08/23/2007

Tough opener at Thirlby

TC St. Francis hosts Norsemen in prep kickoff

BY DENNIS CHASE

dchase@record-eagle.com

Suttons Bay at TC St. Francis

• WHEN: 7 p.m. today
• WHERE: Thirlby Field, TC
• SERIES: St. Francis leads 2-0
• LAST MEETING: St. Francis 53, Suttons Bay 6 in 1998
• RECORD SINCE 2000: Suttons Bay 65-15; TCSF 65-17
• RADIO: FM-89.9

TRAVERSE CITY — Josh Sellers thinks he has a good football team.

He'll know more tonight, though.

St. Francis hosts Suttons Bay in an intriguing season-opening game at Thirlby Field. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

The Gladiators and Norsemen — two of the winningest programs in the north — are coming off league and district championship seasons.

"It should be a great atmosphere, a playoff-like atmosphere for a first game,” Suttons Bay coach Joe Trudeau said.

Although expectations at St. Francis are high, Sellers said he has had difficulty getting a read on his team in the preseason.

"It's a real quiet group,” Sellers said. "We've had some of the quietest practices that I've ever been around. Maybe that's because they don't like to talk, they like to do.

"I don't know if that's just their personality, and they're going to turn it on when it's time.

"I challenged them (at practice Wednesday). I asked them to show us what they're all about. I want to see how they get themselves ready to play a football game. They'll answer some of our (staff) questions tonight.”

This will be the third meeting between the two programs. St. Francis won the last meeting in 1998 by a 53-6 score in Trudeau's second game as head coach.

"We had 13 kids then,” Trudeau said. "That was before this program was rebuilt.”

Suttons Bay and St. Francis sport an almost identical overall record since 2000. The Norsemen are 65-15, the Gladiators 65-17.

The two programs share similar concepts.

"We collaborate a lot with their coaching staff during the year,” Trudeau said. "We do a lot of the same things they do, offensively and defensively. We know what they're going to do, they know what we're going to do. Ultimately, it's a matter of who's going to block better, tackle better, execute better and not make mistakes. First games are like that. Teams that make the fewest mistakes usually win. That's why they're (Gladiators) so hard to beat. They're very disciplined.”

Suttons Bay, sparked by a defense that posted seven consecutive shutouts, won an area-best 12 games last season. Although the Norsemen lost nine starters off that unit to graduation, Sellers is still concerned about what defensive coordinator Stan Pasch might have up his sleeve.

"We don't know what coach Pasch is going to throw at us,” Sellers said. "He's prone to changing things in the middle of a game sometimes. It's tough to prepare for that. He's not afraid to try some crazy stuff.

"They'll bring a lot of pressure up front, they'll do a lot of stunting, and our linemen are going to have to handle it.”

NOTES: The group 4th & Goal, which is raising money to finish Thirlby Field, will offer parking in a lot across from the field on 13th Street for $3 ... Former Suttons Bay coach Steve Curtis is an assistant at St. Francis. Pasch coached at St. Francis for 16 years. Both are teachers at Suttons Bay ... The only other area prep team to play tonight is Kingsley, which plays host to Reed City at Rodes Field.