High school football 2022: Firelands looking to get more defensive this year

HENRIETTA TWP.— It was easy to see where Firelands fell short last season. In its five wins, the Falcons' defense surrendered just 8.8 points per game. In its five losses that number ballooned to 30. Sixth-year coach Ryan O'Rourke knows his defense will have to do a better job if Firelands hopes to compete for the Lorain County League title. "I think a good goal, giving up 14 points a game, would certainly make us a high-level defense," O'Rourke said. "It comes down to basic things like pursuit and tackling … things I thought we struggled with a little last year. We gave up too many explosive plays. "In 2020 the defense really cut down the explosive plays, which really cut down the distance the offense had to go and was one of the reasons the offense averaged around 35 points per game. "For us to get back to that we have to limit explosive plays and create more turnovers. Last year I think we created less than 10 turnovers last year and that's not going to cut it." This season the Falcons, even coming off a year in which they lost as many as they won, expect to be a player in the race for the conference title. Nine returning starters on offense and 26 returning letterwinners overall are big reasons for optimism. "There's a higher confidence level at this point," O'Rourke said. "We had about 15 kids returning from 2020 to 2021, and we're up to about 26 returning letterwinners this year. If you really factor in kids who played a good amount on offense, nine kids that started return. "Defensively it's a younger group than the offense, but there are a lot of kids that have offensive experience that are now also playing on that side of the ball. The kids are pretty confident in what they've been doing, and I think that's a big difference from last year to this year." A new quarterback will be running the show with junior Jimmy Anspaw taking over for the graduated Kyle Ransom. "He actually started at linebacker as a sophomore last year," O'Rourke said of Anspaw. "He's a kid that's been working with me, really, since he was in middle school at the quarterback position. As far as his fundamentals and technique, he's really developed in that respect. "We've tailored his skills to match the offense. Kyle (Ransom) was a more athletic dual-threat quarterback and we catered to what Kyle did well. Jimmy is more of a pocket-type passer. He can certainly run the football and is a good athlete, but we like to see him throw in the pocket and command the game from there." Anspaw will have plenty of weapons at his disposal. Junior Timmy Phillips led Firelands with 25 receptions for 468 yards and four touchdowns last season, while senior slot receiver Cory Ransom caught 17 passes for 175 yards and a score. Abel Coultrip, a 6-foot-3 senior, lettered last season and is a big target out wide. "We really like our receiver room," O'Rourke said. "We feel like we can play five or six kids there, and I don't know if I could say in my previous years at Firelands that I could rotate so many kids. All those kids play on both sides of the ball, so I think we have a pretty good rotation where we feel comfortable putting those kids out there for anything we call." Cory Ransom said the receivers are developing solid chemistry with their new quarterback. "It's going to be a little different with a new quarterback, obviously, playing for the first time with a lot of the guys out there," he said. "It's getting better and we're making a lot of the connections we made last year. We're probably going to run the ball a little more with the running backs we have back from last year." Senior Weston Strader led the Falcons in rushing last season, picking up 587 yards on 126 carries. He scored eight rushing touchdowns. Strader will have plenty of help in the Falcons' offensive backfield. "Weston Strader is that physical, bell-cow running back, Evan Tester is more a slasher, lateral-run kid," O'Rourke said. "Sophomore Colin Scott, who is in that mold of Tester, will play some tailback, as well, and a fullback we really like, Josh Kovach, is back as well. They all got carries in our scrimmages and can keep each other fresh on both sides of the football." Four offensive linemen who started last year return. "Our offensive line is kind of the heart of the team," O'Rourke said. "Personality-wise they really demonstrate what we want from a culture aspect when it comes to practice and tone-setting in a game. We certainly rely heavily on them." The Falcons have a chance to start the season on the right foot, as four of their first five games are at home. "We want to keep the expectations high," O'Rourke said. "We talk about winning those non-conference games, those first three weeks, winning a conference championship and qualifying for the state playoffs. We've established those three things as the expectations as far as the big picture. "The things, day to day, that we talk about the most is having that incremental improvement from week to week. That's what we've seen so far from scrimmage one to scrimmage two, and hopefully into Week 1." Contact Mike Perry at 329-7135 or macsportstalk@gmail.com.