The #6 (1A) Dike-New Hartford football team will play its home opener Friday by hosting West Branch in Week 2 action.
The Wolverines (0-1) are coming off last week’s 21-7 loss at #2 (1A) Grundy Center, where coach Don Betts says they couldn’t find the needed consistency on offense. But he says a bounce-back is imminent with a determined group.
“I’ve got great faith in these kids,” Betts says. “Our seniors have put in a lot of time since last season and the offseason. Weight room, doing things on their own, all of those kinds of things to have a great season this year and I know they’re disappointed in how things worked out and I have no doubt they’re going to come in and we’re going to get after it and get better and work on all those little things. You really don’t know what you’ve got until you put somebody out on the field against you. You can practice all you want against yourself. It’s that first game that identifies the things you need to work on.”
Last week, Colin Meester passed for 124 yards and a touchdown, but the team was held to just 59 rushing yards on 23 attempts. They’ll also look to create more pressure defensively after not recording a sack.
West Branch (0-1) gave up 285 passing yards in last week’s 55-10 home loss to #1 (3A) Williamsburg, which was nearly put away by halftime. Betts says the Bears have a similar roster makeup as the Wolverines, and are a traditionally strong program.
“Typical of West Branch, they’re going to be a physical team, very good athletes. I know they ran into a buzzsaw at Williamsburg, but what I saw from Williamsburg is they’re loaded. So I am sure that West Branch is going to be just like us, jumping at the bit to get back at it and get to that second game. So we’ll have our hands full with those guys. They’re fairly young from what I’ve seen. They play a lot of underclassmen and you know that with a bunch of underclassmen, they get that first game under their belt, they’re going to be looking to improve.”
Dike-New Hartford is 3-0 in the all-time series, including a 9-7 road win last year. It’ll be the first meeting between the teams in Dike. Action will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Gunderson Sports Complex.
