High school football: North Ridgeville looking to keep the good times rolling

The beginning has been similar, but North Ridgeville coach Bryan Morgan hopes the end result will be much different this season. Morgan's Rangers raced out to a 4-0 start last season on the strength of its defense, which allowed just 13.5 points per game heading into the team's Week 5 home Southwestern Conference game against Olmsted Falls. The Bulldogs left North Ridgeville with a 42-10 victory. The Rangers followed that with blowout losses at Avon and at home to Elyria. This season, after three convincing wins in which the defense has given up a total of 30 points and scored a pair of touchdowns, a road trip to Olmsted Falls (3-0) tonight will tell a lot about whether or not the Rangers have put what happened last season behind them. "Last year I felt like we went into some of those games, games that we did get blown out, and weren't trying," North Ridgeville senior safety Xavier Compton said. "The defensive line was getting blown off the ball, the linebackers were getting caught up and our safeties were getting burned every other play. It was bad. "We're more of a family this year. We're all working for each other." That work has paid off significantly, especially on the defensive side of the ball. In the Rangers' three wins against North Olmsted, Valley Forge and North Royalton, their defense has allowed just 189.6 yards per game ... 83.6 in the air and 106 on the ground. Junior middle linebacker Austin DeShazo leads the team with 28 tackles and has forced a fumble with a strip sack against North Royalton. Junior outside linebacker Carson Madis has 20 tackles, four for a loss, with a sack, while Compton has two interceptions and a defensive touchdown. Senior defensive lineman Shane Osborne has a pair of sacks and three tackles for loss. Morgan has a good idea why the defense has been so successful this season. "Our speed has really helped us out this year," he said. "Also, defensively in the last two years we've been playing freshmen and sophomores, and now we're starting to see the results of that as they get older and are able to play a little faster and stronger. Now we have some athletes in space that are making tackles. "It took a little bit of time with development and a lot of time in the weight room to get them there. Tackling is athleticism, strength and the willingness to do it. We've had a willingness to do it, but we haven't really had the strength or athleticism in the last two years." Morgan also thinks his players' mental development, as well as the fact that the majority of his players don't play both ways, has played a big part in the team's defensive success. "The confidence is there," he said. "We joke around a lot that our guys on defense are kind of wired a little different. They're either a little goofy or are one of those guys that are kind of scary. We have the ability to platoon, which means they're able to get reps every single practice. "We're able to do more because the guys have seen it before. I walked into the film room during Valley Forge week and based on formation and motion our guys were screaming out what play was going to come. "We weren't able to do that before because half the guys would go to offensive film, then have to go to defensive film. It's a big advantage for us and we're going to need it against Falls." Osborne said the team has been looking forward to getting back on the field against the teams that derailed their season last year. He thinks this season's team will draw on how it felt last year. "It was a wake-up call and it showed us that we weren't as good as we thought we were," he said of the three straight losses after the 4-0 start. "We overestimated ourselves and underestimated our opponent and it really showed. We didn't come out as hard as we should have, didn't do what we needed to do and they literally destroyed us. "All the coaches have said it to us, especially to the seniors, that we don't want to leave this year with that bad taste in our mouths. We want to go out there and play this game because sitting with this for a year has done nothing but motivate us. It's made us run a little bit faster and lift a little bit harder to get ready for this game." Contact Mike Perry at (440) 329-7135 or macsportstalk@gmail.com.