Alcona ready for challenge against St. Ignace tonight

LINCOLN -- Through the first two weeks of the high school football season, Alcona really hasn't been tested. That is about to change in a hurry. The Tigers (2-0 overall) host St. Ignace (2-0) tonight in a battle of early-season 8-player unbeatens.

"It is going to be a game between two really good teams," Alcona coach Jason Somers said. "Watching film, I think we have a lot of the same strengths, so it ought to be really good and it should come down to who makes the fewest mistakes."

The Saints were a playoff team last year in 11-player action, and so far have translated their play to 8-player quite well. They are loaded with eight seniors and have dominated their first two opponents, Suttons Bay and Pellston, by scores of 46-6 and 46-8.

Trevor Visnaw has been the team's leading rusher and is also a threat returning kicks on special teams. Kordell Killscrow, Owen Lester, Ethan Shephard and Jonny Ingalls could all see carries as well in what is quite the deep backfield. Ethan McLean is the St. Ignace quarterback and is a threat to run as well.

"They have some big guys up front and their guys in the special areas look to be pretty fast," Somers said. "They have some experience, though one thing that may be going for us is that they are new to 8-man. They are coached well though, so I'm not expecting that to be as big of a deal as what it seems like. They have a few less players than us, so maybe that is something we can exploit a little bit."

Of course, Alcona has had similar success through its first two weeks. It throttled Mio 60-0 in week one and took care of Atlanta 50-8 in week two. Tiger quarterback Garrett Somers has already thrown for seven touchdowns, and has an array of talented teammates to throw to; including Collin Walker, William Liebler, Evan Borsvold Jeremiah Bullis and Sawyer Seminoff. Bullis is also one of several threats for the Tigers in the ground game.

"Some things we are doing pretty darn good but there are also areas we need to clean it up," Somers said. "We just did a nice job cleaning up the mistakes from week one to week two and if we can make that same kind of improvement from week two to week three, we will be where we need to be. Mistakes, penalties, poor execution on the two-point plays, are all things that we need to clean up to be a better football club."

Alcona's two contests to open the season were pretty much over by halftime. That is not expected to be the case tonight however. St. Ignace and Alcona both look to be playoff quality teams, though Somers isn't too worried about his team seeing a big jump in the level of competition.

"These kids really like to compete, so getting them ready to play isn't too hard," he said. "I think they are definitely game to the challenge and I can't wait to see what they do when they play against a team that they can play with for four quarters."

This will be the first meeting between the two teams since 2007. There's obviously not much familiarity with each other.

"It is a little bit unpredictable," Somers said of the game.

But what is known is that tonight two talented teams will face off, looking to make an early season statement.

"There's a lot of buzz about our team," Somers said. "It will be a good time for them to go out and show what they have and put on a show for the hometown crowd."