PICKING UP THE PIECES — Brooke’s Ethan Secrist runs after a blocked punt against Morgantown on Friday (photo by Sean Manning).

WELLSBURG — The Brooke Bruins have not got off to the start they had hoped for, going 0-3 after a 35-6 loss at Morgantown last Friday, but head coach Mac McLean is hopeful his team can turn things around.

“Looking at our schedule and the way it was stacked, we knew it was a possibility,” he said of the 0-3 start. “We have 10 teams on our schedule that can beat us if we are not ready, but we knew the first three weeks were going to be extra challenging because of the quality of opponents. All three of them are conference teams and teams that we are familiar with. We didn’t fly into any of the first three games blind; we knew what we were up against.

“Hopefully we can get a W on the board and get something rolling here before the midpoint of the season. Hopefully in six weeks we’ll be looking back at the first three weeks as just our growing period.”

As for last week, McLean thinks his club simply ran into a team that was better.

“I would say the biggest difference between our first two matchups and what happened Friday night is that the first two were competitive,” McLean said. “Friday night, we just went down to Morgantown and got buried in all facets of the game. When a team amasses 415 yards on the ground against you and doesn’t throw a forward pass, there is not much you can say in your defense other than you played a team that was just better than you that night, and that’s exactly what we ran into Friday night.”

To get back on track, the Bruins need to get better stopping the run, something that was exposed by the Mohigans as McLean noted. Brooke has alowed an average of 262 yards against per game.

“We’ve faced three teams that have ran the ball and amassed a lot of yards against us. We’ve got to get more shored up stopping the run game,” he said.

Another thing McLean wants to do is use his depth more.

“We’ve learned that we need to cycle more football players onto the field,” he said. “We need to get further into our depth chart. Our first two games were classic cases of too many guys going both ways and just running out of gas down the stretch. We’ve got to address that. We’re putting a little more youth on our special teams. We’re cycling in some No. 2 guys and getting them reps during series so we can get some of our number ones off of the field.”

This week, Brooke is back on its home field to look for its first victory, hosting 1-2 Perry Traditional Academy out of Pittsburgh Friday. The Commodores have dropped the last two games but have weapons that will provide the Bruins defense a challenge.

“Their main asset is speed,” McLean said. “You run into that a lot. They’re not the most organized football team that we will face, but I will tell you if their playmakers get the ball in the open field they can fly. They fly to the ball, and they are not intimidated. It’s going to be a challenge to keep up with their athleticism. It’s going to be a big chore for our defense to keep their playmakers in front of us and tackle them in the open field, which we really haven’t done well this season, so we are spending a lot of extra time on that.”

Perry is averaging 16.3 points per game, while allowing 26.7 points. Brooke is averaging just nine points per game, while surrendering an average of 31.

The Bruins are allowing an average of 171 yards of offense per game, with an average of 58 on the ground and 113 through the air. On the ground, Kenton Conley has 52 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown and is averaging 3.3 yards per carry.

Throwing the ball, Logan Williams is 15-of-27 for 200 yards with a touchdown and an interception, averaging 13.3 yards per completion. Ethan Secrist has hauled in 11 passes for 208 yards, averaging 18.9 yards per catch. Tripp Moore has caught six passes for 54 yards and a touchdown, averaging nine per catch.

While the rush defense has struggled, the Bruins pass defense has been something McLean has been happy with so far, giving up an average of just 91.3 yards against per game through the air.

“I’ve been pretty proud of our coverage,” he said. “Considering the quaterback we faced in our first game and the receivers we were up against in our second game, I feel like we are doing a decent job with that.”