Football: Freshman Chargers open season with convincing win

by Jason Wolverton

Having not played an opening week contest, Midland Dow freshman coach Jason Watkins was concerned that his team wouldn’t be sharp heading into Wednesday’s game against Bay City Western.

Looks like Watkins didn’t have anything to worry about.

Eric Schwenk and Daniel Stephens scored two touchdowns apiece and the Chargers’ defense smothered the Western attack as Dow opened the 2007 campaign with a convincing 30-0 win over the visiting Warriors.

“I thought we were sharp,” Watkins said. “We had good snaps and good execution. There’s a lot of stuff still to work on, but I was proud of how we played for our first game.”

Things opened up with Dow featuring a two-headed monster at quarterback in Schwenk and Stephens. The Chargers spread things out with four receivers and then ran the ball right into the heart of the Warriors’ defense, scoring first on a two-yard run from Schwenk with 5:56 to go in the opening quarter.

Just three minutes later, it was Stephens’ turn as he took a quarterback keeper up field and sprinted 27 yards to pad the Chargers’ lead. Another keeper from Schwenk with 4:06 to go in the half and a third successful PAT off the foot of Mitchell Ballard would give Dow a 21-0 halftime lead.

The second half was much the same for the Chargers as Stephens would score from six yards out less than five minutes into the third quarter to give Dow the four-touchdown lead and give each signal caller a pair of scores in the game. Brandon Sklenar would take the majority of the snaps at quarterback the rest of the way.

“We’re definitely very blessed at quarterback,” Watkins said. “We’ve been working about six kids at that position, and we were able to use three of them tonight. They all go out there and they run hard and they bust their gut on every play.”

But while the offense was busy racking up points, the Chargers’ defense was getting to work stuffing the Warriors’ attack. Western never really threatened all game as the defense was able to force punt after punt and preserve the shutout.

The effort culminated at the beginning of the fourth when a perfect punt that pinned Western at their own one-yard line was followed up by a sack from Andrew Lorenz for the safety to cap the scoring for the Chargers.

“Our guys that came in, our second wave and our third wave, they just kept coming and they worked hard,” Watkins said of his defensive reserves. “They played every down like it was 0-0 and that was terrific.”

The Chargers will be in action again next Wednesday when they travel to Mount Pleasant for their first road game of the season. And while the Oilers are 0-1 after an opening game defeat to Midland High, Watkins is a little concerned that a long weekend and the team’s first experience in high school may be a bit of a distraction.

“Can we get through Labor Day weekend? Can we get school started and keep these guys focused?” Watkins said. “It’s their first time going to high school, and they’re going to be on a bus to Mount Pleasant. So we need to focus, focus, focus.”

For more photos from Wednesday’s game, click on “Photo Slideshow” in the top right corner of this article.

Photos by Jason Wolverton