Braves football head Coach John Beck was more than happy with his team’s play in Montezuma’s 64-6 win over HLV/Tri-County in the season opener.
‘The guys came out ready to play from the get-go,” the coach said. “They were physical, fast and aggressive but played within their assignments.”
On offense
“After a few plays of figuring out what HLV was trying to do with their defense, we settled into a good rhythm,” the coach said.
Beck said the “blocking up front from Landon Morrison, Tod Geiger, and Houston vam Roekel was good. Our line was very physical, especially with its pulls. It was not perfect and there is room for improvement but it was a very good start to the year.”
“Our ‘skill’ guys were able to do some pretty good things,” Beck said. “We ran the ball well and were patient runners. Our carries were pretty evenly split and I really like the balance we had with that.”
The coach said, “we had a few big runs with some nice holes. Our receivers did a great job of blocking downfield on those plays.”
‘I thought our routes were pretty good for the most part,” Beck said. “We had a couple of really nice plays and Brady (Boulton) threw some really good balls. He was very efficient and made some really good decisions. Overall it pretty good offensive day.”
The defense
“I was really pleased with our tackling!” Beck said. “It wasn’t perfect but the guys did a real nice job of being aggressive and attacking.”
“Up front we had a lot of guys rotate in and each one did a pretty good job. I think we ended up with 8 tackles for loss and up front is where a lot of those came from,” the head Brave said. “They just really do a nice job of playing their roles and playing fast.”
“Our linebackers and secondary did a pretty good job of tackling and were fairly good in coverage. We were able to force a few turnovers in the game and those are always big momentum shifters,” Beck said.
“Special teams were good for us too. Max Anderson did a great job with PATs and Garrett Watts did a good job with the kickoffs and punts,” Beck said.
“Getting some points out of our returners always is great. We had some pretty good blocks on (David) Rose’s kickoff return for a touchdown.”
S.E. Warren lurks next
“We will need to be ready to go this week.” Beck said. “Southeast Warren is a very good team and beat us by 30 down at their place last year.”
“I am interested to see how they replace their 12 seniors from last year, so they could be a completely different team in terms of style of play and personnel. “But they have a good coach who always puts them in the best position possible,” Montezuma’s coach said.
Beck said the Warhawks “have a good back and two returning linemen. On defense, they bring back a few guys as well. I expect a physical and good game on Friday. It should be a fun one!”