Storm, Bruins have something to prove Friday

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When Bureau Valley takes the field against St. Bede at the Academy Friday night, both teams will have something to prove.

Bureau Valley (2-1) entered last week’s contest against Amboy/LaMoille with a 2-0 record and the No. 1 AP ranking in Class 2A, and left with a 23-14 upset loss to the Clippers. They are now ranked sixth.

St. Bede has struggled out of the gates, with an 0-3 start to the season after losses to members of the Big Rivers elite — Morrison, Amboy/LaMoille and Newman.

The Storm are looking to prove that last week was just a blip in a year with big postseason expectations. The Bruins are looking to get in the win column and avoid an 0-4 start to the 2009 campaign.

“We know it’s going to be a tough ball game,” said Bruins’ coach John Bellino. “Bureau Valley is one of the best teams in the conference and they got upset last week. We know they’re going to try to come in and prove something.”

“St. Bede’s pretty good for being 0-3,” Storm coach Jeff Ohlson said. “They don’t give up a lot of points ... we better be ready to play.”

St. Bede has struggled to produce consistent offense thus far this season. Last week in a 29-8 loss to Newman, they managed only 90 yards of total offense and a single touchdown score. So far this season, the Bruins have managed to put up only 14 points.

“We’ve got to generate some offense,” Bellino said, adding that he and his troops were working hard on curing their scoring woes.

Defensively, the Bruins were solid in the first two weeks, giving up only 15 points to Morrison and 13 to Amboy/LaMoille, before last week’s hiccup.

After rolling to victory over Riverdale and River Valley, the Storm were upended by the passing attack of Amboy/LaMoille last week, as the Clippers’ Steven Apple threw for three first-half scores to stake a 20-0 first-half advantage en route to a 29-14 win.

“Amboy executed in the first half, and we didn’t, that’s why we found ourselves in a 20-0 hole,” Ohlson said.

Bellino said that Bruins may take a page out of the Clippers’ playbook and look to air things out a little bit for the Storm.

“Obviously, we’re going to have to put the ball into the air, they’re awful big up front. That’s what we see that we’re probably going to have to try and do,” Bellino said.

When the Bedan offense has shown flickers of promise this season, it has mostly come via the combo of quarterback Ryne Denis and receiver Kevin King, who hooked up for a 46 yard connection on Saturday to set up the Bruins’ lone score.

One constant for the Storm, so far this season, has been the production of Michael Weidner. The senior fullback has rushed for over 100 yards in each of the Storm’s three contests, going for 131 yards on 21 carries last week with a touchdown run and reception. Weidner has also been a force on defense so far, registering 39 tackles at the linebacker position.

Ohlson said he hopes his squad takes something away from their loss to the Clippers last week and will look to avoid back-to-back losses.

“If you don’t show up to play in our conference, you’ll get beat every week,” Ohlson said, adding that St. Bede is better than their record might indicate.

“Without a mistake here and a mistake there, and they might be 3-0,” Ohlson said. “Defensively, they’re one of the best teams I’ve seen in a while.”

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