NORMAN — Opening week didn’t go the way Norman North would have liked, but the Timberwolves have to bounce back in a hurry tonight against a very athletic team.
Del City comes to Harve Collins Field, the scene of last Friday’s Crosstown Clash, in which North fell 24-7.
“We made some mistakes and Norman High capitalized on them,” North coach Lance Manning said. “We can’t turn the ball over like we did. We’re not going to wow people with our athletic ability, but if we can limit our mistakes and take advantage of the other team’s mistakes, you’re going to win some games.”
The road to recovery begins tonight against the Eagles.
Del City lost to Mid-Del rival Midwest City 34-13 last week, yet remains one of the quickest teams in the area.
The Eagles’ offense revolves around quarterback Chazten Gonzalez, who has thrown for more than 4,000 yards and is headed to TCU next season.
“He’s the real deal,” Manning said. “It’s going to be a great challenge for us, defending their speed and their quarterback.”
Gonzalez’ biggest target is returning wide receiver Marquis Walters, but the Eagles are still working out all the kinks in an offense that lost two of its biggest playmakers, receivers Donovan Dan and Chris McAlister, to graduation.
Stopping the passing game isn’t the T-Wolves’ biggest concern, though. Last week, NHS ran all over the North defense. The Tigers had 259 yards on the ground in the Clash and 350 yards of offense.
Del City running back Adrian Fletcher is no Donovan Roberts, however.
“They’re a very different type of team than Norman High,” Manning said. “You really can’t compare them. What we want to do, when we watch film after this game, is to see if we’ve improved over last week. We’re there to win, but we want to see some improvement.”
The T-Wolves would like to see more from their own offense, too. Highly-touted transfer Emilio Gatewood carried the ball six times against NHS for negative 2 yards. Quarterback Brad Valentino completed 7-of-12 passes for 112 yards, a touchdown and an interception. If it wasn’t for Ray Demby’s 51 yards rushing on 12 carries, North would have finished with under 120 yards of offense.
So, getting the offense going early will be helpful, not only to challenge the Eagles, but to bolster the T-Wolves’ confidence.
“They may be … the most athletic team we play all year,” Manning said. “They have great team speed. Don’t let the score of the Midwest City game fool you.”
The biggest question is whether or not North can bounce back quickly from such an emotional loss.
The Eagles should be tough, but the T-Wolves might be their own worst enemy coming off a loss at the Crosstown Clash.
“You never know how they’re going to respond,” Manning said. “Especially with young guys like this. You never know until you play another game.”
Jeff Johncox 366-3535 jjohncox@normantranscript.com
