HOWARD LAKE – A district title may not be within reach for the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted football team, but come Friday night, the Lakers still will have plenty to play for. When the Lakers take the field Friday night against Eden Valley-Watkins, it could be the final regular season game for the 14 seniors on the team, and it will be Parents Night.
“We’re hoping to make it not our last home game,” HLWW coach Ben Anderson said. “If it’s our last home game, you want go out in style. We’re hoping if we get a win here this Friday, it may not be our last one. They’re playing for more than just a win this week. That’s kind of been the message we’re sending. They’re playing for a lot of things. They’re playing for their parents who have been supporting them all these years. They’re playing for more than themselves. They’re playing for more than this team on Friday. This one is for the fans. This one is for the parents. This one is for the ones who supported you.”
It won’t be easy for the Lakers, who will be without their top running back and linebacker, Connor Huston. Huston suffered a sprained ankle in the loss last week to Pierz, and the Lakers will need players to fill and step up against the Eagles. this week.
“We have some personnel we can adjust into some different things,” Anderson said. “We’re getting down on there on depth, though. We still feel like we have some guys that’ll help us move the football. Defensively, it’s tough because we are really thin at linebacker. We don’t have a lot of guys right now that are old enough and ready to play. We’ve had to make some personnel adjustments.”
Missing Huston is a major loss, but Anderson and the Lakers believe they have players that can fill in and contribute right away. Just because their brother will be on the sidelines, doesn’t mean the Lakers don’t have the confidence that they can pick themselves up.
“The guys are still confident,” Anderson said. “They’re confident with what we have. The personnel adjustments are a lot of the guys that have played, but we’ve just had to move a guy or two into a different position. I know the guys we’ve moved into a different position have played that position in the past. It’s not our full strength like we would be, but we feel confident with what we’ve been able to do there.
If the Lakers want to get back into the win column for the first time since week two, they’ll have to continue to play physical and keep their mental mistakes to a minimum against a team that scores quickly.
“They’re athletic,” Anderson said. “They’ve got some speed. They do a really good job of getting their athletes in the right spots and moving guys around to fit their system. We’ve had some success against them over the past few years because our guys have prepared really well. Were hoping our guys are prepared this week.”