It’s the same Monroe squad that was voted last in the SWBL Southwestern Division preseason coaches poll.
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“We’re definitely not accepting that,” Hornets junior quarterback Nick Osterman said. “We kind of took that as a smack in the face. We mentioned it at the beginning of the season. Now we’re trying to show people what we’ve got.”
Veteran Monroe coach Bill Leach was pleased with the way his players made adjustments after the Edgewood defeat.
“I think we’ll look back and say that we’d like to have that game back,” Leach said. “What I liked about our kids is that we faced the Wing-T again in Week 2, the kids corrected the problems we had against Edgewood, and we were able to slow Madison down a little bit.
“We’ve still got a lot of things we need to clean up. But beating Madison is a good win. And we’re healthy coming out of two physical games, knock on wood.”
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The Hornets, set to host New Richmond on Friday, are coming off a 3-7 season. Yet Leach said he won’t be surprised if the 2017 squad proves to be a winner.
“I know every year when you get done with the season, you sit down and think, ‘Oh my gosh, what do we have coming back?’ ” Leach said. “I started looking down the roster in January and thought, ‘We’re not too bad.’
“We had to move some people around, but overall, but we’ve got a big group of seniors returning that got a lot of playing time last year and some sophomores who got some playing time. They weren’t necessarily starters, but there was quite a bit of Friday night experience coming back.”
Osterman is among the returnees. He threw for 745 yards and six touchdowns with seven picks last year. He’s 21 of 35 for 355 yards and five TDs with no interceptions this year.
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Seniors Alex Page (five catches, 103 yards, two TDs) and Matt Green (two catches, 109 yards, two TDs) were Osterman’s primary targets in a 9-of-16, 233-yard, four-touchdown effort against Madison.
“The O-line gave me great time Friday night, and receivers got open and ran good routes,” Osterman said. “Our offense does very well when we play to our expectations.”
He said the Hornets have high goals for themselves that include the Division III playoffs and the Southwestern Division title. Personally, Osterman wants to eclipse his brother Tyler’s passing records at Monroe.
And that preseason coaches poll … it’s been part of the Hornets’ mind-set ever since it was released.
“I’ve still got that in my back pocket for next week when we get ready for Oakwood,” Leach said. “I’ll say, ‘Hey, remember what we talked about four weeks ago when that poll came out? Here’s your first chance to do something about it.’ ”
“I think we’re a lot better than people think we are,” Osterman said. “We lost a lot last year, but we have plenty of guys coming back, and we’ve got good size up front and we’ve got skill players that can run.”
Senior Hunter Collins ran 18 times for 93 yards against Madison. He’s totaled 171 yards on 36 rushes through two games — the rest of the team has 46 yards on 18 carries.
Page is the Hornets’ defensive catalyst at middle linebacker.
“He’s the heart and soul of that defense and the fastest kid on the team,” Leach said.
Junior strong safety Tyler Hendricks and senior linebacker Sam Bohannon are also key figures in Monroe’s 4-3 defense. The Hornets were a 3-4 unit last year and allowed 29.5 points per game.
“We just weren’t very good at it,” Leach said. “Going back to the 4-3 helps us up front. You’ve got to be able to stop the run if you want to win this league.”
He said New Richmond is a big Harbin computer point opponent for the Hornets. The Lions topped Monroe 38-20 last season.
“It’s not the season, but it’s a big game,” Leach said. “If you can go into the league 2-1 instead of 1-2, it’s a huge confidence thing. I think it’s all about confidence for kids nowadays. They get that going and all of a sudden they start doing things that they don’t think they can do. But that can go the other way real quick too. I found that out last year.”
Friday’s game
What: New Richmond (1-1) at Monroe (1-1), 7 p.m.
Where: Fighting Hornet Field, 220 Yankee Road, Monroe
Last year: New Richmond won 38-20
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