SL needs strong play from secondary, pass rush

Thu, Oct 29, 2009    to del.icio.us

There aren't many coaches who would relish the opportunity at facing the defending Division 4 state champions on their home field in the first round of the playoffs, but for Spring Lake's Jerry Rabideau, he sees an opportunity to turn some heads.

"We feel we match up pretty well with (Holland Christian) in some areas," Rabideau said.

One things certain: The Lakes Eight Conference-champion Lakers (7-2) will have to put up some major points on the board to contend with high-powered Holland Christian on Friday at 7 p.m. The Maroons (7-2) enter the Region 2, District 1 contest averaging 30 points per game with a pass-happy offense. Spring Lake believes it can keep pace, however.

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"Offen-sively for us, I believe we have a pretty good opportunity to showcase our talents," Rabideau said Wednesday evening after a practice at Coopersville High School, a school which features field turf similar to that at Holland Christian. "We're going to give them the option/veer look, and with this team, they haven't faced a team in their league that runs that type of offense. And it's tough to simulate that in practice with your scout team. Hopefully, we can catch them off guard."

Spring Lake must execute offensively much better than it did during its regular season finale at Ravenna, when its run game was held in check by the Division 7 power in a 34-14 setback. The key may be establishing senior fullback Alec Howe, who leads the team with 791 yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. When teams are forced to stack the box to take away Howe or fellow fullback Matt Mackey, the Lakers are much more effective with quarterback Drew Brackett running the option or throwing the ball downfield.

"I think it hurt us not mixing in a little pass look earlier against Ravenna," Rabideau said. "We were the ones thinking, 'We're going to break one, we're going to break one,' but it never happened. They outphysicaled us on the line and took it away."

Both teams feature do-everything quarterbacks in Brackett and the Maroons' Nic Kiekover, who has thrown for over 1,500 yards and 20 touchdowns. Brackett has done a little of everything for Spring Lake this season, passing for eight scores, running for eight more, and leading the team in tackles with 80 from his safety position. He's also a stellar punter.

"Their quarterback is really no different than a Drew Brackett," Rabideau said. "(Kiekover's) got the ability to run like Drew. And they both have that swagger and that confidence in leading their teams."

While Spring Lake will primarily run the football, Rabideau said the Maroons throw 70-80 percent of their offensive plays.

"Our secondary is going to have its hands full," he said. "We're going to have to dial up some kind of pass rush and create some packages where we get some pressure on the quarterback. They have the capability to put a lot of points on the board."

A Laker that could spend a lot of time in the Maroons' backfield is Cam Wiegand, who leads the Lakers with 13 tackles for loss. Defensive end Ibs Hamati has also come on strong in recent weeks, and needs to generate some havoc on Kiekover.

Spring Lake can take stock in the fact that the last pass-dominated team they faced, fellow Div. 4 playoff qualifier Fremont, the Lakers dominated, 41-14, in Week 2. But, Rabideau warns, the Packers, nor anyone else on the Lakers' schedule, can call themselves defending champions.

"We have a great deal of respect for Holland Christian," he said. "Shoot, they've only been in existence for seven years and in four of those they've been to the playoffs. Then, of course, they won it all last season.

"They've got a lot of returning starters on defense that can really play. They're just a good-looking program."