FREMONT – It’s impossible not to feel good about one’s self following a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback win like the one the Fremont Ross football team enjoyed last Friday over Findlay.
Marquan Cobbins holds up the ball after his fourth-quarter interception against Findlay.
All photos by Michelle White.
Not only was the win itself remarkable, but it kicked off the TRAC portion of the schedule with a victory, avoided a second-straight loss to an arch rival, and kept the Little Giants from falling to 1-3 overall and risking the season flying off the rails.
But, despite all the reasons for the Little Giants (2-2 overall, 1-0 TRAC) to feel confident, they also have to know they’re not likely to escape with a win again this week against St. John’s if they play in a similar fashion as they did early on against Findlay.
“It was a massive win but we all know we played God-awful in the secondary and we were God-awful offensively in that first half,” head coach Chad Long said. “The biggest thing is we watched film and were able to correct a lot of mistakes.”
As the Little Giants get set to host the Titans (2-2, 0-1) Friday night at Don Paul Stadium, the biggest area of emphasis for Ross is shoring up its secondary. To help, Long is shifting his personal attentions this week to the defensive backfield, which gave up 376 yards passing, including touchdown strikes of 53, 44 and 71 yards.
“There was blown coverages, miscues on all of them. That’s unacceptable,” Long said. “I’m on the defense in the secondary now, full-time through the week. I don’t know what it is, I think we have great coaches in the secondary with Dustin Patten and Greg Vassar. Maybe it was the way the communication is, on what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”
Ross is also tweaking its personnel in pass coverage as well. Senior Noah Hotz, the lone returning starter from last year, is joined by Marquan Cobbins’ whose two interceptions last week played a vital role in the Little Giants’ comeback, along with Charles Chapman and Bryce McKinstry, while Raleigh Weaver will play as nickel back as well.
The Little Giants secondary,including Bryce McKinstry (86), Marquan Cobbins (29) and Noah Hotz (9) will look to shut down the St. John’s passing attack Friday night.
Long also said the linebackers have to do a better job at recognizing situations where they need to drop back in pass coverage.
“You can’t take four guys and cover five guys,” Long said. “It’s impossible.”
The trick for Ross this week will be figuring out the balance between what St. John’s has shown on film thus far and if, and how much, the Titans will change based up on what the Little Giants’ defense showed against Findlay.
The Titans have employed a quick-release, short-passing attack. Only a handful of times per game will St. John’s throw more than 10 yards down field, and of those passes, rarely complete them. Then again, given how vulnerable Ross was to the vertical passing attack last week, the Little Giant defense can’t afford to keep its focus solely on the short passes, either.
“They’re not a deep-passing team, a lot of slips, bubbles, slants,” Long said. “I don’t know if they’re having line issues or what, but everything is dinky and quick. Quite frankly, that’s a lot how Findlay was, except they were able to slip one (receiver) out and broken coverage is easy to throw to.”
The Titan offense is led by sophomore Braydon Lichtenberg, whose favorite target is St. John’s biggest offensive weapon, elusive, junior wide receiver Dimitri Mitsopoulos, who will also lineup at running back and, perhaps, as a wildcat quarterback.
“He was good as a sophomore, he’s really good this year,” Long said. “He’s their guy they like to throw the ball to. He’s a ball-player, he’s good on special teams, on returns. They can throw to a slew of kids, but they like to get the ball to him a good 10 times a game on slips and bubbles and little end routes and stuff like that.
“Overall,” Long added, “their receiving corps is really good, better than Findlay’s, I think.”