CRESS: Just blame me for everything

By MATT CRESS
Matthew.Cress@newsandtribune.com

August 28, 2008 12:03 am

— The 2008 football season is off to a weird start, isn't it?
New Albany has started 1-0 for the first time in three years, Clarksville is 0-1 for the first time since 2004 and no one really paid that much attention to the first week of football season because of the continuing hype surrounding Jeffersonville’s first appearance in the Little League World Series in a long, long time.
Ah, just blame me.
When I show up, odd things start happening.
I take my annual vacation to Tampa with the future Mrs. Cress and Jeff smashes its way through the Great Lakes region. I come back and it goes 0-3 in the World Series in the most heartbreaking ways.
Just before I show up in Tampa, its Little League squad makes it to Williamsport as well, then I head back home and the team goes 2-1 and makes a good showing before falling in the United States semifinal.
The point is that I’m hunting for an apartment and it’s come down to either New Albany or Jeffersonville. For those fans not wanting to subject their favorite school to a strange rash of injuries, blown calls and crushing defeats, it would be best to persuade me to choose the city opposite of the one you support. This is most easily accomplished by a cash payment, or by an offer to help me move. I have a 300-pound leather couch with your name on it, and what’s a crippling back injury when it can help produce glory on the gridiron, diamond or court?
Or you can do the next wisest thing and educate yourself with The Matt’s football picks.

Clarksville at Pekin Eastern
Starting a football program is difficult business. Just ask the Musketeers, who got the team they always wanted, only to watch it drop 10 of their first 11 games, including 10 in a row.
I have to take some responsibility for this. After all, the Cress clan hails from Pekin, and has done a fine job of supporting Washington County bars, jails and gun shops for many years. My family tree can hold its own in a brawl, but unfortunately that does the football team little good.
And what’s coming will be an angry Generals squad that has some serious questions to answer on the defensive side of the ball.
In last week’s loss to Floyd Central, Clarksville gave up a whopping 63 points, the program’s biggest yield since Brownstown hung 68 in a sectional opener in 2001.
This decade has been all about defense for Clarksville, which even in a .500 campaign a year ago gave up no more than 41.
Offensively, Clarksville will have little to worry about here against a team that surrendered 39 last week to a Crawford County club fresh off an 0-10 season.
The Generals also struggled with injuries in their opener, but if running back Corey Bowens is healthy, and if quarterback Drew Farney keeps his chemistry with freshman wideout Thomas Threatt, this should be the romp they need to make the Floyd game a distant memory.
The pick: Clarksville 42, Pekin Eastern 7.

Floyd Central at Providence
This is the toughest game to pick this week by far, and even now I have no idea what to tell my bookie … I mean readers.
Recent history says to take the Pioneers, winners of three of the last four in the series by an average of nearly 20 points a game. The traditional season opener for both clubs until last year’s revival of Providence’s series with New Albany, I’d have to give the edge to Floyd based on its impressive handling of Clarksville a week ago.
The offseason drastically changed both teams. For Providence, it meant a return to its ground-based roots after coach Gene Sartini spent last season shocking the area with an aerial attack led by sure-armed quarterback John Hardin.
Now, Hardin is gone, and in his place is 5-foot-9 (he looks smaller in person) sophomore Anthony Denis.
Denis is going to be a solid quarterback, that much was obvious from watching his first varsity start, and running back Ethan Cook is as good as they come, particularly when supported with bruising runner Shane Sparks.
It’s an offense that will get better and better as the late summer turns into fall.
For Floyd, it appears the promise that came with the hiring of Brian Glesing is finally beginning to materialize. Max Guenther is rounding into a solid signal-caller and Aaron Sparks chopped up the Clarksville defense for 160 yards last Friday.
If the defense, a Glesing staple, can learn to simply contain its foes, the offense should have enough firepower to win.
I mulled this game over while munching on free cheese and cookies in the Providence press box last week until I discovered the answer had been in front of me all along — always go with the team that offers free food to the press.
The pick: Providence 35, Floyd Central 31.

