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Wolves hunt for win, improvement
By Andrew Snyder Staff Writer
For the Plano ISD, Zero Week took on a literal meaning as no city team was able to exit its season opener with a win.
Plano Senior fell to Irving MacArthur, Plano East lost to Flower Mound and Plano West got dropped by perennial top dog Southlake Carroll (49-20).
“Our guys know that with the schedule we play, you’ve got to play every Friday night,” said Mike Hughes, Wolves head coach. “You have to approach every week the same, and if you don’t you’re not going to be very successful. Southlake is a really good team and we’ve got to get better and we will. We’re ready to get back on the field and put that Southlake game behind us.”
“I’m looking to get better every week,” Hughes said. “Right now, we’re preparing for district. We got better against Southlake; we’ve just got to play consistent for four quarters. We can’t be up-and-down, we’ve got to eliminate mistakes, quit busting assignments and just get better overall as a team.”
The loss to the Dragons split the team in two, not in a feuding sense, but between one half of the team that proved a highlight, the offense, and a defense that the Dragons rolled over. As the final score indicates, the Wolves were unable to prevent Southlake from scoring, whether they chose to rack up yardage on the ground or in the air. There were certain defensive players that stood out – a certain No. 1 recruit among them – but West is far from a balanced team.
“(senior Jackson) Jeffcoat played really well the other night, but we’ve got to have some more guys step up.” Hughes said. “We’ve got to have better play out of the linebackers; our secondary gave up the deep ball some, and we can’t give up the deep ball. When you give up big plays like that, that’s not good. We’ve got to eliminate the long ball, we’ve got to get better at underneath coverage, get our linebackers into coverage… defensively we’ve got to play better overall, as a team.”
Hughes pointed to Carroll’s total rushing yards (198) and said that a team won’t ever do well if they allow that much on the ground. That current Wolves weakness plays directly into one Marcus’ greatest strengths, as it tallied similar numbers in its Zero Week throttling of Grapevine (62-28), where running backs Stephen Hopkins and Rufus Mason each scored two touchdowns.
“Marcus is more of a power team,” Hughes said. “They have that big back. They’re going to try to line it up and run it over you. They run a little spread too, so when they need to throw it they’ll spread it out and throw it… They’re a good team.”
While the battle on the ground is likely to go the way of the Marauders, the Wolves are looking to own the air. Senior quarterback Michael Pruneau threw for 352 yards against Carroll thanks in part to the senior receiving duo of Blake Baldridge and Sean Ballard. Hughes said this trio performed well against the Dragons.
“I’m excited about what I saw on offense,” he said.
Hughes said the offensive line still needs to be more physical, but improvements there will only boost West’s already impressive passing game. Any improvements against Marcus will come directly from lessons learned against Carroll as West didn’t adjust the roster after Zero Week.
“We didn’t make any changes on the depth chart yet,” Hughes said. “We’re still looking and hoping some of our younger guys come along, but we’re going to keep evaluating it – we do that every week – so if we feel like we need to make some personal changes or move some people into different positions we will. I’m not ready to do that yet.”
The Wolves still have time to allow players several second chances. The remaining pre-district contests are a time for the team to tweak strategy and improve play, with wins coming as an added bonus and proof that those primary goals are being accomplished.
“It’s preparation for district,” Hughes said. “Obviously you want to win the games, but that doesn’t determine whether you go to the playoffs or not. We schedule really good teams that are going to make us better.”
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
martin wrote on Sep 4, 2009 8:55 AM:
" I'm excited about the Wolves offense too, coach! "
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