Nelsonville-York?s Michael Barrick pitches to a running back during practice. Barrick will start his first game at quarterback for the Buckeyes as they renew their rivalry with Athens tonight.
Kick off for match-up pushed back to 8:30 p.m.
JOE HIGGINS
Messenger staff writer
Two familiar rival schools will kick off the 2007 high school football season tonight for the last time in week one and both will be looking to hang on to a valuable piece of hardware.
The Athens Bulldogs will visit Boston Field to take on the Nelsonville- York Buckeyes for the rights to the Doc Kroner Trophy one last time in week one before the 'Dogs jump track from the Southeast Ohio Athletic League to join the Bucks in the Tri-Valley Conference Ohio Division next year.
Athens brings to the table some young talent with a new head coach in Ryan Adams. Adams is well aware of the task facing his gridiron gang.
"The Buckeyes have a nice established program and coach Boston goes a great job with those kids," said Adams. "I've seen them scrimmage and they look like a typical Nelsonville-York team with a bunch of guys that flat out get after it."
A few of those guys that stood out to Adams are in the backfield. Zach Talbert is the team's bruising fullback and possesses both strength and quickness while Derek Arnold mans the tailback position and has already made heads turn as a sophomore. Finally, quarterback Michael Barrick has caught Adams' eye as the junior was able to demonstrate a strong and accurate arm in scrimmages.
Having already sighted some of Nelsonville-York's more potent weapons, Adams offered this strategy for tonight's contest. "We have to step up and match their tenaciousness. We have to fight fire with fire."
Helping to match Nelsonville-York's backfield will be proven running back Cameron Tope. Tope was instrumental to the running attack a season ago and looks to have a more featured role in this year's backfield. He'll be called upon to help settle in one of two unproven quarterbacks in the Athens lineup. Tanner Cannon and Zane Summers are vying for time as QB's after the team said goodbye to signal caller Chris Carpinelli to graduation.
"Our offense has to be able to execute and not make mental mistakes. We need to play smart, assignment football and our defense has to have 11 guys flying to the ball," said Adams.
Nelsonville-York has possession of the Doc Kroner Trophy and wants to hang on to it. From their rivals from down the road, the Buckeyes expect a rejuvenated football team to challenge them for the trophy.
"It would be a great feather in their cap to knock us off coming into the (TVC) Ohio and I'm sure they've put a lot of importance on it," said NYHS coach Dave Boston. "We understand our side of the game and we'll be ready. Our seniors really want to win. Football is important in our community and we're looking forward to being successful this season."
The Buckeyes will debut a new type of offense this year with the graduation of power tailback Bear Lewis and the versatile and athletic quarterback Jay Edwards. The ground-and-pound attack will still be prominent but the team now has the ability to go to the air with Barrick looking to carve his niche in the offense and the duo of Talbert and Arnold keeping things fresh in the backfield.
"(Athens) is very similar to us. The run 5-2 defense with the linebackers free to move about like us. It'll be a good contest, a good matchup and an exciting atmosphere for football."
The atmosphere is already having an impact. Due to the impending heat expected for today and tonight, the scheduled kickoff time has been pushed back an hour to 8:30 p.m. in an effort to beat the heat.
Regardless of the conditions, one thing is for sure, the Bulldogs and Buckeyes will look to create one last epic battle to start the season with each trying to send a message to the other in league play for years to come.
[email protected]