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August 27 was the last time Clay football won a game on Clay Memorial Stadium’s Ted Federici Field.
Now, after two consecutive road games, the Eagles, losers in four of their last five, will try to change their string of bad fortunes at home against 11th year coach Rick Rios and his Rogers Rams this week.
Coach Donnelly’s Eagles have had a brutal schedule this season and things are not about to get any easier as the season winds down. The Eagles have played Central Catholic, Whitmer, and St. John’s Jesuit in back to back weeks and now host a gritty Rogers team and will end the season with an extremely difficult test against St. Francis at home.
In order to beat Rogers, Coach Donnelly says, “We will work on improving our execution of our offense and defense and also our assignment discipline. Those have been our biggest issues the last month.”
Clay has been disappointing this season and has shown no signs of progress in the last few weeks. Clay’s offense, which was shutout in the last four games of 2009, has been shut out three times this season and is averaging only 10 points per game. Clay’s offense will try to put up some points against the 3-3 defense of Rogers with a balanced attack.
“Game plans are built week to week based on the abilities of our players and what we feel they can execute against the team we play that week. When we game plan, we don’t look at the amount of passes or runs but rather what we think we can run against an opponent,” says Donnelly.
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Clay senior Kevin Gaskins seeks some running
room in the Eagle’s 17-14 victory over Springfield.
(Press photo by John Pollock/www.pollock.smug
mug.com) |
The roughest stretch of the season came during weeks six and seven, weeks in which Clay was outscored a combined 63-0 in two excruciating losses to City League powers Central Catholic and Whitmer.
After losing City League player of the year and current UT Rocket E.J. Tucker to graduation, Rogers, 9-2 finishers a season ago, has been equally disappointing despite playing a much easier schedule than the Eagles. But the Rams would love to send the Eagles to 1-4 at home and get to five wins.
“The key right now for us will be coming together as a group, as a family, and not to become complacent or individualistic. Sometimes it's easier to deal with adversity than success," said Rios.
Rogers is led by playmakers Marquise Snider and his main targets Damond Powell and Ohio State-bound DerJaun Gambrell. Snider has passed for over 400 yards this season and his eight touchdown passes rank him second in the City League, behind only Brian Roback of St. John’s Jesuit. Powell has exceptional speed and ranks near the top of the City League in touchdown receptions and is averaging nearly 40 yards per catch.
Clay’s defense has been exposed in the last three weeks and will try to put pressure on Snider, who will be taking snaps behind a mammoth offensive line that averages 6-4 and 307 pounds per player. However, depth on that line has been a problem all year for Rogers and if they want to beat Clay this week, they will have to expose Clay’s defense with their speed.
Clay has not been able to control some of the faster teams in the league — Central Catholic, Whitmer, St. John’s, and Waite — this season. Coach Donnelly believes his team needs to work as a unit to stop the speed of Rogers.
“[We need to be] disciplined in our gap assignments, trust each other, and be balanced when attempting to tackle,” Donnelly said.
Clay’s defense is anchored by Dylan Gore in the middle and cornerback Ross Achter. Achter has picked off two passes this season, including a game saving interception in week 1 against Northview. Cody Kish has also contributed big for Coach Bill Fisher’s defense this season and Coach Donnelly has been impressed with everyone on defense, but knows they can do better.
“Our defense for the most part has been very good. We have had troubles defensively the last few weeks because of assignment breakdowns and kids trying to do too much. We need to get back to the basics and have all 11 players working together,” Donnelly said.
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Clay football coach Mike Donnelly. (Press photo by John Pollock/www.pollock.smugmug.com)
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Clay senior Kevin Gaskins seeks some running room in the Eagle’s 17-14 victory over Springfield. (Press photo by John Pollock/www.pollock.smugmug.com)
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Clay senior wide receiver Bobby Hoffman in the end zone after scoring during the Eagle’s 17-14 victory over Springfield. (Press photo by John Pollock/www.pollock.smugmug.com)
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