Brownstown at Charlestown
Pirate football fans have put together an impressive Web site devoted to following their team, included a live Web cast of all Charlestown’s games.
Last week’s show even included a few comments from The Matt, who made an idiot of himself and sold the Pirates way short before their annual trouncing of Madison.
Does Charlestown still have the strength of a year ago?
Probably not, but what The Matt didn’t think about was whether or not that actually mattered.
You should never underestimate the effect of confidence and momentum on a football program. There is a reason that the same college teams always fill the BCS bowls, or that March always ends with a discussion of Kansas and North Carolina.
Other schools pop up from time to time, but the world still revolves around the New York Yankees whether they are good or not.
That’s the crossroads at which Charlestown finds itself. Is this a budding USC or Notre Dame, or is it a Missouri or Boston College — good for a short period until fading back into obscurity?
There’s only one way to find out. And it’s called Brownstown.
The Braves are the Florida of the Mid-Southern Conference. They are one of the top Class 2A programs in the state. They are what everyone aspires to be, if only you can beat them. And not many people do.
This isn’t really about field personnel or matchups — it’s about heart.
Last season, during Charlestown’s fascinating (and dominating) run through the regular season, Pirate coach Jason Hawkins pointed out that it was the Brownstown game where it all came together.
For a revamped Charlestown squad with a new quarterback in Damon Vest, and a retooled offensive line hit hard by departures, the same thing applies. It can all come together. Or it can all fall apart.
The pick: Brownstown 34, Charlestown 21.

Castle at New Albany
Since 1994, the Bulldogs have played Castle five times. All five were losses.
In fact, New Albany has dropped its last eight games against the Knights and their Evansville-area brethren, last beating two of those schools — Harrison and Reitz — during its run to regional in 2002.
Still, I got a chance to see New Albany in person last week, and the most glaring thing I noticed is that this year’s edition of the Bulldogs is a little different. A little more equipped to win games it shouldn’t.
For years, I’ve held the theory that New Albany has had the same team, season after season. Strong, athletic, big, quick, with tons of natural ability and a strong offense capable of scoring on any opponent.
The problem has long been one of timing. For all its good qualities, New Albany has had the worst timing — big penalties in big moments, defensive breakdowns in clutch situations, turnovers on must-score drives — of any local team.
Some of those things were mental mistakes by high school kids who are prone to such things. Some of them were dumb, rotten luck.
But you also make your own luck, and it wasn’t the same New Albany that dispatched Providence with more ease than the final 30-21 score indicated last Friday. It’s true that this team still makes the mistakes that all teams make, like a bobbled reception that was picked off for a touchdown to give the Pioneers new life near the end of the first half.
But these Bulldogs had enough tenacity and heart to overcome them.
Senior Graham Brown would be the best quarterback in the area if it weren’t for Jeff standout and Indiana University-bound Edward Wright-Baker. And Brown has a talented target in Brett Martin and a legit tailback in Melvin Posey.
This is the first year I’ve seen New Albany really have the personnel to make coach Kevin Roth’s offense — a wide-open affair at its most conservative — as effective as it should be.
The problem with Castle is, of course, one of timing. If this game wasn’t in Week 2, New Albany may have mastered its attack to the point where the Evansville curse wouldn’t matter. Maybe I’m wrong and it already has.
The pick: Castle 31, New Albany 20.

Jeffersonville at Seymour
I’m not going to lie — I don’t know a lot about Seymour. I know the Owls have had just one winning season since 2002. That was in 2005, the last time Seymour beat the Red Devils.
I didn’t go out of my way to do research, either. The thing about this game is that it doesn’t matter what Seymour has — it’s all about how Jeffersonville responds to last week’s heartbreaking loss to Evansville Reitz.
The last time Jeff beat Reitz, I was trading slap bracelets with my friends, wearing neon bicycle shorts and couldn’t get the tune of Flock of Seagulls’ hit “I Ran” our of my head.
I was learning how not to Wang Chung tonight, sneaking downstairs to watch Shannon Tweed spice it up in “Confidential Affair/Night Heat/Unlawful Entry (or something like that)” and catching new episodes of “L.A. Law” and “Thirtysomething.”
I just snuck in as many 80’s references as Jeff has losses to Reitz, a trend which continued despite Jeff having its best chance to end the streak once and for all last week.
The beautiful part of the high school season is that a loss doesn’t derail your year — if you don’t let it. All of Jeff’s preseason goals are still intact, and possibly even more realistic, if the team doesn’t let the 34-33 defeat hang over their heads like Michael Landon in “Highway to Heaven.”
And they won’t.
This is as talented a team as the Devils have had in some time, and Wright-Baker and running back Jamie Goldsmith ensure they’ll put up enough points to hang with anyone on the schedule.
Look for Jeff to take all those frustrations out on the Owls this week.
As long as I don’t move to their city in the next 24 hours.
The pick: Jeffersonville 42, Seymour 14.
Contact Matthew Cress at matthew.cress@newsandtribune.com.

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