Schools
Absegami Football Team Aiming for Wins the Rest of the Season
At 1-2, the Braves can still have a successful season, but need to start winning tonight against Vineland.
Just as disappointing as the loss was the way the Absegami High School football team lost on Sept. 23 against Atlantic City.
The Braves' defense allowed 32 points to the Vikings, missing tackles and being out of position on several plays.
As the Braves (1-2) prepared for the game tonight, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. at Vineland’s Gittone Stadium, the focus was mostly on defense.
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Vineland (2-1), which lost 19-8 to St. Augustine last week, has several talented skill position players the Braves have to attempt to shut down.
“It’s a huge area of concern,” Absegami coach Dennis Scuderi Jr. said. “It’s not just missed tackles, it’s misalignments and being out of gaps. It was very uncharacteristic for our team. We worked hard this week to get back to basics. We went back to basics and fundamentals. We did some tackling drills and we practiced running to the ball.”
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The other objective of this week’s practice was getting over the loss.
The Braves have time to turn their fortunes around, but they have to start this week, especially with a bye week coming up.
“We have been putting a lot of good hard work in at practice and moved on to Vineland,” Absegami running back Tyler Bing said. “Every game is an important game, and we take it game by game and play by play, but we want to win from here on out.”
Bing’s big game was somewhat overshadowed by the loss, but the junior rushed for more than 100 yards and caught four passes for more than 100 yards against Atlantic City.
“I felt like it was a breakout game for me,” Bing said. “I’m just trying to be a playmaker.”
“I think he has been solid throughout the season,” Scuderi said. “He may have made a play or two more this week, but he has proven this season and in the preseason that he can do that. He may have not had as many opportunities the first couple of weeks and that is our fault.”
Bing goes up against a Vineland defense that has allowed just three rushing touchdowns in three games. The Fighting Clan offense has a host of running backs, receivers and kick returners that have the talent to hurt opposing defenses.
“They are a good football team with good team speed,” Scuderi said. “They are tough kids and it should be a good game.”
