Owensboro High School is looking to start the 2021 campaign with a statement win against state powerhouse St. Xavier when the two face off at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Rash Stadium.
The Red Devils are recharged and ready to take the field on Friday, looking to prove themselves as one of the premier teams in the state.
Head Coach Jay Fallin said there’s been plenty of buzz in the locker room as the team is thrilled for the opportunity to compete amongst one of the traditionally best teams in the Commonwealth in a hard-fought battle on the gridiron.
“They’re another one of the premier programs in the state,” Fallin said. “I told the guys the other night ‘we’re a well-coached team, we’re a tough team, you guys work really hard and it matters a lot to you and you’re going to go out there and lay it on the line.’ Although, the same things are going to be said for St. X.”
With scrimmages being canceled prior to the game, neither team had timely film to study. However, Fallin and company had past year’s film and studied the roster, knowing the coaching staff Saint X has proven tough to beat even with player turnover.
“Even without necessarily having film this year we know there’s continuity on the staff with Coach Wallace the offensive coordinator and Coach Byrnes the defensive coordinator,” Fallin said. “We feel we have a good handle on what they’re going to try to do to us scheme wise… Early on, we’re both going to kind of be feeling each other out.”
Fallin said that in order for the Red Devils to be successful they have to play with attention to detail and be aggressive.
“Offensively we gotta stay ahead of the sticks,” Fallin said. “We gotta pick up yards on first down, we’re gonna have to be able to run the ball a little bit and we’re going to have to take advantage of maybe a slight athleticism advantage on the perimeter. It’s going to come down to what all big games come down to — execution. Whoever can execute better and limit mistakes is going to win the game”
Defensively Fallin said the team has to be in sync at all times and be sure to maintain a high level of intensity throughout the game.
“We just have to take it one play at a time…” Fallin said. “We just gotta execute. We gotta have great concentration defensively, we’ve gotta understand what formation we’re in and we’ve gotta get aligned perfectly. Once the ball is snapped we’ve gotta execute our assignment and then we’ve gotta fly to the ball and gang-tackle and wrap up.”
In games with tough opponents where the room for error is minimal, the mental side of the game is just as important.
With mental toughness being a crucial factor in potential success all season, Fallin said the team tries to instill that in practice, saying that the same level of effort that’s put in at the beginning of games has to be put forth in the late moments when players are tired.
“We just try to as best we can every single day instill that in our kids,” Fallin said. “Because we really believe you are what you repeatedly do. So if we can rep it in practice every day, then we’ll go out there on Friday night and it’ll carry over.”
