Ontario’s defense lived up to its preseason reputation as they held high-powered Clear Fork to just one score and scored twice themselves as the Warriors improved to 2-0 with a win over the Colts.
Ontario held Clear Fork scoreless over the final three quarters in their (30-8) win on week two.
With league action starting in only two weeks, the Warriors showed the are ready to compete in the Northern Ohio League, this will be their first year in the “NOL.”
Ontario coach Scott Kreger said he was very proud of the effort he got from his players on Friday night, especially for the defense. “I am very proud of our young men with the way we practiced all week and got back to fundamentals with our alignment and just making reads and reacting and letting their athletic ability take over and make plays. We knew coming in if we could play well and tackle them and minimize their big plays we would have a pretty good chance. It was probably the best defensive game I have seen us play since I got here,” said Kreger.
Ontario got defensive scores in the second and third quarters and Kreger says that was a big bonus for them. “We caused a fumble with good gang tackling. The ball bounced up and Cameron Mack picked it up and ran it in. Then Josh Plieninger made a great play on a bubble screen. He jumped it and they threw the ball right to him and he returned it for a touchdown. Anytime you get two scores on the defensive side, that’s huge,” he said.
Offensively, the Warriors scored twice too, but Kreger wasn’t as happy with that side of the ball. He says his troops have to be far more consistent then have been the first two weeks of the season.
“We were way too inconsistent, false starting, not lining up properly, and not hustling up to the line. It was a sloppy. I think we got a little lackadaisical. It’s all on me with not having our up tempo ready to go. I think we got a little happy with what we did last week in the second half because it came back and bit us in the butt,” he said.
Ontario beat Lexington (44-43) in overtime on the first week of the year and they look like they could be the real deal. However, Kreger says they must keep their focus and try not to look too far ahead.
“We are just going to focus one week at a time. We have a lot of kids coming back that have a lot of varsity experience and that’s always a bonus no matter what. We are going to continue working because we have to. We have a big game this week with Norwayne coming to our place. We just want to go out and see improvement every week and get better and play up to our potential,” said Kreger.
Norwayne (1-1) won the division four state title in 2011 and lost in the state semi-finals last year. They were upset by Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy (32-28) on Friday night.
Turnovers killed the Colts (1-1) on Friday. They travel to Shelby (0-2) next week.
