Alpena aims to bounce back against Sanford Meridian
Trending
ALPENA -- The Alpena High School football team is looking for redemption this week.
After a less than stellar performance resulted in a 49-0 loss to Marquette last week, the Wildcats are eager to turn things around when they host Sanford Meridian tonight.
Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium.
Turnovers, missed tackles, bad angles, and the like snowballed into a frustrating performance last week, one that Alpena coach Eric Mitchell described as a Murphy's Law kind of day.
"Anything that could go wrong did go wrong," Mitchell said. "We missed tackles, angles were horrible, offensively we turned the ball over four times. We talked with the kids and (I think) we play that team nine more times, that game was the outlier. They got the best of us, but we're ready to rebound."
Alpena (1-1) welcomes Sanford Meridian (0-2), who is looking for its own boost after losses to Midland Bullock Creek and Shepherd. The Mustangs have made the playoffs three of the previous four seasons, but have struggled offensively in 2023, scoring just 21 points.
Last week, Sanford struggled to stop the run game, allowing three rushing scores to Shepherd's Jalan Brandenburger and was intercepted three times by Shepherd's defense.
"I like offensively they do a lot of things real well," Mitchell said. "The quarterback can move, they've got a few receivers I think are different. They stretch the field really well. I think if we come out ready to play, we're going to be found. We've got a few packages this week where we feel like we can move the ball."
Watching film of the Marquette game back this week, Mitchell said coaches and players both expressed frustration with mistakes the team doesn't normally make. The Wildcats are still looking to piece together a solid four-quarter showing after they had to hold back a rally from Flint Powers in their opener to win and struggled last week.
While it's still early in the season, a win tonight could go a long way for Alpena's confidence. Mitchell mentioned a tough loss last year -- a week 3 56-0 loss to Whitehall -- left a sour taste in the players' mouths and was tough to bounce back from.
With a week to prepare and another opportunity to show they can play better, the Wildcats hope to make the most of it. Mitchell likes the response he's seen from his team this week and they're determined the same thing doesn't happen this year.
"I think every kid realizes we didn't play to our ability. We can play, we just have to prove to ourselves that we can play a four quarter football game," Mitchell said. "When we watched the film the kids were saying, I can't believe we did that. We got frustrated and couldn't get out of our own way."