Scott Keyes
Sports Scene
A year ago, the Michigan Lutheran Seminary football team finished the regular season 6-3 and made it into the playoffs before losing to All Saints Central High School.
Through four games this season, the Cardinals were 2-2 and searching for an identity. MLS opened the season with a pair of convincing wins before losing the next two games to St. Charles and a much-improved Carrollton squad.
Head coach Karl Schmugge said he and his coaching staff have learned that there is some good talent on this year’s team, but they need to become a more disciplined and focused team to be successful.
“We need to become a more physical and aggressive team, and we need to eliminate the turnovers and penalties,” he said. “We’ve already had more fumbles lost this year than we had all of last season.”
Playing in the Tri-Valley Conference West Division, the home of Division 6 state champion Ithaca, Schmugge said the league is shaping up with no major surprises.
“Everyone picked Ithaca to the front-runner as defending state champs,” he said.
“We all knew Carrollton would be good with most of their starters back from last year. We knew that, as always, St. Charles and Merrill would be tough, and that there would be no easy game with any opponent in conference.”
Even with playing in such a tough conference, Schmugge insists winning is fundamental.
“All we need to do to succeed is do the TNT’s, the things that take no talent – hustling, having enthusiasm, eliminating penalties, holding on to the football, playing with confidence and pride, and the other things will fall into place,” Schmugge said.
As for personnel, Schmugge has watched Wes Towne emerge as both a running back and a shutdown corner for the Cardinals, and Stephen Dietrich is becoming the running back Schmugge believed he’d be before the season started.
“Wes Towne is our best player right now on both sides of the ball,” Schmugge said. He tackles well and he has run the ball very well as running back, while Stephen is running really hard and he is an extremely physical player. A player who we really wasn’t sure how he would fit into his positions is Jared Putz. He is starting for the first time at offensive guard, and he also starts at outside linebacker. He has really stepped it up and is playing well on both sides of the ball.