OCC opener...and should be another good one.

Anyone know the status of Lexington's QB Collin Michael? He was injured in the Hoover game. Sounds like it could be serious. This article mentions his ACL.

http://fridaynightohio.com/news/lexington-loses-qb-pounds-out-win-over-hoover

Riders can get back on track with a win....or allow a bunch of questions to surface with a loss.

It's all about attitude this week. Let's see who wants to lead this week. Correct the turnovers (12 turnovers through 3 games is WAY too many) and let's not leave points on the field anymore.

Prepare, perform, persist!!

Prepare, Perform, Persist....I like the sound of that, did you come up with that yourself RR1?? haha.

Anyway, we just need to correct the little things (turnovers, scoring in redzone, pass protection, tackling) and we will be just fine. No time to panick Rider faithful!! Coach Davault and Co. will have these boys ready for conference play.

That game I know was tough to swallow but it did have a lot of positives;

The kids NEVER quit!
We got overtime experience against a very good team (and had it won)
Our kicker made some very clutch Field Goals, and kept us in the game!
Special Teams played well (other than the punting).
Reality check, sometimes you need a tough loss like this to bring you back down to reality and allow you to go to work the next week to get it done and refocus on the goals and opponent at hand.
Defense played well against a very athletic and potent offense, I was really impressed with our DB's against those fast, and very good WR's. We shut their passing game down!
Let's all be honest here, nobody would of predicted us going into the conference 3-0 let alone 2-1. I would of been happy going into conference play 1-2 just like a lot of you, because that is how tough our non-conference schedule is. This team is coming together well and are playing as a team. They just need to focus a little more on the things they can control and we will be just fine.

I did get to see one problem for us.....we do not have much depth at all!!! This concerns me a lot because as the game went on our tackling got bad...very bad and we couldn't hold on to the ball! I think we need to rotate Tre, Mason, AND Davis at RB so we can stay fresh longer. Of course Tre is your number one back, but he gets banged up and playing both ways for the entire game can wear on a 17 year old kid who is doing so much for this team.

One thing we all should never forget;

THIS IS ORRVILLE FOOTBALL!

Tre ran the ball 32 times last Friday. He's the workhorse back, but I've seen good things from Davis and Turner enough to be comfortable with them getting carries while Tre catches his breath for a play or two.

Depth has been an obvious problem since day 1 of the season, but we seem to be holding up ok.

Any chance Max sees the field on offense this week? He'd be a nice intermediate target for Kyle.

Lex will be ready, they were picked 4th in the preseason OCC poll and are taking that as a slap in the face. Payne may be a better motivator than a coach (and he's a dang good coach), so he'll have the kids flying around and ready to hit.

They remember the humbling they got last year at Orrville...don't think they aren't itching to give it back.

I think very similar match up to last week for us. Lex will be an athletic team, good size up front....what they do have is a great kicker and punter. That always help the field position battle. Fewest mistakes probably wins this one again. We have to stop turning the ball over. Period. Will be a big victory for either team.

Payne would love to have a great season and set himself in position for a Stark County coaching position, possibly alma mater Massillon, with a good season and the win over Hoover, he now has Stark county attention and will be talked about in any vacancies there.

Also I see that the OCC nonleague schedule was good this year with all but 2 teams having 2 ( 2 teams ) or 3 wins ( 3 teams ) only Madison with 1 win and W.Holmes 0-3 won't give us the potential for lots of level 2 points. So if we take care of business we should be in the upper 4 of this region at the end.

Good luck Riders!

riders1,
Yea i'm seeing that too. Lex will be huge and if Senior can beat Clear Fork, they'll bring a 4-0 record to Orrville. They're no slouch, but we'll see how they do now that OCC play has started. Their 3 non league opponents are a combined 2-7.

The Lex win over Hoover did more to expose the fact that Hoover is down...more than Lex is a giant killer. Still, no easy task to go over there and win. Their other 2 wins were over a bad Mt Vernon team and an average Shelby team.

We can't come out flat and just expect it all to click again. Have to play a complete game and limit the turnovers. Did much better with penalties this past week, now need to correct the fumbles.

Here's my thoughts from week 3.....
http://bit.ly/cDnzoW

OrrvilleQB08;482095 wrote:
Anyway, we just need to correct the little things (turnovers, scoring in redzone, pass protection, tackling) and we will be just fine.

Yeah, just those "little things"!

