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| SportsSunday, August 26, 2007 11:53 PM CDT |
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IWU football builds confidence in scrimmage
NORMAL — They didn’t keep score during Saturday’s scrimmage at Hancock Stadium between the Illinois Wesleyan and Benedictine football teams. It didn’t matter because IWU was clearly the dominant team, particularly on the defensive side, as the Titans gained some much-needed confidence in their final tune-up before Saturday’s 1 p.m. season opener at Coe. “There were a lot of positives today, and I think the kids really need to be excited about their play,” said IWU coach Norm Eash, whose team is coming off three straight 3-7 seasons. “What you saw was a very optimistic team today. All the way from last spring our kids have wanted to change things. They desperately want to win, and I think you saw that today in the scrimmage. We’re a different team. There’s more emotion and more enthusiasm, and the other big thing you see is confidence.” IWU’s small but speedy defense, which features seven returning senior starters, stole the show. The Titans forced seven turnovers and consistently stopped Benedictine’s offense in both short- and long-yardage situations. “We felt good out there,” said junior middle linebacker Dan Souder. “We pride ourselves on our speed. We’re not looking to bully people around. We’re looking to get to the ball fast.” Sophomore cornerback Roman Hunter had two acrobatic interceptions to lead the Titans. “I thought we did an excellent job today,” Hunter said. “We knew we had to fly around and be aggressive. We did really good with our pursuit.” Eash termed IWU’s defensive performance “tremendous.” “I don’t think Benedictine ever got anything established,” Eash said. “We have tremendous speed and quickness and that’s what we have to rely on.” As expected, the offense was a little behind the defense as junior Nick Panno, who started several games last season, and sophomore Kraig Ladd continued their battle for the No. 1 quarterback spot. Panno directed the most impressive scoring drive of the day, mixing short passes to a wide array of receivers with the solid running of senior tailback Marcus Dunlop. “It took us awhile to get going offensively, but I think that’s going to come because we have some young kids in the offensive line,” Eash said. “I thought our offensive team responded to Nick today, and that’s something as a coaching staff we’re going to take a look at. “Kraig Ladd has done some good things in camp and we want to take a look at him, too. We feel pretty good with the depth at quarterback. We just have to find that one guy that’s going to lead us next week. We’ll look at tapes and make a decision Monday. I think the kids need to know who the quarterback is going into the first game.” Eash was also pleased with the play of his special teams, led by returning sophomore punter Sam Vizza and junior kicker Brian Tiefenbruck. “We really put an emphasis on our special teams in preseason camp and it showed today.” Eash said. “I think our kicking game is going to be really, really good and win us some ballgames.” Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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