Butch Harmon
Sports Scene
Thanks to strong line play and consistency on both offense and defense, the St. Johns football team is off to a strong start this season.
The Redwings cleared every hurdle in the first five weeks of the season as they built a 5-0 record. St. Johns opened the season with a 48-21 win against Okemos and then won close games against Hamilton (27-26) and Fowlerville (21-14) before picking up win number four against Lansing Eastern (47-8) and turning back Williamston in week five.
“It’s been a good start,” said St. Johns coach Andrew Schmitt. “We’ve been able to win a couple of close games in week two against Hamilton and in week three against Fowlerville. It feels good to win both of the close games as in the past we may have let one slip away.”
Schmitt points to a number of strong points of this year’s team as reason for the early success.
“We’ve had some good line play and some good quarterback play,” Schmitt said. “We have also been doing a good job defensively of doing what we are supposed to do. Our defense is doing a good job of keeping us in ball games.”
St. Johns likes to run the football on offense and the offensive line is doing a strong job of paving the way for the running backs. The St. Johns offensive line is getting strong contributions from linemen Isaiah Cobb, Robbie Andretz, Jackson Armstrong, Gavin Moreno, Kyle Lockwood, Luke Tracy and Brody Abendroth along with solid play from tight end David Frisbie.
Operating behind the line are running backs Brandon Schomisch, Thomas Putmon and Michael Oberlin and quarterback Bryce Pratl. Spencer Nobis leads the receiving corps.
Pratl is an efficient quarterback who has completed 55 percent of his passes for 217 yards and six touchdowns. Schomisch leads the ground game with 299 yards (6.4 avg.) and five touchdowns while Oberlin has added 286 yards (8.9 avg.) and four touchdowns.
“Our offense always has a heavy emphasis on the run,” Schmitt said. “Brandon is our leading ball carrier and Michael is also having a good year. Our quarterback Bryce Pratl is also doing a good job of running the offense and making plays.”
On defense, the Redwings rely on a total team effort to get the job done. Up front, Frisbie is at defensive end with Greyson Osborne, Cole VanEtten, Lockwood, Tracy and Abendroth all contributing along the defensive line. The linebacking corps is led by Brady Heibeck, Schomisch and Cobb. The defensive backfield is comprised of Tyson Smith, Gus Kaiser, Ian Smith and Oberlin.
“We play good assignment football on defense,” Schmitt said. “Our cornerbacks do a really good job of man coverage and that allows our defensive line to pin their ears back and come after the quarterback. Our defensive line and linebackers also do a really good job of stopping the run.”
Brady Heibeck leads the Redwings in tackles with 21 closely followed by Schomisch and Tyson Smith with 19, Isaiah Cobb and Gus Kaiser with 16 apiece and Frisbie with 15. Heibeck, Schomisch and Frisbie also have one sack each. Heibeck has a total of two tackles for loss while Kaiser also has an interception.
With a strong start to the season, the Redwings are focused on keeping the momentum going into the second half of the campaign.
“I’m really happy with the way we are executing so far,” Schmitt said. “We have to continue to fine tune things and continue to get better. We have to focus on getting better every day. We have a stretch of difficult teams coming up so we really have to make sure we prioritize making plays when they are available, playing good football and limiting the mistakes. We have to make sure we get better week to week.”
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