Gans opens district play against unbeaten Welch

Gans travels to Welch to play their first Class B District 6 game today starting at 7 p.m.

Head coach Brian Morton drilled the Grizzlies on fundamentals during practices on their off week, preparing his charges for their first district game against the unbeaten Wildcats (5-0) tonight.

The Grizzlies are coming into Welch off a 52-6 loss to Porum two weeks ago, and an 0-5 non-district record with their first district game looking like an uphill battle for the young Grizzlies.

“Our gameplan right now is we‚ve worked through the first part of the season and we know where our weak points are,” Morton said. “We‚ve just got to hide ’em a little better. We gotta focus on our strong points and be ready for district.”

Morton has had to deal with injuries that have plagued his squad this year and forced an inexperienced team to learn the ropes the hard way, which isn‚t the best way. But Morton sees sparks of greatness in every game.

“Every game, something happens where it‚s like, this is positive, and this is what your guys are capable of, but we‚re just not doing it consistently right now.”

The 2021 Wildcats had one of their most impressive seasons in more than a decade, and have the core of that team returning. So far this season Welch‚s playmakers have turned in some impressive stats, like running back Mason Clinton‚s 13 touchdowns off his 121.2 yards per game average and Gage O‚Neal‚s 12 touchdowns and 113.4 yards per game.

O‚Neal is Welch‚s leading tackler as well, averaging 9.8 tackles per game this season, followed by Trapper Johnson‚s average of seven per game and Clinton‚s six.

“We‚re looking to tweak our defense quite a bit,” Morton explained. “We really like the three-man front, but we‚ve had to get out of it and go to a fourman front, which has left us real weak in the middle linebacker. We‚re looking to change a few things around to try to protect that middle backer a little more so he can make a few more plays. We‚ve been on the drawing board, we‚re doing what we can.

“We‚re having a tough time with the personnel we have. We just haven‚t found the right places for the right kids.”

If the Grizzlies start hitting on all cylinders and get some momentum behind them, then they could be competitive and turn the corner on what‚s been a tough year so far.

“I‚m pretty positive about our boys,” Morton said. “I mean, we‚re going to show up one game and everything‚s going to go right for us, and it‚s going to be a completely different team when this happens.”