Ask Clint Young his team’s best overall performance of last year and the third-year Greensburg Coach doesn’t hesitate to name the 18-14 win at Ashland in week three. Dragging an 0-2 record into Clark County last season, Young and his 13 uniformed Rangers walked to the field from the locker to spot 43 Blue Jays standing on the opposite side of the field.
Ashland’s numbers are slightly down this year—only 42 appear on the roster. But many of the names Young recalls from last year remain, and if not the name, he at least recalls the jersey number after reviewing tape of the Jays’ 28-12 dismantling of Jetmore a week ago, following a 24-20 win over Hill City to open the season.
“Callahan,” Young begins, remembering the 6’4”, 275 pound lineman his squad was eventually able to wear down last year when Jay Coach Matt Scripsick had to play his biggest lineman both ways. “It they have to play him both ways again I think he’ll gas by the third quarter. Can we do that? It depends. Will Billy (Stensland) cramp up again? Will Grant (Sirois, who played a handful of plays on defense at Haviland) be able to go for us (at tailback)? If so, then we have a good chance of tiring that kid out by keeping him on the field.”
Young then mentions “number 25, Spare or Spore, I think.” It’s another senior, Mark Spare he’s thinking of, a dangerous offensive weapon at 6’ and 175 pounds. He also remembers “88, defensive end, big kid.” Big kid by the name of Sean LaBelle, yet one more senior at 6’2” and 176 pounds. And no opponent of Ashland speaks of that team without mentioning Ben Fox, a junior at 6’2” and 180 pounds that Young calls “just a good athlete, period.”
Greensburg’s coach knows it’s for good reason that Ashland is ranked fourth in the state among Division II eight-man schools by kansasprepfootball.com. He also has a feel for how Scripsick’s team will operate, both from memory of ’08 and from studying visual images of this year’s edition.
“They’re not going to sit back on defense and wait to see what we’re about,” he said. “They’ll blitz to bring pressure on our backfield. On offense, if they have success powering it they’ll stay with it and if not, they’ll spread it out. They’re a little bit better in the spread than we are, but pressure can change that. That’s always the great equalizer.”
Simply put, Young views Ashland as a team that “has all the tools to make it hard to shut them down. Last year down there was our most complete effort. We had minimal mistakes and clamped down on their offense. (The Jays could manage only two first downs in the game, both coming after the break.) We’ll need that kind of effort again.”
Though Game Night is convinced the Jays will prove the Rangers most formidable foe to date, Young by no means thinks they’re invincible.
“You can rattle their quarterback if you bring pressure,” he said. “They will miss tackles on defense and we have some people who will help them miss.
“We just need to take it ten yards at a time. From what I saw at Haviland I have a feeling we’ll be a second half team this year, and that’s okay, of course, as long as you don’t go into halftime in too big of a hole. We can’t afford that Friday night.”
As for whether he agrees the Jays are the Rangers’ toughest test to date, Young took a moment to review the young season.
“Pawnee Heights is a sold, but beatable team. We beat ourselves more than they beat us. Haviland was a pretty solid team. They played well for three quarters. Ashland, yeah, they could be the best we’ve faced yet. They’re got speed and size, so we’ll have our hands full. If we can keep the mistakes to a minimum like we did against them last year, and stop their run, it should be a good battle. It should be a war.”
So much for scheduling a patsy on homecoming.
Greensburg, KS —
