teams. That’s kind of what has hurt us. We’ve turned the ball over too many times and we are giving up the big play. We cannot afford to do that against a good team like CAM.”
Coach Petersen says his defense must eliminate big plays. “You have to make them work for everything.” Petersen says, “Our defense plays great 85-90% of the time and then we give up big plays. I want to make it so they have to grind it out.”
Trey Petersen had a big night a 30-26 loss at Bedford in Week 5. The Spartan senior quarterback threw for 364 yards and four scores along with a team best 91 rushing yards. Derrek Kommes caught five passes for 160 yards and three scores. Cash Emgarten made seven grabs for 146 yards and a TD.