Well Red Rider fans we need to get back on track after a tough L last week, but a great game to watch. The "Red Curtain" defense needs to be ready to go this week, I thought the kids missed to many tackles and Copley seem to be able to go up the gut a lot against us. I am sure coach Haley and the staff on the defense will have them ready to go again this week. The offense needs to keep running the ball and get Turner more involved in the offense. Also I looked out last week against Copley and I am not sure if anybody else seen it but Drew had single coverage on him some of the time and the guy defending him was not even 6'0. Why not throw the ball up to him like against Triway? Just my thought, anyways go Riders!

Plenty to work on. All about reading your keys and doing your job. Cut back lanes hurt us too much Friday. Point of attack looked good. Gotta make the tackle when you have a clean shot. If Lex QB is down this week (which I would assume even if MRI was clear the fact that you needed an MRI means you will sit for a bit)....we will see more of the Michigan Denard Robinson offense out of Lex.....meaning we need to tackle better and shut down the lanes. I like our chances this week. If we take care of the football we have a very good team on both sides of the ball...we just cannot accept 12 turnovers in 3 games.

Yea not having Collin Michael makes them a little more 1 dimensional, or at least less traditional. Quick passes, WR screens, much more of a wildcat type of offense.

You know Payne is going to get his kids fired up. Last week was a big win for them. State AP poll has them ranked 7th. After a 6-4 season last year, that says alot. The first State Poll is usually about program strength and tradition. Their win over Hoover must've really opened some eyes.

I do like seeing Turner running that slow developing WR screen that Sam Miller made famous against Genoa. Hope to see that sprinkled in more and more. Need an early score to get the crowd in the game and the D just needs to keep things in front of them.

Film wont help much because their offense just isnt the game without their QB.

Not much talk on here this week, is everyone too nervous to post this week, or is everyone just so focused on Friday they forgot about posting? Two days til kickoff, any news on lexingtons QB?

No news is probably good news for the QB. If it was real serious I think we would have heard. Lex might think this gives them some kind of edge? the fact that we don't know? whatever. We've seen spreads already this year and we've seen a QB who likes to run, whoever is in the back field the Riders will be ready. I hope for the QB's sake it was not serious and just needs a week or so to heal.

I watched the Hoover-Lex game last night. Hoover either is not good or played real bad? Lex gutted it out for the win. That speaks volumes for the team when QB1 goes down in the first quarter. They will get after you on D just like the Riders. I think we have the athletes to pose problems for Lex....but I have rose (actually red) colored glasses! and I am looking at 1 game.

this will be a very good game. It is going to be an exciting week in the OCC with Sr-CF, Ashland-WOO, and our game.

Yep, everything quiet. Business as usual with our "Red" colored glasses!

I see Orrville winning this one by at least 7. Strong running will expose the Lex defense's weakness.

Shelby gashed Lex for like 300 yds rushing. But they held Hoover to less than 100.

Interesting to see how the team responds. Will say a lot about the rest of the season.

How sweet it would be to beat Lex and then have Senior come to town 4-0 also.

Good Luck Red Riders

Weather should clear out and what a way to start OCC play. Riders have plenty to work on (those "little things") are not little things.

Get on track this week Riders. This is a big game!

Good luck to the Riders

I used the term "little things" because if I would of said our blocking is horrible, we can't hold on to the ball, we can't tackle if our lives depended on it; everyone would've got in panic mode and start second guessing this team.

The Riders are fine, Copley is a very good team and even though we did play crappy, we still shoud've won....that says a lot about the talent we do have, so we do just need to fix the "little things" and Riders will be on their way to another great season.

If we can get our turnovers under control we are a very good team and our skill will pose problems for anyone on our schedule. If we continue to give the ball away at the pace we are doing...we compete like an average team. I hope we can turn the corner this week and start the OCC off with a big road win against an always tough BJ Payne Lex team.

If The Riders can shut down or contain the wildcat that Lex will use tonight they will come out of there with a Big win.

Looking forward to this one, had the scouts for Lex sitting right in front of me during the Copley game--my wife ran both of them off by the 3rd quarter with the Cow Bell, guess they didn't appreciate the Rider Pride!

Good luck to both teams! GO RED RIDERS!

Go Red Go. I'll echo everyone else. If we cut out the turnovers and play to our potential, we have the talent to win out.

I think we find out about the character of this team tonight. Do we have a bunch of guys looking to "get theirs" or do we have a group of Red Riders looking to do whatever it takes to win?

4th week in a row of a beautiful Friday night for football. Let's go Riders! Stay healthy and whip those minutemen.

Daily Record picks Lex, 6 votes to 3. They picked against in the Northwest and Triway games and we won....they picked us against Copley and we lost. I hope the trend continues tonight.