After beginning their season on the right foot last Friday night by defeating Clarinda 16-14 at home, Atlantic looks to prepare to take on the Mustangs this week in Shenandoah.

The Trojans defeated the Cardinals in what came to be an exciting finish to their season opener, scoring on a field goal late in the game to take the lead and seal the victory. Heading into the locker room at halftime, Atlantic held a strong 13-0 lead over Clarinda. In the fourth quarter the Cardinals began to rally back and took a commanding lead 14-13 before Atlantic then scored on a field goal delivered by senior Eric Wieser with less than a minute remaining to put the nail into the coffin for the Cardinals.

On the same night just west of Atlantic along I-80, Shenandoah was playing in a match-up against AHSTW in Avoca. The Vikings defeated Shenandoah at home 13-6 beginning their season 1-0 and sending the Mustangs home unhappy and hungry for a win versus Atlantic.

Last season, Shenandoah played Atlantic at the Trojan Bowl in week seven of the season. The Mustangs beat Atlantic 55-19 and mustering a running clock in the last half of the game. Shenandoah rushed for 443 yards that game while senior quarterback Jake Johnson had a 239.4 passer rating.

Head coach Mike McDermott focused all week long about stressing that our defensive players stay home at their positions during plays to shut down any attempts for counters and reverses by the Mustangs’ veer offense, a lot like last week’s preparations for Clarinda. McDermott also has put his focus on stopping the run game on defense. Last season Shenandoah put up big numbers against Atlantic on the ground and coach believes you can’t win football games if you don’t win the rushing battle, based on a three win system he has integrated with the players.

McDermott puts an emphasis on the matter that if a team can win out a three win system consisting of the rushing game, committing the fewest amount of penalties and least amount of turnovers in a game; you’re guaranteed to defeat the other team. This comes from a study conducted on football games from high school through college football and up to the NFL. Each week McDermott will keep track of these statistics and write it down to show team which category was won or lost, and how it affected the result of the game.
The theme of the game Friday is red, white and blue. Kickoff is at 7pm in Shenandoah.