Atlantic perseveres to 7-3 victory on road over Cardinals
By Drew Herron - NT Sports Editor / Aug. 30, 2013
CLARINDA – There wasn’t anything the least bit flashy about the Trojans’ collective performance Friday night.
But at the end of four grueling quarters, Atlantic finished the game on its own terms and extinguished Clarinda’s hopes with a six-minute offensive drive that prevented the Cardinals from ever getting a shot to stage a late rally.
The reward…a 7-3 victory to kickoff the 2013 season and push the Trojans’ record to 1-0.
“It was ugly, but we got a win and I am happy for the kids,” Atlantic head coach Nick Ross said afterwards.
“They put in a lot of work, a lot of conditioning, and a lot of things that really aren’t a whole lot of fun. But they grinded through, and it think it showed tonight when we were able to put together that final drive of the game. It showed how in tune physically and mentally we were when it mattered the most.”
The only touchdown of the game waited until midway through the third quarter, when Trojans’ quarterback Joe Walker connected with sophomore receiver Brendan Holmes on a quick strike that Holmes took 25-yards for pay dirt and the game’s decisive score.
Atlantic’s defense put a lid on Clarinda for the better part of the second half, and that one touchdown would hold up.
Clarinda, under its new head coach Mark Schlib, threw a totally unique offense at the Trojans that tested Atlantic’s ability to stay disciplined and play assignment football.
The Cardinals didn’t attempt to put the ball in the air until they fell behind in the second half, and even then, they finished 0-for-2 in their passing attack. Instead, Clarinda’s single-wing offense featured a spinner back instead of a quarterback, and every play brought misdirection and deception.
The break of the huddle and the moving pieces brought mass confusion to the line of scrimmage, but eventually Atlantic’s defense got a handle on things, and despite allowing one long play that set up a Clarinda field goal late in the first quarter, the Trojans stuck to their guns.
It’s something that did not catch the Trojans’ coaching staff completely off-guard, but seeing it or understanding it is not always conducive to stopping it.
“It’s a little bit scary, when you watch it on film, you think ‘what the heck is this?’ I haven’t seen it before personally, I’ve only heard about it,” coach Ross said afterwards. “What ever you do scheme-wise, you need to have players who are able to stop it and get penetration on the defensive line. And you need to have linebackers who are able to sort through all that misdirection and make plays.”
Defending against the single wing takes a special kind of defensive concentration.
“We told our guys to be disciplined, and make them earn every single yard they got,” coach Ross says. “Eventually, they’d get a penalty or we would record a tackle for loss, and (Clarinda) would end up in a position where they didn’t want to be.”
Atlantic ran 64 offensive plays to Clarinda’s 43, and staked out 22 first downs to Clarinda’s 16.
Walker finished 6-of-14 for 81 yards for Atlantic, and the Trojans hashed out 156 yards on the ground to outgain the Cards 238 yards to 155.
With temperatures soaring near triple digits at kickoff, the heat took its toll on both sides, and the officiating crew issued multiple water breaks in the first half. As the game wore on, the Trojans appeared to be in better condition than Clarinda, and perhaps it proved decisive in permitting Atlantic to maintain it’s lengthy, clocking-killing drive that locked down the victory.
“Any time you have success running the ball and can maintain a six-minute drive, you are getting consistent yardage,” coach Ross says. “The guys up front were taking care of their schemes and they were moving people. That was a big key for us.”
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