Warren looks to bounce back at McLane
Turning it around
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It's not like the Dragons haven't bounced back before.
Warren scored 47 points to beat Franklin after getting shellacked by Cathedral Prep. Dating back to last season, the Dragons won their last four games after starting 1-3.
This week's test is a Region 5 game at General McLane on Friday after losing their first region game of the season, 41-0 to Meadville.
"We have to get back to playing like we did earlier in the season," said Warren head coach Mark Morelli, whose Dragons are 3-2 overall and 3-1 in the region. "Meadville pretty much bottled up our offense last week, so that will be a big key for us to get untracked and get some points on the board. We need to get a big play to gain some momentum."
Bottled up is an understatement as Warren had 30 yards of offense and none in the second half last Friday. It's tough to gain yardage when you have three offensive plays in a quarter. Meadville controlled the clock with three players rushing for over a hundred yards on the night.
"On defense, we have to recognize the GM formations and adjust accordingly," said Morelli. "They throw a lot at you. But above all else, we have to get our intensity, desire and focus back to the level that allowed us to win 3 games so far this year."
That intensity was obvious in a 2-0 start that included wins over Conneaut (33-0) and Harbor Creek (26-14).
"It should not be hard but you never know where the mind of a high school football player is," said Morelli. "We have everything in front of us; we have put ourselves in a position to grab the number 2 seed in our region. That alone should be enough to motivate our squad and move on from Meadville. Good teams with good leadership rebound and I'd like to think our team has those qualities.
"Our practices this week have been up and down," he said. "We have not looked as sharp as we usually do, but I do not necessarily think it is so much the Meadville loss as it is dealing with the weekly challenge of COVID. We have had players with possible exposure, being tested, being quarantined, etc. Fortunately, none of our front line players have had anything major, but this day by day 'hold your breath' mentality tends to be a nuisance. It is the world we live in today. We have to roll with the punches and accept it."
A good team sticks together through thick and thin. Even with a young group at many skill positions, including sophomore quarterback Eric Dippold, sophomore leading ball carrier Tommy Nyquist, and others, that's exactly what Morelli would like to think Warren is, a good team.
"Probably the biggest takeaway is Meadville had us well-scouted and a few of our flaws were exposed, so we worked this week on getting those areas corrected," said Morelli.
Warren is again in Region 5 against a GM team that is 2-3 overall and 2-1 in the region.
"GM is a hard team to figure out based on the common opponents," said Morelli. "They have lost to Meadville, 47-7, they beat Conneaut, 54-8. But we expect them to have plenty of fire and intensity when they play us; both teams are fighting for a playoff seed and we could very well meet again down the road. They have a two-headed rotational system at QB, they like to utilize their QBs' talents to exploit the defenses by spreading their formations out. Defensively, they run an aggressive 3-5 look and attack you from a lot of different angles. On top of that, they are one of the bigger teams we will see up front."