Sports Editor
An impressive 47-14 bounce-back victory over Clermont Northeastern was exactly what first-year Amelia head coach David Brausch ordered following a week one loss to future West Clermont High School compatriots, Glen Este, on Aug. 28.
Although a weather delay pushed the Barons and Rockets match up back 15 hours until Saturday morning, the Barons came out of the gates fired up, which their coach believes may have left them susceptible to an early big play by CNE’s Dalton Miracle.
The Rockets running back broke a 74-yard scoring run to begin the festivities, but Amelia settled in both offensively and defensively to outscore CNE 34-0 the rest of the half.
“We just got back to fundamentals and worked on tackling and blocking,” Brausch said. “It showed in our performance from week one to two. We did make some improvements in those areas and we want to continue to do that. With such a young team, fundamentals are oh so important.
“The first play (that CNE scored on), we were just a little too hyped up and once we settled down a little bit, we were fine the rest of the game.”
Brausch credited junior quarterback and safety Cage Meyer as the catalyst who got the Barons into shape following the early deficit.
An influential piece on both sides of the ball, Meyer is learning on the job for Brausch and is proving to be a very capable mouthpiece for the coach on the field.
“(Meyer) is a kid who’s going to keep getting better each week,” Brausch said. “He’s a hard worker and earns everything he gets. He’s continuing to learn how to be a student of the game and by being the quarterback, he’s an extension of the coaching staff on the field.”
After a solid opening week at Glen Este, Meyer stepped his game up even more in week two, throwing for two touchdowns and running in three others to help even the Barons record through two weeks.
With another Southern Buckeye Conference National Division foe on the slate this coming week in Williamsburg, Brausch said that he and his staff have been happy with some areas of the Barons’ make up, but need to see improvements in others.
“The two big things I want to see are us being able to run the ball better and stop the run better,” the coach said. “Our offense has been putting points on the board — 20 and 47 — so, I want to average around 30 points per game and if we can average 30 points per game, that should give us a good shot to win in most situations.”
When it comes to a specific game plan for Friday night at home against Williamsburg, Brausch said again that the fundamentals will be key to getting above .500 on the season.
“(Williamsburg)’s offense is really good, so we’re going to have to play good team defense to have a chance this week,” he said.
The Wildcats will enter week three coming off of a three-point loss at the hands of Paint Valley, 24-21, dropping their record to an even 1-1 as well.
Kick off for the intraconference match up is slated for 7 p.m. at Amelia High School.