There is no question that the last two weeks have got the Trenton Bulldogs rolling. A pair of home victories, one a dramatic win in the waning seconds and the other a dominating blowout, have the Bulldogs’ record above .500 for the first time in over a year.
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“It’s been a good homestand so far,” Trenton Head Coach Wes Croy said. “We are halfway done with it and we would like to finish it the same way we started it. We felt like the way our schedule played out we needed to take advantage of these four weeks and, so far, we have gone about our business in doing that. We need to continue to get better on a weekly basis and we are going to have to play better against Putnam County than we did against Lathrop. Hopefully, if we do that, we will be able to move on to 3-0 at home this year.”
Friday night, Trenton will look to keep the home-field advantage working in their favor as they host the Midgets of Putnam County. Putnam County returns to the gridiron at C.F. Russell Stadium for the first time since 2006 and the two schools haven’t met in a high school football game since Trenton made a trip to Unionville in 2007.
Putnam County comes into the game with a 1-2 record after being shut out last week by Brookfield. The Midgets’ other loss came in week one when Class 2 powerhouse Clark County defeated them 57-18. Despite two bad losses against bigger schools, Croy feels Putnam County is better than their record indicates.
“We think they are better than a 1-2 team simply because the two teams they lost to are very good Class 2 teams,” Croy said. “They have played a difficult schedule, they played well with Clark in the first half and they dominated North Shelby in week two before getting caught up last week. They are a good football team, though, and a team that we are definitely concerned with. They have some good athletes and are well-coached. They do a lot of things well and we realize it’s up to us to come out and perform well if we expect to win the game.”
Putnam County boasts a 4-4 front that will have the daunting task of slowing down the Trenton trio of Clay Oneal, Dalton Preston and Keegan McGinness. After facing three- and five-man fronts in the opening two weeks, Trenton got its first taste of an even front last week against Lathrop.
Trenton’s offense looked as strong as it has all season in last week’s win and the Bulldogs will look to their high-powered run game to lead them again this week. Oneal went for over 100 yards in the Lathrop game and both Preston and McGinness ran for two touchdowns.
“They (Putnam County) showed an odd front in the first series against Brookfield, but other than that they have been an even front all season,” Croy said. “That is something we are comfortable with. Lathrop ran an even front so it’s something we are familiar with and we have blocked before. Either way, though, our kids should be able to adjust, at this point in the season, to whatever the defense presents to us. We anticipate them being in a 4-4 look and, hopefully, we can have the same type of success against it that we did last week.”
Putnam County’s biggest weapon on offense has to be their speed. Running backs Kyle Hoskins and Kyle Gadberry have decent size and are very quick. Quarterback Brett Thomas is similar in size to the backs at 5-10, 160 pounds and also can run the ball well. Containing the speed of the Midgets will be a must for the Bulldogs’ defense and keeping the backs from getting into open space will be important as well.
“They have some speed,” Croy said. “I think their backs are a concern for us because they are faster than Lathrop was last week. They are similar to Carrollton as far as their speed goes. We are concerned with their skill kids, so, hopefully, we can win the battle up front and that would put us in good position to compete.”
Trenton and Putnam County will kick off from C.F. Russell Stadium at 7 p.m. on Friday as the Bulldogs look for their third-consecutive victory. A pre-game tailgate hosted by Homestead Hills Nursery will be held at Eastside Park prior to the game at 5:30 p.m.