VINCENT - When the Warren Warriors and Morgan Raiders step onto the football field in Vincent on Friday they'll do some coming from two totally different perspectives.
The Warriors are fresh off a dominating ground performance that led them to a 42-12 victory over visiting Belpre last week.
"We had 11 different kids before we subbed run the ball and they were all being successful," said Warren football coach Andy Schob.
Meanwhile the Raiders are coming off a game in which they moved the ball well with their ground attack, but made mistakes at crucial junctures to fall to visiting Marietta 28-7 in McConnelsville.
"I thought this past Friday we moved the ball down the field really well. We just couldn't capitalize," said Morgan football coach Nate Smith.
So as the two squads take to the gridiron on Friday they'll do so at opposite ends of the spectrum with the Warriors looking to continue their winning ways while the Raiders try to get back on track and snap a streak of 12 straight losses dating back to the 2008 season.
For both squads Friday's game comes down to executing their game plan.
For the Raiders that means sticking to the ground game where they enjoyed considerable success before falling behind the Tigers and being forced to expand the playbook. "I think sticking to our game plan will help us big time. If we do a good job of taking care of our assignments and taking care of our opportunities we won't have to leave our game plan," Smith said.
For the Warriors, the expanding the playbook is part of the game plan.
Last week the Warriors rushed for 360 yards on 40 carries and picked up just 77 yards passing on 5-of-10 completions.
In their scrimmages the Warriors passing game was their strength while the running game needed some work.
In week one, the running game became the strength and now the Warriors are hopeful of making their offense the dynamic balanced attack Schob envisioned at the start of the year.
"The goal is kind of mix the two (pass and run) together," Schob said. "Now what we're going to try to do is mix it up more and do a little of both."
Even though they'll probably look to pass it a little bit more offensively, the Warriors know they'll still need continued strong effort from the running backs for the pass to work.
"We need to establish the run to keep people honest," Schob said.
Knowing that the Warriors have the ability to mix it up offensively, Smith has his defense working extra hard in practice this week against both the run and pass.
The Raiders have also been using some of their scout team to help simulate the impressive size of the Warriors line to deal with the physical play of Warren.
"Last week we prepared so much for the running game of Marietta. This week we have to make sure we spend some quality time on our pass defense as well," Smith said.
While the Raiders defense has some serious work ahead of it in containing the likes of running backs Austin Henthorn and Dustin Harlow for the Warriors as well as receiver Grant Venham and quarterback Dylan Leffingwell, Warren has a tough defensive challenge as well.
Morgan had some success with the ground game against Marietta and that running attack opened up the passing game for quarterback Ted Vynalek, who had completed 8-of-9 pass attempts in the first half.
The Warrior defense knows it'll have to contain Vynalek and Morgan tailback Jordan Greer both to keep the Raiders off the scoreboard.
"He (Vynalek) does an awesome job on the option," Schob said. "We have to be fundamentally sound and do our assignments."
So with both teams having the potential for some offensive fireworks, the defensive play will certainly be key as they look to pick up a win on Friday. "We're excited to get back out there. We felt like we played a pretty good ball game on Friday night and minus a couple plays it's a completely different ball game," Smith said.
For the Warriors, it's about win No. 2. "It (first win) is something to build on. You can't be satisfied with what you did last week," Schob said.
