With a healthier squad ready to suit up this week, Apollo football is looking to bounce back from a tough loss to North Hardin and grab its first win of the season when they take on Meade County.
The Eagles are coming off of their fourth straight loss to start the season, as they were unable to silence North Hardin’s offense in a 52-25 loss. Senior quarterback Christian Combs threw for 242 yards on 18-37 passing and three touchdowns in the contest, but also had two interceptions.
Playing without senior running back Donte Dixon, Combs also ran for 94 yards on 10 carries in the game. With a number of players returning in week five after past injuries—including a limited action Dixon—Head Coach John Edge wants his team to play sharp mentally and physically and see what they can have as a nearly complete team.
“We need to play clean football,” Edge said. “We get quite a few kids coming back from injuries and other reasons. This will be the first week we have the majority of our team back.”
However, Edge knows that his team will have its work cut out for them against the Green Wave. Meade County struggled in its first two games of the season, but has since bounced back with 42-21 and 36-8 wins over DeSales and Oldham County respectively.
“Meade County is always a hard-nosed football team,” Edge said. “They are always ready to play. They have a lot of good young players that can do alot of things with the ball and their defense is pretty good.”
Edge said that on the defensive side of the ball they will have to contain Meade County senior quarterback Andrew Milay, saying that he is a very good man under center with great running ability. Offensively they’ll have to keep an eye out for senior linebacker Jay Fortner, someone who has a nose for the ball.
In order to help counter the play from the two gamechangers for the Green Waves, Edge said that Apollo has to put together a complete game from start to finish.
“Our biggest focus this week is consistency,” Edge said. “We need to find a consistent lineup, especially on our offense and defensive lines.”
As long as the Eagles can protect the football, do the little things right and keep Meade County’s offense off the field, Edge and company feel as though they can grab their first win of the season in front of their home fans.
“We need to stop them, period,” Edge said. “Cannot turn the ball over and give them a short field [and] we have to win on Special Teams.”
