HOWARD LAKE – On defense, the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted football team took a big step in the right direction against Maple Lake last week. After allowing just seven points to the Irish last week, the Lakers failed to score a single point for the second straight week. With the defense stepping up last week, the Lakers will be looking for the offense to follow suit in Week 5 against Paynesville.
“Offensively, we’re learning more about ourselves,” Lakers coach Ben Anderson said. “At the game, it was one of those two steps forward, one step back kind of thing. We put one or two together, and then not convert on third down. We’re ironing out those things so we can put that string of plays together. That’s the goal here. To put them together three, four, or five in a row, rather than just one or two.”
The Lakers made plays in their 7-0 loss to Irish last week, but lack of execution at the pivotal moments of the game kept them out of the end zone for a second straight week. With the Lakers having scored zero points in the last two games, they know it comes down to execution on key plays.
“There’s times when we’ve had guys open and things are drawn up right,” Anderson said. “Then one guy steps in the wrong direction, or we miss a block. It comes down to execution. Every coach goes back and looks at every game and says they wish they might have done this in a different situation. Looking back, we didn’t have as many regrets the last game. It just came down to executing. What happened was Maple Lake came out with a three-front, and they’ve been mainly in a four-front. We didn’t take many reps against a three-front, but they did OK overall. There were times when the different front confused them a little and that’s when some of the breakdowns came.”
The Lakers will have to limit those mental breakdowns this week against Paynesville. The Bulldogs (3-0, 3-1) come in averaging 38.5 points a game, and love to play power football.
“They run the ball,” Anderson said. “They run power football. They can power with their quarterback. They got some speed with their backs and receivers. They’re very consistent. They want to run power. They want to run off tackle, and they’ve been good at it as of late. That’s what we’ve been prepping all week, making sure we’re ready for that.”
Execution will also be a big factor on the defensive side of the ball for the Lakers. With talented players like Max Weidner, Jake Arnold, and Zach Schroeder on the Paynesville roster, the Lakers will need all 11 guys to do their job and work together.
“Big thing is, on our defense is to execute,” Anderson said. “They play well. With this team, they have a little more speed than Maple Lake. They’re really going to burn you if you don’t execute. They’re not just going to burn you for four or five yards, it’ll be 50 with some of the athletes they have. Their athletes can break big plays in a hurry.”