Alcona enjoying success in second season of 8-Player football
Courtesy Photo Alcona football players huddle up during a game earlier this season. The Tigers are currently undefeated with a 6-0 record.
Courtesy Photo Alcona’s Collin Walker goes up for a catch during Saturday’s win at Inland Lakes. Walker tied a state record with 16 receptions in the game, and has been one of the many key pieces to the Tigers’ success this year.
Courtesy Photo Alcona football players huddle up during a game earlier this season. The Tigers are currently undefeated with a 6-0 record.
Courtesy Photo Alcona’s Collin Walker goes up for a catch during Saturday’s win at Inland Lakes. Walker tied a state record with 16 receptions in the game, and has been one of the many key pieces to the Tigers’ success this year.
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LINCOLN -- The Alcona football team has certainly been met with vast success in its second season of 8-man football.
The Tigers have racked up six straight wins to start the year, and have even garnered the attention of many across the state, as they were slotted as the eighth ranked team in the latest Associated Press polls.
"We were able to hit the ground running, we had an idea of what was going on and how it was going to affect us and what 8-man really was," Alcona coach Jason Somers said of building off last year's 5-4 season. "It is quite a bit different from 11-man, but I think our coaches have done a great job and our boys did a great job preparing themselves mentally for all of this as well."
The Tigers opened the season with an 82-52 win over Mio, and have followed that with blowout wins over Hale, Atlanta, Hillman and Charlton Heston.
They also managed a road win at a tough Inland Lakes team last week, 50-40. The Bulldogs annually plays deep into the Division 1 postseason and Somers called that win over Inland Lakes a meaningful win for the program.
"It doesn't surprise me at all," Somers said of the team's success. "The kids have really worked hard in the off-season and in the weight room. We even went up to Alpena to play 7-on-7's against an 11-man team. We wanted to challenge ourselves and make it hard on ourselves so we could get better in the summer."
The Tigers have racked up an average of 60 points a game. Sophomore quarterback Garrett Somers is just as happy to torch the offense with a pass; he has 1,182 yards and 17 touchdowns through the air, or on the ground; he has a team high 519 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground. Juniors Jesse Sheldon and Collin Walker have 510 and 419 yards rushing respectively to give their ground game plenty of options. Walker is also a threat receiving, having over 500 yards that way, and tied the state record for receptions in a game with 16 in the win over Inland Lakes. Jeremiah Bullis is also a big threat in the passing game, having hauled in over 300 yards through the air.
"Not many people have noticed (our balance)," Somers said. "I don't think there is a good way to (defend) us. We are a passing team when we want to be, we are a running team when we need to be. Having that dual threat makes it really hard to prepare for us."
The Tigers close out the season with perhaps their toughest stretch of games. They played Inland Lakes last week one won. They'll host Division 2's eighth ranked team Au Gres tonight for a league crossover game, and wrap up the year with 10th ranked Rogers City and Whittemore-Prescott as they look to win the North Star League Big Dipper title.
"We have to get Rogers City and W-P (to get the league championship)," Somers said. "This is definitely difficult, but boy is it fun. It is super fun to play in this kind of environment, this late in the season. We are super excited about that, we just have to be equal to the task and that makes us focus on one game at a time."