Kettering Alter vs. Vandalia Butler
Scrimmage Game
August 15, 2008
The Mighty 2008 Alter Knights took their game north of Dayton on a beautiful August Friday night that included a rising full moon over the visitors side.
The week two scrimmage game helps to fine-tune the team for the Backyard Brawl. Though D-II Vandalia Butler would seem to be a solid stepping stone for the Knights to use, the Aviators did little to provide the competition needed to determine the preseason development of the team. Quite frankly, fans were left wondering if
Alter was really THAT GOOD or if Butler was really THAT BAD!!!
There were bright spots all over this game, from the coaching staff, to the offense, to the defense, to the special teams, to the very core of what will make this team great.
Offensively, the Knights look right on track to continue the winning Alter Football tradition. The running game looks solid with strong running and blocking... just
watch the one play in the highlights above where Chris Borland (4) runs up the middle and there, right next to him, is center Evan Neff (50) blowing his man
10 yards down the field and out of the camera frame!
Simply AWESOME work by two players soon to be Alter Football legends.
The passing game looked pretty good too. How can you complain when
the first play goes deep to Danny Jasper for a 40-yard TD reception!?!?!?!
VB had no idea what hit them!
Austin Boucher was, well... vintage "Preseason Austin", and well on track to leading this high-powered offense into what could possibly be
Alter Football History.
Kudos to the entire Alter offensive team. The future looks very bright and successful for this extremely talented group of young men.
Defensively the Knights looked VERY good. I apologize for not knowing all the jersey numbers, so I can't mention names. Yikes!!! There's 10 new guys out there!
What I will say is that Coach Tom Alig has been blessed with an arsenal of
extremely talented players. For the past few years I have knicknamed the Alter D "The Masters of Defense" after the phenomenal, and now retired D coordinator, Larry Masters. Now that Alig is the D coordinator, I think I might start referring to them as "Tommy's Guns" ...shooting down opposing offenses.
Tommy's Guns were definitely out in full force against Butler, locked and loaded
as they blew up virtually every attempt the Aviators made to move the ball against them. Unfortunately, senior DL Ross Shively sustained another injury to his
knee and had to leave the game. I'm sure that the entire Alter Football Family joins me in wishing and praying for Ross to have a speedy recovery.
Special Teams looked really good too. Danny Jasper at KO and XP was extremely impressive, putting at least 6 KO in the end zone (I think) and hit every XP he attempted. Because of the outstanding success of the offense to move into scoring position, Chris Borland had limited punting duties in this game. Let's hope it stays this way for 15 more games! When called upon, Chris' talents lived up to his athletic reputation by impressively putting the ball deep into the Butler side. Kick coverage, when it was even needed since the kicking game eliminated most need for coverage, was impressive. Ya just gotta luv the young blooded headhunters on a bee-line for the return man!
All-in-all, an impressive display of talent against a questionably skilled foe.
My guess is that the Knights will stay focused during the next week, knowing that Fairmont will provide a much higher level of competition.
