The Albany High football team plays against Loranger on Friday, Oct. 22, 2021.
What’s been a trying season for the Albany football team got a little more challenging this week.
Hornets coach David Knight said ‘eight or nine seniors’ missed practice Tuesday with an illness, and Knight is trying to find some positives heading into Friday’s 7 p.m. homecoming game against Beau Chene.
“A lot of young kids got a lot of reps,” Knight said. “We’ve got to go forward, and if those guys are still sick Friday and can’t go, then we’ll have to start all these freshmen and sophomores. We’re already starting four freshmen on both sides.”
In last week’s loss to Loranger, J.J. Doherty (shoulder) and Seth Galyean (collarbone) returned to limited action. Knight expects Doherty’s role to increase, but he said Galyean was one of the players who was sick early in the week, leaving his status for the game up in the air.
“We’ve kind of looked at (Doherty) more as a receiver this week because Aiden Casteel has been back there (at quarterback) since the second half of the second game, and this is really his team at this moment,” Knight said. “He threw for almost 300 yards the other night. There’s a lot of teams out there that would love to have a quarterback that can throw for 300 yards. We’re still trying to get him some experience, and with J.J. back, we’ll be able to do a few things, get the ball to him quick and get him moving to where we won’t have to deal with lineman vs. lineman.”
Additionally, fullback Antonio Lopinto was knocked out on a hit last week and had not been to the doctor earlier this week, leaving his status for Friday’s game in doubt.
“At this point, we’ve already put our game plan in for this week, and us much as you need him, as much as you need any of those guys, if they can’t practice, they can’t play,” Knight said.
Beau Chene (5-3) is coming off a 40-0 loss to Breaux Bridge but averaged 38.2 points per game in its previous seven contests.
“They’re spread,” Knight said. “They throw the ball a lot. They’ve got a real good back they run behind, and they put a lot of points up.”
Knight said the spread offense will be a challenge for the Hornets.
“When you get them all spread out like that, it’s athlete on athlete,” he said. “You’ve either got them or you don’t, and it puts a lot of guys into open space. For us, we’re matching 15-year-olds up against against 18-year-olds. It’s not like these kids have been playing in high school. These are kids that a year or two ago were playing middle school ball, where guys didn’t run the complicated stuff they do now. It’s just hard. We can’t simulate this stuff at practice. We try, but it’s just hard to simulate stuff at practice when we don’t have the speed with our starters, much less trying to simulate somebody else’s speed for our scout (team).”
Knight said Beau Chene bases out of a 4-2-5 scheme on defense.
“Breaux Bridge runs an offense just like we run, and they just loaded up, put everybody up on the line of scrimmage and just tried to outmuscle them,” Knight said. “Of course, Breaux Bridge was bigger than them and faster and stronger, so any time you’re bigger, faster, stronger, that helps you and Breaux Bridge just ran all over them. We watched a couple of other teams they played where they tried to do that, and they ran all over them. It looks like with them it’s whoever’s the strongest team.”
“They’re bigger than us and probably faster than us,” Knight continued. “They’re well-seasoned. They’ve got a bunch of seniors on the team, so we’re just trying to finish the year out, trying to finish strong and see if we can’t win a game. It’s tough deal right now.”
