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Looking to go ‘one-and-oh’, Horde travel south
The Granville Golden Horde kick off the 2011 campaign on the road as they take on the Stillwater Warriors tomorrow.
The Horde meet the Warriors at 7 p.m. Friday night in the season opener for both clubs at the new state-of-the-art facility, which has been a sectional play site since its completion in 2009.
Horde co-head coach Mario Torres said the team represents a challenge for his squad as the Warriors teams Granville has dominated over the past few seasons are older and wiser.
“They’re going to be a good football team they can throw the football and we’re struggling in the secondary right now. We’re a run first defense, we stop the run and want to force teams to pass, and we have to sure up our coverage if we’re going to be competitive in that game,” Torres said.
Torres said he expects the Stillwater squad to throw the ball around a great deal, protecting their quarterback with a senior-heavy offensive line.
“If we can’t put some pressure on their quarterback it’s going to be a long evening,” Torres said.
Granville, meanwhile, has lost 28 seniors in the past two graduating classes and looks to be rebuilding with a younger, less experienced team.
The coach said Granville is likely to have freshmen see playing time this season, but the team has weapons.
As the season rapidly approaches Torres said the coaching staff is working on a plan to make good use of the speed they have. “We have a tremendous amount of team speed and we’re hoping to take advantage of that,” Torres said.
The first contest of the season could go a long way towards shaping the Golden Horde season, Torres said with Stillwater, Corinth, Tamarac and Mechanicville in the first four weeks of play.
Granville has had the better of this match up over the past few seasons going back to the winless campaign of 2007 and a brutal 42-0 shellacking by the Warriors at the old Stillwater ‘dust bowl’ field.
The following season, in 2008, Granville edged Stillwater at home 28-22 for the team’s first win since the 2006 season.
In 2009, Granville dropped the Warriors 38-7 on the way to a one-loss regular season and sectional game.
In 2010 Granville romped to a 43-13 win against Stillwater en route to a 4-3 Wasaren League record and a 5-4 overall mark.
By contrast the Warriors managed a 2-4 league record and drew even at 4-4 overall behind a late-season non-league win in 2010.
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