LOOKING FOR NO. 15 — Oak Glen’s Nick Chaney passes to Micahel Lemley (15) against Steubenville Catholic Central on Sept. 2. (Photo by Joe Catullo)

NEW MANCHESTER — Coming from behind multiple times for a 28-21 double overtime victory over Buckeye Local last week, the Oak Glen football team definitely gained momentum when it takes the field next.

Unfortunately, that won’t happen for nine more days as Oak Glen is in the midst of its bye week. Head coach Ted Arneault, though, doesn’t look at the situation as a possible momentum killer.

“We need this bye week,” he said. “We have a couple of bumps and bruises that need to be healed. It’ll also give us some time to evaluate the last three games and fix tweaks offensively and defensively for us to get better for the next week.”

Looking back on the first three games that saw the Golden Bears (1-2) fall to Weir and Steubenville Catholic Central before defeating Buckeye Local, Arneault is overall pleased. His evaluation has not changed much since the offseason.

“My evaluation is that we’re still a young team, but we’re a team with a lot of potential,” he said. “We really need to keep hammering home the big fix. Even when it comes to stances and steps, we just need to hammer them home.”

Oak Glen’s main focus is finding a replacement for senior Tony Minnis who broke his fibula Friday and is out for the rest of the season. The two-year letterwinner was a fixure on the offensive and defensive lines.

Minnis’ injury also falls into another category Arneault is trying to improve in, and that’s conditioning.

“He’s one of our most experienced kids,” Arneault said. “He was a potential three-year letterman, so he has a lot of experience on the offensive and defensive lines. We’re losing one of our core guys. He’s also one of our captains and one of our leaders, so we’re going to need other kids to step up and try to fill his shoes.”

The setback will force more Golden Bears to play both ways, which most have already been doing. It’s certainly not ideal, but Arneault is running out of other options.

“We have other young kids who are going to have to step up,” Arneault said. “A lot of them will be two way players, so we have to make sure they are conditioned so they can be the best players they can be for four quarters of football.”

One of the kids expected to step up is William Straight. Offensively, half of his six carries ended in the end zone last week, including the game-winning 5-yard TD run. He finished with 40 rushing yards total and also saw time on defense and special teams.

“He’s got size and speed. He’s one of the few kids we have that has that good combination of both,” Arneault said. “He’s only 180 pounds, but he’s someone we’re relying on being one of our power running backs for the rest of the season.”

Tackling is another issue that must be fixed. Improvement was made against Buckeye Local after allowing 63 points to Central the week before, but there’s always room for more improvement.

Arneault has a system for how his Golden Bears can improve.

“We do a circuit where kids are put into different angles and tackling situations,” he said. “The kids get to warm up on the roll tackling ring and on live ball carriers as well. We’re trying to teach the kids to put shoulders into thighs and wrap and roll rather than lunge.

“I thought we tackled better against Buckeye, but we didn’t tackle well at all against Steubenville Central. We still need to work on and stress about that.”

The final main fix is quarterback play, which Oak Glen will be dealing with all season with freshman Nick Chaney. He threw for 168 yards on 8-of-17 passing against the Panthers.

Arneault admits that, after attempting 40 passes the week before, Friday did not come down to Chaney’s passing abilities. It came down to rushing due to Buckeye putting eight men in coverage at times.

“They really forced us to run the ball,” Arneault said. “We did run some play actions when we got them in the box. He delivered a few really nice passes that sustained some drives and let us come back to win the game. For a freshman, he’s progressing well but has a long way to go as well.”

Come Friday night, or even Saturday for that matter, all Oak Glen can do is wait to play next Saturday against Warren Local. Arneault will be scouting his team’s next opponent, while the kids will catch up on homework, chores and anything else necessary.

That is, as long as they have time in-between video games and other activities.

“I told the kids to use the bye week to catch up on homework and get ahead on chores or whatever,” Arneault said. “The one thing we stress to the kids is to make sure they’re watching as much film on as possible for our next game.”