Atlantic hoping to break through with victory for its Homecoming crowd

By Drew Herron - NT Sports Editor / Sept. 26, 2013

ATLANTIC – Homecoming arrives this week in Atlantic, and a victory for the black-and-gold could go a long way.

Since winning the season opener at Clarinda, the Trojans have dropped three straight, two of them home shutouts as Atlantic is still looking to put together four quarters of consistent football.

As Denison rolls into town Friday night, so comes an opportunity to do something memorable for a Trojans’ squad that is hoping to give their home crowd something to cheer about.

That’s the driving force this week.

“We haven’t played the way I feel we are capable of playing in front of our home crowd,” Atlantic coach Nick Ross says. “That’s the exciting part, the kids are eager to take the field and show the community how hard they work and what kind of effort we put in.”

Denison, much like Atlantic, has struggled in the early part of the season, dropping its first four games against teams that have a combined 12-4 record. The Monarchs have fallen this season to Harlan, Carroll and Kuemper, along with Storm Lake, two teams of which are ranked in the top 10 in 3A, while Kuemper is the top-ranked squad in Class 2A.

The Monarchs are only averaging 5 points-per-week, but the Atlantic coaching staff isn’t going to get caught up in statistics just yet.

“They’ve struggled, and so have we,” coach Ross says. “Maybe part of the reason they are 0-4 is they have played some very good football teams. Teams that are somewhat similar to the teams we have played. You can’t look too much into that 0-4 record, I really believe Denison is a very good team.”

Atlantic is expecting to face a power-oriented Denison squad that builds off its rushing attack.

“They are a physical team that likes to run the ball,” coach Ross says. “They’ve got some talented backs, and some solid linemen, and they are going to come right downhill at you.”

Denison has two backs averaging better than four yards per carry as Jade Pauley (10) and Mitchell Struck (20) have done the bulk of the work on the ground so far, combining for 422 yards on 99 attempts.

Like most weeks, Atlantic will hope to live and die by the ground game, generating more of it on offense, and shutting it down defensively.

“We’ve got to run the ball, and we need to stop their run, that’s the biggest thing,” coach Ross says. “We’ve got to be able to rack up yards and finish drives on offense. Defensively, we need to stop their run, because if we do that, we are setting ourselves up for success.”

Hanging over the Trojans is their difficulties thus far at home, where they have yet to score a touchdown through eight quarters.

Perhaps the pageantry of Homecoming will coerce the Trojans to play inspired football this time around.

“It’s been hard for us, because we have played well at times on the road,” coach Ross says. “But we will keep trying different things, and hopefully the excitement of Homecoming will give us a little added focus and confidence.”

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