It’s a 2-0 start for the Trenton High School football team and Coach Wes Croy is hoping to add to that winning record when the Bulldogs travel to Putnam County on Friday night.
But Croy knows the task will be a tough one. Although the Midgets are 0-2 in their first two games of the season, new Head Coach Dave Cavanah is “turning things around” at Unionville, which Croy said means Trenton will have to be on its toes.
“It (coaching) was a bad situation for Unionville last year and the players just really weren’t that excited about football and they (the coaches) didn’t get the most out of the abilities that their players had. Coach Cavanah has the team much more sound fundamentally, the numbers are better and they really played pretty well in both of their first games.”
With that knowledge, Croy and his coaching staff have worked with the Bulldogs this week on both sides of the ball but, in particular, have focused on the offensive line play.
“That’s an area that will be key for us,” he said. “Coach Cavanah always seems to be able to come up with a defense that gives us fits. We need to be ready for that and if we can play well up front, it should be a good game for us.”
Coach Croy pointed to three players the Bulldogs will need to pay attention to on Friday night.
“The quarterback (Jacob Parker) is a big key for them and (slotback) Cody Quint provides a lot of speed in the backfield,” he said. “And Riley Wood will be one of the better linemen we will see all season. He’s big and very athletic.”
Croy said the Bulldogs will be looking to get a good start early in the contest, something that has been lacking in the first two games.
“We’ve played very well in the second half of both of our games, but we haven’t done a lot to help ourselves in the first half,” he said. “We need to get ourselves in a good position for when we go into the locker room at half time.”
Croy said the Bulldogs had a good practice on Wednesday and feels Trenton is ready to get on the field and play some football on Friday night.
“I wasn’t really sure after Tuesday’s practice whether or not we were going to be ready for Friday,” he said. “But Wednesday we had a great practice, so I feel much more confident today (Thursday) than I did yesterday (Wednesday).
Healthwise, the Bulldogs are in very good shape. Garrity Hanes got hurt in Monday night’s junior varsity matchup, so his status for Friday is uncertain. Trevor Ratliff remains out with a leg injury, but is expected to return during week six. Cade Darting is out for the year with an injury.
Friday night’s game gets under way at 7 o’clock at the Putnam County Stadium in Unionville.
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