The Niles Star

High School football: Area football teams start year at 2-0

Our area football teams are off to a great start in 2010 as all five of the schools we cover regularly are 2-0 on the football season.

It was another big week for Niles, Dowagiac, Edwardsburg, Brandywine and Cassopolis.

The Vikings and the Chieftains defeated the two teams that played for the Division 4 state championship last fall at Ford Field in Detroit.

Although they hardly look like the same teams that teed it up last November, but a win is a win in high school football.

Niles is 2-0 for the first time since 2003, the last time the Vikings had a winning season. Niles finished the year 7-4 and went 1-1 in the playoffs.

Why make such a big deal out of two wins?

Because you need six to reach the post season and you need five to secure a winning season.

Both are goals of the Vikings, but more important that than, it’s all about confidence.

Niles plays a ridiculously tough schedule with six of its nine opponents having reached the post season in 2009.

The Vikings still have to face St. Joseph, Lakeshore, Portage Central and Portage Northern, to name a few.

Having some momentum and some confidence heading into those contests will be key to finding success this year.

It’s been a while

The Brandywine Bobcats are also 2-0 this season, the second under coach Mike Nate.

And if you think Niles fans have been waiting a while to see its team wins its first two games think again.

It has been 12 years since Brandywine captured victories in its first two games of the season.

The Bobcats actually went 3-0 in 1998 with wins over Decatur, Cassopolis and River Valley to open the season.

In Nate’s first season, a lack of numbers hindered what he could do with his team.

The numbers are up a bit in 2010 and so are the offensive statistics.

Brandywine scored just 22 points in splitting its first two games a year ago.

The Bobcats doubled that output in the season opener as it put 44 on Lawrence.

With 27 more points in a win over Centreville on Thursday night, Brandywine has now scored 71 points in its first two games.

It took the Bobcats until week eight to break the 70 point barrier and they finished with only 130 points for the entire season.

Brandywine has one more non-conference game against Bridgman next Friday night before leaping into a stretch of extremely tough games against the top teams in the Lakeland Conference.

But the Bobcats will head into those games with a full head of steam and who knows what will happen then.

Confidence builder?

With 117 points already in the books for the Dowagiac offense and only 11 points allowed by the defense, it appears that the Chieftains are headed toward a big season in 2010.

But just how big are those two wins for Dowagiac?

Veteran Chieftain coach Mike Stanger tried to downplay the two wins knowing full well that Dowagiac’s toughest games are still ahead.

The Chieftains have opened up with two teams that are rebuilding, but the fact that the team came out and took care of business in both contests and didn’t allow itself to get caught up in looking past either opponent is impressive.

The truth of the matter is though, beating Three Rivers no matter who was playing in those uniforms on Thursday night is important.

Dowagiac rolled up three wins against the Wildcats when they joined the Wolverine Conference, including one in the post season.

But since then, Three Rivers has held the edge by winning the three games prior to Thursday night.

One of the biggest challenges of the season awaits Dowagiac next Friday night in Vicksburg.

The Bulldogs are back on track after being down for a few seasons and many believe they are the second best team in the conference.

So Friday night’s game will be a key early test for the Chieftains.

But if Dowagiac can continue to execute on offense by spreading the ball around to both running backs and receivers, and the defense can continue to stifle opposing teams, then the Chieftains have a chance to have the type of year Three Rivers fans saw in 2009.

The Thomas effect

No one really expected the Cassopolis football team to fall on its face with the departure of coach Andy Hubbard resigned back in the spring.

The Rangers are a good football team and while some people around the area may not have known that, the coaches in the Lakeland Conference did and so did the Cassopolis fans.

So when the Rangers needed to find a new coach they turned to one of their own — Bernard Thomas.

A new offense and a new defense hasn’t seemed to slow the Rangers down this season and Cassopolis is off to a 2-0 start having scored over 100 points in the process and only allowing 20.

The veer is alive and well in Rangerland and the team seems to be grasping the concept quickly.

Cassopolis ran for 291 yards on Friday night in its lopsided win over River Valley, but a key stat is the 123 yards in passing.

The Rangers only threw the ball five times, completing three of them including a touchdown of 78-yards.

Passing wasn’t the name of the game when Thomas coached in Dowagiac, in fact, when the Rangers threw 14 times in the first half of the season opener, many wondered what was going on.

Thomas, never at a loss for words, cracked that he had been watching SportsCenter.

“I used to think you ran the ball to set up the run,” Thomas said after the opening night win. “Now I think you can throw the ball to set up the run.”

Cassopolis appears poised to ‘run’ their way into the post season for the fifth straight year and are one of the teams that everyone is pointing to as a contender for the Lakeland Conference championship.

Thomas was hired to take the Rangers to the next level of success. With the fast start that Cassopolis has gotten off to, many believe this will be there year.

Defense wins championships

Every coach who is worth his weight in salt knows that you have to play great defense to be a champion.

There are very few instances where offensive teams have been able to overcome poor play on the other side of the football and be successful at a high level.

Before the 2010 season began, Edwardsburg coach Kevin Bartz talked about the changes he made to his football team, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

Former Dowagiac assistant, who coached with Thomas when the Chieftains captured the 1990 state championship, was made the defensive coordinator.

The Eddies are 2-0 on the year after thrashing White Pigeon 49-0 on Thursday night.

Edwardsburg has allowed just seven points in is first two games and will need to continue to play solid defense as it prepares to head into Lakeland Conference action.

After the first two weeks of the season, the Lakeland race is looking more and more like a five-team battle.

Buchanan, Cassopolis, Edwardsburg, Brandywine and Berrien Springs are all undefeated and have looked good.

It should be a fun fall around the area as the teams compete for conference and division championships, while looking for six wins to qualify for the post season.

— Scott Novak