10/05/2006

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
The Suttons Bay defense hasn't allowed a score for 20 consecutive quarters.

Norse a big red wall on D

Norse have shut out opposition in 5 straight games

By MARK URBAN

murban@record-eagle.com

SUTTONS BAY — Lee Marvin starred in the 1980 World War II movie "The Big Red One."

There are many stars of Suttons Bay's Big Red Wall, a defensive unit that has allowed a state-best 12 points this season and takes a five-game shutout streak into Friday's Northwest Conference finale against Frankfort.

"There are no superstars on defense, that's for sure," Suttons Bay coach Joe Trudeau said. "It's just a good team concept."

No one player has gaudy tackle statistics. Four Norsemen — safety Jordan Peplinski, nose guard Josh Feickert, linebackers Casey Drow and Andrew Bumgardner — have at least 38 tackles this season.

"It means a lot when you have stats going all over the place," said Drow, whose 44 tackles are one behind Peplinski for the team lead.

Suttons Bay (6-0) opened the season by going overtime against Benzie Central.

After the game was tied 6-6 in regulation, the Huskies got the ball first in overtime and scored, but failed to convert the two-point conversion after a costly 15-yard celebration penalty. Suttons Bay answered with a TD and kicked the extra point for a 13-12 victory.

That's been it for the opposition against the Norse who set a school record with consecutive shutouts by blanking Harbor Springs (49-0), Manton (32-0), Glen Lake (21-0), Kingsley (16-0) and Mesick (38-0).

"If you asked me that at the beginning of the season, that we'd have that many shutouts, I would have said, 'No way,' " Peplinski said. "I think that's the way everyone else thinks. I've heard people talk about it."

"It started out with two or three and now no one wants to see it end," Drow said. "We're all like, 'Let's keep it going' and 'You're not going to score on us.' You just keep telling yourself that."

The streak could even come to an end on Friday, the last conference game before Suttons Bay closes out the season against White Cloud and Mio. No Northwest Conference school has gone an entire league campaign without giving up a point.

"Absolutely," Trudeau said. "The kids will be more mad than the coaches, they don't want to see it end. We're not worried about it. If we win the game, that's all we're concerned with."

Even though five teams have failed to put up a point against Suttons Bay, there have been several threats to the streak. It's just that no one — with the exception of the Huskies in Week 1 — could punch one through.

"I don't know how we're doing it," Trudeau said. "Kingsley was inside the 5-yard line a couple of times and Mesick was inside the 5 once. They were just good goal-line stands, somebody stepping up and making a play. It's been an amazing stretch where somebody steps up or somebody comes clean on a blitz. We're just making big plays on the goal line."

"I think our kids are motivated," said Suttons Bay defensive coordinator Stan Pasch, who also credited assistants Pat Lamb and Dan Wiesen. "They rise to the occasion when the other team gets inside the red zone each time."

The players said a defense needs a different attitude when you're backed up against the goal line. It doesn't hurt that there's a lot of experience on that side of the ball for the Norsemen, who start as many as nine seniors.

"We've played together for a while so it's kind of team chemistry," Peplinski said. "We all know each other and we all know our spots really well.

"Everyone gets all pumped up and ready to go. As soon as we see the ball, we all flow. We all want to stop them and we all want to keep the shutouts going."

A lot of the work behind shutouts happens before the game even begins.

"I give Stan and Pat a lot of credit," Trudeau said. "They come up with a lot of great schemes to stop offenses. We play a 5-3 base, but we jump around a lot and try to cause confusion on offense, that's our goal."

Pasch said the Norsemen also play more of a 'bend, but don't break' defense, trying to prevent the big play down the field that usually winds up with, or leads to, a touchdown. At the same time, Pasch said he's not afraid to force the issue.

"We try to play pressure defense," he said. "When you bring the heat or you blitz, we're not giving people time to throw the ball and that has helped our pass defense. We're also doing a good job getting people to the ball when they break through the line of scrimmage."

There's also the fact that Suttons Bay gets a lot of different people on the field — on both sides of the ball.

Pasch said he'll play up to 16 different people on the defensive side of the ball. Frequent offensive substitutions allow the offense to hold on to the ball more, sustain drives and keep the defense off the field.

"That allows you to be fresher on defense and offense," Pasch said. "We try not to let kids play more than three-quarters of a game total and that makes a big difference."

And even though more points will likely come from the opposition, the Suttons Bay players will accept it ... as long as losses don't follow.

"We've been there when we went to states (in 2004), so we know what it takes," Drow said. "We've also been there last year when we got knocked out in the first round, so we also know what not to do.

"We all just want to win so bad."