Van Buren, Alma open season early

What better way to start the season earlier than most teams than against a neighboring county rival. Van Buren hosts Alma on Tuesday, kicking off the season ahead of most teams in the Battle of Crawford County and the Battle of the Bone. Van Buren leads the all-time series, which began in 1923 and has been played consecutively since 1971, by a 36-29-5 margin but Alma has certainly narrowed the gap with six straight wins. The defenses will be tested early by big-play threats in Alma’s Brayden Johnson and Van Buren’s Walter Green, two of the state’s best. Johnson led the state in receiving last year with 81 receptions. He had 1,144 yards and nine touchdowns receiving. He’s already the all-time leading receiver in Alma history. “He’s a big, physical kid,” said Van Buren head coach Greg Werner. “He presents a lot of problems as big as he is and hard-nosed kid as he is. He presents several problems for us. We’ve got a good job there. He’s going to be a mis-match for a lot of people so we won’t be the only one to encounter it.” Green led the 7A-West in rushing last season during the regular season with 1,026 yards, scoring seven touchdowns. “Walter’s explosive,” Alma head coach Doug Loughridge said. “He can take it to the house if you give him a little seam. He can take it to the house at any time. They definitely have some weapons to prepare for.” Both teams want to start the season off on a good note. “We need something good early to be successful,” Werner said. “Alma’s got an awfully good football team. We’ve to find early some things we can do and have some success. We need success of any kind in our program.” Van Buren had success on the opening kickoff last year, sort of, when Green returned the opening kickoff back 94 yards for a touchdown. A holding penalty wiped out the play. “It’s important to start off good,” Werner said. “We ran the opening kickoff back and it was called back. It was a good call. It was a penalty. That set an early tone. We can’t afford to do things like that.” Van Buren’s opening drive sputtered out and Alma went on to a 34-21 win. Both teams had some problems in last week’s scrimmage games; Van Buren against Prairie Grove and Alma against Southside. Van Buren suffered a couple of sacks early that killed drives and lost a fumble later. “Hopefully, we’ve got that ironed, we’re ready to go,” Werner said. “We’re going to be okay. We’ve got to come out of the chute ready to go.” Alma also had trouble moving the ball at times against Southside. “Southside is going to definitely expose what we need to work on,” Loughridge said. “We found a lot of things to work on. We had some guys step up for their first time out against quality competition. I was proud of them. There were some guys that were slotted in as players that fell down the depth chart so it was good for us.” Both teams will be starting new quarterbacks Tuesday. Van Buren has to turn unexpectedly to junior Christian Morrow after returning starter Caleb Salisbury suffered a thumb injury on the sixth play of the scrimmage. Van Buren has returned to the Spread formation from last year’s Flexbone run-oriented offense. Alma will start Garrison Jensen at quarterback. Jensen does have plenty of varsity experience having led the Airedales last year in touchdowns with 14 out of the short-yardage package. The battles up front will be interesting. Van Buren has two starters back on the offensive line, including 310-pound Nathan Westbrook, a move-in from Allen, Texas, along with Derek King. Jayden Mendez anchors Van Buren’s defensive line. “Their defense is much better,” Loughridge said. “They’ve got some good linemen. They’re physical and play downhill with their linebackers. They do a good job in the secondary.” Alma will start five new linemen on the offensive side while Zach Henson and Zach Oliver are back at defensive ends. “They’ve got a good team, and good kids up front,” Werner said. “They’ve got some good ones back. It’s a tough one, but we play in the 7A-West. I’m still looking for the break in our schedule, and I haven’t found it. It’s a tough game. We have to be prepared. We don’t get any down weeks. It’s important to start well.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Van Buren High School Athletics

VAN BUREN, ALMA OPEN SEASON EARLY

LELAND BARCLAY

Times Record | 8/29/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Time Record/File Photo