By By Matthew Nascone
The Northview Chiefs football team may have a record of 3-0, but head coach Cody Keene knows that can change drastically.
"We were 3-0 last year before we went 0-3," Keene said. "So we are taking one game at a time. And we have to have a good week of preparation to eliminate the penalties."
The Chiefs' opponent Friday is Holmes County and Keene said he really wants to win this one because the Blue Devils are the team that broke NHS's three-game win streak last year to the tune of 20-14.
"We have never beaten them since I have been head coach here," Keene said. "We will have to run the ball successfully to win and defensively we will do what we have been doing, except we will have to be more physical."
And Keene said he is not worried about how his team will work this week.
"We have good kids and they want to work hard to get better," he said. "They will work awful hard to correct what we have been doing wrong."
When the teams hit the field Keene said the Chiefs' defense will have keep an eye on Blue Devil wingback Evan Speights, who is a 5-foot-5 150-pound runner with speed.
"He has tremendous quickness out there and they like to get the ball to him," Keene said. "And they will also give the ball to their other wingback, Brad White, who is the bigger of the two backs, but also has quickness to go along with his size."
The Blue Devils used a little bit of trickery in 2005 when they used plays NHS was not expecting.
"Last year we thought we had prepared for them and they used a bunch of misdirection plays where we flew to the ball, but it was not there for long," Keene said. "But this year we have to be disciplined and stay with our pursuit angles."
The Northview High School Sports Boosters will be serving a smoked chicken dinner prior to the game from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the football concession area.
Keene said the number of fans at last week's game was a big key to the Chiefs' win and he hopes they come out in support of their team again.
"The attendance last week says a lot about these kids and how hard they have worked," Keene said. "It meant a lot to them to have all those people in the stands and we hope they come back again this week."
Kick off is set for 7:30 p.m. and there will be a special dedication of the press box at halftime.