Though Haviland’s trip to Rozel in week four last year was disheartening for the Dragons, Pawnee Heights’ new head coach Matt Housman isn’t expecting a rerun of the rout at Haviland’s homecoming Friday evening.
Watching as a Tiger assistant a year ago, Housman characterized the 60-12 drubbing that ended early in the third as a bad start that quickly got worse for the visitors.
“Haviland was a better team last year than the final score indicated,” Housman said. “We intercepted them on their first play and ran it in for a touchdown and it just snowballed on them after that. You know, we have younger players this year than last, and we’re still making adjustments, so no, I’m not looking to go home early like they did a year ago.”
Any conversation of departed players for the Tigers necessarily starts with Mason Salmans, whose uncle Oliver coached the wily quarterback and his mates through an 8-1 regular season into the playoffs yet one more time. Also leaving a hole is the departure of fullback/linebacker Justin Skelton. Housman, however, is quick to name his team’s primary strength.
“Our seniors are good, and really most of our players are more or less interchangeable,” he said. “We have a lot of guys that can play different positions and I don’t mind moving them around. We’ve done a lot of that the first three games.”
Those first three contests resulted in a hard fought 28-12 win at Greensburg, before 54-8 and 56-3 romps over Fowler and Bucklin, respectively—the latter two ending early.
Aware Sunday that sophomore quarterback Ross Binford was unlikely to play Friday night—a fact Haviland Coach Greg Wyrick confirmed Tuesday morning—Housman knows the Dragon offense won’t be crippled as a result.
“The Binford kids’ a good athlete, but from the tape I’ve seen that (Ruben) Perez kid can really put the ball on the money. And with the way he can run he’s definitely a dual threat. We’re going to have to contain him and to do that each defensive player is going to have to know his responsibility.”
Housman also knows Perez’s throwing success is owing in part to the receiving corps of Tanner Stevens and Tanner McFarland. “Their ends are fast and it’ll be a problem to cover them,” he said. “We’ve got to find a way to slow down their passing game, so we’ll be working a lot this week on our coverage and defensive pressure.
“You put those two ends with a mobile quarterback like number five (Perez) and man, they’re a chore to stop. It’s bad enough with a good thrower and one good end, but with two good ends, well, it’ll be a challenge for us.”
While Housman is high on his seniors, and four in particular—running back Nolan Dreiling, quarterback Camron Bauer, Sheldan Lee and lineman Tyler Bailey—he’s also been pleased with the steady progress of freshman back Levi Morss.
“The more he touches the ball, the better he’s going to get,” Housman said. “I hope to get him a lot of touches Friday night.”
After a pair of cakewalks in Fowler and Bucklin following the season opening tussle with Greensburg, Housman is ready for a higher caliber of opponent such as Haviland to sharpen his team before entering district play next week.
“It’s important our fourth game is against someone competitive like Haviland,” he said. “We need a team to come out and hit us in the mouth this Friday before we hit district. I expect Haviland to do that, and I expect us to react with a hit of our own.”
(Find the full story of this game's preview in this week's GAME NIGHT)
