Coach Pat O’Brien said his 6-0 Montezuma Braves football team “started off rattled” last Friday in its 55-20 win at WACO.
He’s preparing his team to not let that happen again this week against another team, Lone Tree, that also has designs on rattling Montezuma’s cage.
The Lions are 3-2 coming in and had a game against Twin Cedars canceled. They’ve played 8-man football for three years at Lone Tree, which could lead to execution and a certain sureness about what they do.
Last year, as fans on both sides remember, they scored a 69-63 victory over Montezuma.
This year, they kick off the regular season finale at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, at Badger-Gabriel Field.
The Braves put up some huge numbers against the Lions last season. But Lone Tree shredded Montezuma’s defense for 458 yards of rushing offense.
Of that total, 310 came from quarterback Harmon Miller, who ran for six touchdowns and threw for two more.
He graduated.
And Montezuma’s defense has morphed into something completely different.
But not all of Lone Tree’s offense left school with Miller.
Returning is Alex Viner, a 6-foot, 160-pound senior, who rushed for 151 yards and two touchdowns against the Braves last year, and caught two touchdown passes.
This year, Viner has rushed for 624 yards, a 9.8 per carry average, and 12 touchdowns. He has run under 16 passes for 235 yards and two more scores.
The quarterback this year is Cade Shield, a 6-1, 155-pound junior, who has thrown for 604 yards on 45-for-90 accuracy. He has seven touchdown passes and four interceptions.
Top receiver is Cade Patterson, a 6-1, 150-pound junior, with 25 catches for 333 yards and five touchdowns.
Top tackler for the Lions is Will Holtz, a 5-11, 190-pounder who has 44.5 stops.
Lone Tree has scored 50 points in its last two games, wins over GMG and Moravia, who are winless. The Lions also own a 42-6 win over 3-3 WACO, the Braves’ opponent last week.
The Braves’ defense has grown by leaps and bounds this year. The key for Montezuma in this game – on both sides of the ball, of course – will be focusing on carrying out assignments.
If their assignments are done late, there could be consequences.