PRESSING ON

Trenton Set For East Buch, Looking To Move Past Week 1 Disaster

In the wake of a 50-0 loss in week 1 and with pandemic numbers in the county growing, Trenton embarked on preparations for a week 2 match-up on the road against East Buchanan. They have not been easy practices as coach Kevin Hixson and his staff have gone back to the basics, teaching tackling and physicality with hard-hitting drills.
In the week 1 loss, Trenton’s tackling left something to be desired.
“As a coaching staff, we made a few lists of things that we really need to work on and correct this week,” Hixson said. “We kind of went back to old-school basics. We really spent a lot of time on kickoff, kickoff return, tackling stations, just fundamental football to try and fix and correct some of the things that we did on Friday.”
Trenton will have a bit of a different challenge ahead of it this Friday. Playing in the Grand River Conference, the Bulldogs don’t typically see passing offenses. East Buchanan will look to put the ball in the air a majority of the time, however.
In week 1 against South Harrison, the Gower-based Bulldogs threw the ball 26 times. Junior quarterback Conner Musser was 11-for-25 passing, throwing for 193 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. Granted, East Buchanan was playing from behind for a majority of the fourth quarter, but it didn’t have any rusher go for more than 22 yards in the win. Trenton will have to prepare for defending against an air attack in week 2.
“I did not think we tackled well at any level (last week), but our secondary was not good at all, so we really focused on that,” Hixson said. “(East Buchanan) throws the ball 57 percent of the time. Last year that was their whole offense, so I really look for them to come out and spread us out with some trips and double sets. We worked a lot on our eyes and feet this week and being at the right place at the right time. Hopefully, we can get it done.”
Gage Busby was Musser’s top target in week 1, catching four passes for 96 yards and a touchdown. Drew Thompson also proved to be a dangerous threat, returning a kick off 86 yards for a touchdown in his team’s week 1 victory. Trenton, meanwhile, had some kick coverage lapses against Brookfield, something the Bulldogs will need to clean up this week.
Offensively, Trenton had six different players carry the ball in week 1, but that might not be the case in week 2 as players sort themselves out at the position. Hixson likely won’t use a fullback rotation to bring the play in as he did in week 1 either.
“When you make as many mistakes as we made last week and with as young as we are, we are trying to find the guys who really fit,” Hixson said. “We probably rotated Payden (McCullough) and Sam (Gibson) too much. Me being a former running back, it’s kind of hard to get in your groove when you are coming out every play or every two plays. So that rotation might change a bit. Then we had issues with turning the ball over and we are not going to put up with that. So if that happens, you are definitely coming out of the ballgame. We just have to find the guys who are going to run hard and fit in there.”
East Buchanan’s week 1 win over South Harrison opened some eyes as South Harrison was pegged as the preseason favorite in the GRC by the league’s coaches. Trailing by nine points, East Buchanan scored twice in the final seven minutes of the game to rally for the victory.
Trenton will do its best to stop its host’s passing game and steal a win of their own in week 2. Win or lose, showing improvement of any kind from last week’s debacle would give Trenton some momentum heading into GRC play at Princeton in week 3.
“With a young group I keep telling myself every day that it’s a process,” Hixson said. “We have got to find a couple of goals and work on that and try to get better each week. We are going to get there, it just might take a little more time to get there than I originally planned.”
Trenton and East Buchanan will kick off in Gower at 7 p.m. on Friday.

WEEK 2
Trenton Bulldogs @ East Buchanan Bulldogs
EAST BUCHANAN HIGH SCHOOL
GOWER, MO
Friday, 7:00 p.m.
Live Stream:
facebook.com/EBHSfootball