The Aplington-Parkersburg football team will play its first game under Interim Head Coach Aaron Thomas when it travels to Union Friday.
The Falcons are coming off a 3-5 season where the offense had historically low production. With an experienced offensive line, Thomas expects growth with first-year starting quarterback Benny Waller at the helm. He says they’ll still be a run-first team, but they’ll look to be versatile.
“The biggest thing is we’ve got to take care of that football,” Thomas says. “And obviously we want to be able to run the football, establish that and then be able to mix in the passing. And I think for Benny Waller to get a varsity game under his belt, he and I just visiting throughout the week, his improvement just on his reads and those different things. So I look for him to really be ready to go. And hopefully we can keep them a little bit on their toes guessing. I don’t think we’re going to come out and run it every time. We’re not going to come out and throw it every time. So if we can get that good balance, I think it’ll be important, but we do gotta establish the line of scrimmages. We look for Union to blitz us quite a bit on the defensive side of the ball. So we’ve got to make sure we have our heads up with our linemen and they may catch us a couple of times, but if we’re able to break one, those can be bigger gains.”
Union is coming off a 3-7 season, where they snuck into the playoffs and picked up a first round upset of Waukon. They bring back the vast majority of last year’s offensive production, including quarterback Caden Sorensen and leading rusher Andrew Sadler. Thomas says the Knights will present some challenges with numerous weapons.
“They got some very athletic kids. Last year, they switched quarterbacks mid game when we played them. They got a now senior, the Sadler kid. And then Caden Sorensen, who’s a really good athlete, played both of them at quarterback in their scrimmage. So not certain which route they’ll go. They both can do different things. Sorensen is probably a little more of a runner for them. And then Briar Mast is a very, very talented running back and middle linebacker. Justice Luke’s a receiver, they like to get it to him too. And they lost a really good tight end and from last year, but they got two kids that split time during their scrimmage that both look like quality tight ends. Looking at their line, just comparing it to last year, they returned some of those guys, so they got a lot of guys back in a little bit different system.”
The Falcons have won two straight in the series, including last year’s 23-7 win at home to open the season.
The Roling Ford Road to the Dome Warmup Show on 99 The Wave will begin at 6:45 p.m., followed by the kickoff at 7:30.
Aaron Thomas interview:
