JOHNSTOWN — There’s no rest for the surging Johnstown Johnnies, who are fresh from knocking off the Fredericktown Freddies in convincing fashion, to retain a piece of first place in the Mid-Buckeye Conference. This week, the Johnnies host the Utica Redskins, who share the top of the MBC.
“We just go one day at a time and one week at a time,” Johnstown (4-2, 3-0 MBC) coach Mike Carter said. “There are no easy games. You’ve got to be ready for every single week and here is another example of that. The teams in the MBC are really tough and we know that we are going to have to play four quarters of football.”
The winner will stand alone atop the conference. Utica (3-3, 3-0), which lost to the Johnnies by 10 points last year, knows that getting a road win against them is no small task.
“We’re kind of in the same situation that we were last year. The difference is that we lost to Fredericktown the week before,” Utica coach Randy Felumlee said. “Johnstown has been the perennial favorite the last few years. They won it last year and nobody has beaten them for the last two seasons, so it’s going to be the big challenge on their home field where they have a great crowd. Johnstown is the team to beat.”
“I know the kids are really excited to come back home,” said Carter. “Our players really love the atmosphere. We’ve been on the road the last couple of weeks so, this is an exciting week.”
The Redskins know that how they contain the Johnnies’ ground game on Friday will be the biggest factor in the final outcome. So, how do you stop the Johnnies on the ground?
“Well, I don’t know if you do,” said Felumlee. “They do what they do, they do it well and they know every change from it. It’s essentially the forte of their offense. Those teams that have been able to control (Johnstown’s) running game have had a chance to beat them and, if you can’t control their running game, you usually don’t beat them.”
In another MBC battle, Fredericktown (5-1, 2-1) will host the East Knox Bulldogs (3-3, 2-1).
The task that stands before the Bulldogs in Fredericktown may be even tougher than the one awaiting Utica. The Bulldogs, for their part, improve by the week and have won their last two games.
“Our kids are working hard and they know that we are going to have to play well,” said East Knox coach Tom Holton. “We’re getting better. We’re improving each game and that’s our goal everytime we go to the practice field, everytime we play we take another step.”
The Freddies, no longer undefeated, need this one after losing to the Johnnies last week.
“It’s important for us to get back on track,” said Fredericktown coach Luke Beal. “We’ve had two pretty emotional games here the last two weeks (versus Danville and Johnstown). The most important thing we do against East Knox is to make sure that we execute on both sides of the ball.
Mistakes against a defense like Fredericktown’s will be magnified.
“We just have to be fundamentally sound,” said Holton. “We need to do our jobs at each position, play good fundamental football and just play hard. Getting a win against a team of the calibur of Fredericktown would be huge.”
The Freddies are determined to give a better performance this week.
“Last week, we made some critical mistakes and had some penalties that kind of hurt us,” said Beal. “You just can’t do those type of things against a good football team. The East Knox-Fredericktown game is always good, year in and year out, regardless of the records. It’s going to be physical and we know that East Knox will do a good job running the football. They always play physical defense so we have to make sure that we bring our best game on Friday night.”
The Freddies and the Bulldogs teams are looking to stay in the MBC hunt along with the Danville Blue Devils (4-2, 2-1) who will have their hands full this week at Northridge (1-5, 0-3). They go up against a Vikings team that hung tough against the Bulldogs last Friday. Centerburg (1-5, 0-3) will travel to Loudonville (2-4, 0-3) with both teams looking to post their first conference win of the year.
The Highland Scots (3-3, 3-2 MOAC) will try to maintain their share of the lead in the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference Red Division as they host Cardington Lincoln. The Scots, who are tied with Buckeye Valley and North Union for the division lead, need a win after they were stopped by division rival Elgin, 14-9, last Friday.
In Ohio Cardinal Conference action, the Clear Fork Colts (3-3, 1-2 OCC) will travel to Mansfield Madison, needing a win to stay in the OCC hunt.