Portagers look to set tone with opening win

ONEKAMA — The Portagers always know quickly if they can cross one of three season goals off their list:

1. Win the opener.

Last year, Hart spoiled Onekama’s opportunity to do so. Tonight, the Portagers have a chance to return the favor.

“Obviously everyone wants to win the opener,” Onekama coach Jim Hunter said. “If you don’t win it, then all of a sudden you have to retool and get at it again.

"It’s got a lot of impact, and a lot of winning the opener has to do with gaining that confidence. From that standpoint, it’s huge.”

After the Pirates’ 30-18 win over the Portagers in Week 1 of the 2010 season, Hart went on to lose the rest of its nine-game schedule. But Hunter expects a different team to show up in Onekama tonight.

“They’re going to be a lot different,” he said. “They’re doing some different things up front on defense and they’re running, really, an entirely different offensive scheme from what they ran before.

“It’s a lot of Wing-T stuff and we’ve seen a lot of that already through the years. I think they’re well coached, and their kids know what it is they want to do and do a good job at trying to get it done.”

 The Portagers hope to benefit from an experienced backfield that includes returning quarterback, senior Adrian Norman, and running backs Tyler Fogarty and Quinn Matthews. Hunter said having veterans at key offensive positions has made the preseason preparation that much smoother.

“I like where our backfield is at,” he said. “And for the younger guys on the line, I’m happy with where they’re at, too. They’re asking the right questions, they’re thinking about things they should be thinking about.

“With us, it really comes down to fundamentals. I know that’s an old, old adage, but we’re not really big, so technique becomes real important.”

And while the past few weeks of practice have been about either shaking off the rust from veterans, or acclimating newcomers to the varsity level, Hunter said the team hasn’t lost sight of Goal 1.

“You try to get all your offensive packages in, your defensive packages in,” he said. “There will be little things here and there that you add in as things progress, but this last week (of preseason) takes on a different tone. We’re not getting ready for everybody. We’re getting ready for Hart. We’ve taken a look at what we think we’ll see on defense and we focused on how we’re going to attack it, and what we think we’re going to see from their offense and how we’re going to attack that. Now it’s time to put the game plan into play, and hopefully our kids believe in it, and go in, execute, and try to make it work.”

Posted by Dylan Savela
Manistee News Advocate
August 25, 2011
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
       
       
       
   
   
     
     
     
     
     

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