Cougars travel to Tioga for grid opener
By Suzanne Werre
BHG News
The Cougars will be headed to the gridiron in Tioga for their first game of the season this Friday, hoping to improve on their one-win season last year.
The Cougars lost just two seniors to graduation, and have five listed on the varsity roster this year, so they’ll be headed to the field with more experience, as well as some big boys on the line.
The Cougars got a taste of what they need to improve on in the early going, after playing a scrimmage game Friday afternoon where they scored just one touchdown.
Senior lineman Ethan Schwalk says he expects the team to look quite a bit better this Friday. The scrimmage, the players just weren’t mentally ready for, he said.
"I think it was just game-readiness," said the 240-pound center/defensive tackle. "A lot of our guys just treated it as a practice and not a game."
After a weekend to recover and think about the scrimmage, the team returned to the practice field Monday with a renewed sense of purpose.
"We had a really hard practice and we looked 10 times better than we did in the scrimmage," said Schwalk.
Key for the Cougars this year will be establishing their run, according to Co-coach Kurt Ziebarth, and with that, the passing game will come. To establish the run, the blockers need to do their jobs – contain their opponents through the end of the play.
