Vikings looking to reload for another run at playoff berth
It?s the opener of another high school football season for the Posen Vikings who start off the 2003 campaign Friday at Cedarville. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. The Vikes (10-1, 2002) have defeated Cedarville in four of the last five meetings between the schools. The last victory for the Trojans was in 1999 when they shut out Posen, 8-0. Posen has scored 40-plus points in the last three victories against the Trojans.
Cedarville (4-5, 2002) graduated its top quarterback from its league champion team a year ago, and Budnick is expecting three-year varsity head coach Brett LaLonde to make some changes. ?I expect smash mouth football from him,? said Budnick. ?Their quarterback graduated who allowed them to spread out and throw the ball a little bit more.? Budnick expects LaLonde to run first and throw second this season.
THE TROJANS have near what the Vikings have, with 21 players on the roster, which seems low, but Cedarville had only 15 players on the varsity last year. Senior Eric Wierenga takes over at quarterback for Cedarville, and is one of eight returning lettermen. Senior David Sanderson will play halfback, while fellow senior Travis Sigman will be featured as a fullback. LaLonde is hoping the senior-laden backfield will pay big dividends for his squad.
?It seems as if the winner of this first game usually winds up earning a playoff berth,? LaLonde said Tuesday on the telephone. LaLonde says he?ll line up six defenders on the line to stop Budnick?s Wing-T formation. ?All you can do is tell your players to play smart,? said LaLonde. ?Posen?s players have run phenomenal fakes and my hat?s off to them. They fake out the camera guy, they fake out the announcer.? LaLonde is 0-3 against Posen since taking over the head coaching duties from Randy Schaedig August 6, 2000.
THE VIKINGS are 26-1 in the regular season over the last three years and bring in a 12-game regular-season winning streak. Posen brings some experience in the backfield, decent size on the line, and loads of speeds into the pigskin opener. The Vikings are coming off a scrimmage last Friday in Posen against Hillman.
?There are a lot of things that we learned that we have to do better, and that?s what we?re working on now,? said Budnick. On Monday at practice the coaches went over the tape of the scrimmage to point out needed areas of improvement, to re-emphasize some of the good things the players are doing, and make sure they continue
?We told these guys that we have to improve every day,? said Budnick, who has been pleased with the attitude in practice.
?THEY ARE really working hard,? he said. ?I would say right now the base offense, they are right where I want them to be. ?If there is one area we are ahead of schedule on from where we were last year it?s the defense side of the ball,? Budnick said. ?We were able to work on defense a little bit more last week and we?ll continue to do that this week. Last year we didn?t work on defense until we were ready to play, because we were working on the offense so much.?
The home opener is next Friday against De Tour at 7:30 p.m.