The Aplington-Parkersburg football team will look to bounce back from a slow start when it begins district play Friday at MFL MarMac. The game will air on 99 The Wave.
The Falcons are coming off an 0-3 outing in non-district play, and coach Aaron Thomas says the team has its work cut out for it in a tough district.
“I thought we got better as we went,” Thomas says. “The scores maybe didn’t indicate it. South Hardin was our best offensive game. The turnovers really hurt us there and the inability to get off the field on third and long. So we’ll make some adjustments to some of the things we’re doing. Our pass defense has not been what it needs to be. The percentages have been way too high against us. So those are some things that we know we’ve got to shore up as we get into district play. Even though in our district, you’re going to see run-heavy with the exception of Denver, who slings it around a little bit. But most of our district likes to line it up toe to toe and runs kind of like old school football a little bit more. So for us, we need our D line to continue to be good against the run. Hopefully for us, not having the start we wanted, we need to find some confidence and get off to a good start here in district play.”
AP will look to recover from a loss to South Hardin where they moved the ball well on offense, but struggled with eight turnovers. Defensively, they’ll look to capitalize on third down after giving up several conversions last week.
MFL MarMac (2-1) has steadily improved on offense throughout their first three games, highlighted by a 62-20 win at New Hampton last week. A run-heavy team has one key playmaker back from last year’s runner-up team, Quinn McGeough, who has 360 yards on the season.
“They’re used to wining. I mean, that’s a big piece. They had a crazy Week 1 win with Crestwood. They kicked a field goal with under a minute left to win that 9-7 and made some plays. And Waukon was a physical football game, and then last week they were all over New Hampton. So they’ve got some guys. They’re explosive, they’re physical as they’ve been and I think they’re probably getting better each and every week or getting more comfortable. They did lose a lot to graduation, but they still got some nice pieces and nice players.”
It’ll be AP’s first-ever visit to Monona. The Bulldogs won 42-0 in the first meeting between the programs last year.
Pregame coverage will start at 6:15 p.m. with the Roling Ford Road to the Dome Warmup Show, followed by the kickoff at 7:00.
Aaron Thomas interview:
