Football Xtra

Creek takes opening night spotlight

WINTERSVILLE -- For more than a decade, Indian Creek and Cambridge have been clashing to open the football season.

This year, the annual mutual opener will have a big spotlight as the Redskins and Bobcats are set to open up the season tonight, getting the bulk of the attention locally playing a day before most teams.

“It’s fantastic,” Indian Creek head coach Andrew Connor said of playing the Thursday game. “The chance that you get to showcase your kids and your program when no one else is playing, you want to take advantage of that.

“We’re going to be on television, playing at home, in your stadium, you can’t ask for more notoriety than you’re going to get in that moment. But it also means there’s a lot more pressure on you to try to make sure that you set a good first impression of what our season is going to be like this year.”

Cambridge is far from a new opponent, but they will be a bit different as the Bobcats have a new coaching staff this season, now led by Ramone Conley.

“They’re a familiar foe in a way, because we’ve played them over the years, but obviously unfamiliar because they have a new coach, and a new coaching staff, and you know, a new philosophy,” Connor said.

The Redskins won the meeting each of the last two years on the way to making the playoffs. Cambridge went 0-10 a season ago. While one game doesn’t make or break the whole season, what happened after last year’s game is a sign the momentum can go a long way.

“You want to always get off to a good start,” Connor said. “Every head coach right now has a team that is 0-0.

Everybody’s preaching the same thing about getting off to a good start and making sure that you set the tone for what you want the journey to be for the season. It’s the same thing we’ve been stressing our kids. You only get one chance at a first impression.

“The way we take the field, the way we play, the way we stick together, all those things are going to really be on high alert, because there’s going to be a lot of people watching. You want to win when you’re at home.”

Being the first time on the field in a game situation, the focus will be on the little things.

“We’ve just got to do the simple things, those are the things we are stressing in the first game,” Connor said. “No penalties that put us at a disadvantage, don’t turn the ball over, don’t give up big plays, the things that would shift momentum, the things that would allow Cambridge to kind of feed off our mistakes, we don’t want to do that.

“We want to limit our mistakes. We want to play physical football. We want to make sure we stay in front of the chains on offense, be able to do what we want to do offensively.

“Those are the things we’ve been stressing all week and all summer. That’s our biggest emphasis right now -- do the little things correctly.”

Opening kick at Kettlewell Stadium is set for 7 p.m.