High-flying Encinal Looks to Break Swett

The game: John Swett at Encinal

Where: Encinal High

When: Today, 7 p.m.

Records: Swett (1-3), Encinal (3-1)

The key to the game: Encinal's overconfidence in itself. If the Jets come out and think the game is won before they even step on the field, Swett is a team that can surprise them. Just ask Swett's last upset victim, Albany High, who fell to the Indians 24-21 last week.

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Encinal High is flying about as high as the Jets they are named for after steamrolling Piedmont by 42 points last week while racking up over 400 yards rushing.

As the Jets (3-1, 1-0 Bay Shore Athletic League) prepare to host John Swett ( 1-3, 1-0) tonight at 7 p.m. at Stargell Field they can be forgiven for thinking it will be more of the same. But that is the kind of thinking that Jets coach Joe Tenorio is worried about.

"Our work ethic isn't what it should be right now," Tenorio said. "They are going to get hit in the mouth one of these days. Hope it isn't this week, but you never know."

Despite Tenorio's pessimism this is a game the Jets should be able to win and likely by the same margin as they did last week.

But Swett does have one thing going for it. The Indians are coming off a 24-21 league opening win last week against Albany and the Indians also have one more item in the plus column going for them.

"They have a decent group of players," Tenorio said. "And they run the double wing offense like Serra."

That would be the same Serra team that ran over the Jets 42-13 three weeks ago  to put the lone blemish on Encinal's record so far and gives Tenorio pause going into this week's game.

Still, Encinal, which is ranked No. 4 in the Patch Division III NCS rankings, can move the ball on the ground and the Jets game plan will be more of the same against the Indians.

"The game plan will be the same, we are not going to do much different from week to week," Tenorio said.

Which means Jon Trodder (151 yards rushing, three touchdowns) and Paul Okamura (73 yards rushing, two touchdowns) will see plenty of carries as the Jets will look to grind up the Indians' defense.

But what Encinal will want to avoid repeating from last week is the barrage of yellow laundry that littered the field. The Jets were called for 17 penalties that cost them 167 yards – including five personal fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct.

"We definitely need to start playing a lot smarter than we have," Tenorio said.

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