Sports

Lakers must avoid complacency against Chargers

By Brian Beaupied
10/7/2008

Where do you draw the line between embarrassing opponents and ensuring your first team players get the playing time needed to stay sharp?

That's an area the Lakers will look to address this week after consecutive blowouts where starters did not make it through the second quarter.

"I'm tremendously concerned and that's something we'll talk about this afternoon," said Grand Valley State University head coach Chuck Martin. "Two things are conditioning, because a lot of our main guys are used to playing 40 minutes of football and they've played 20 the past two weeks ... then complacency, which is what I think we fought early in the year. We've had two weeks in a row where we weren't to complacent but when you have two games that get out of control that early it is a natural reaction -- 'Is it going to be this easy every week?'"

Preventing unnecessary injuries has been the determining factor in pulling starters early.

"If there is a second-half injury ... I am the dumbest coach in America," he said. "There is always that fine line, but for me I couldn't sleep knowing I got one of our key players hurt in a game that was already decided."

Looking ahead the Lakers have Hillsdale College in Saturday's Homecoming game, a team that will match the Lakers' aggressiveness on both sides of the ball.

It will also be a homecoming of sorts for Hillsdale defensive coordinator Craig Blanchard, a GVSU alumnus.

"(Blanchard) does a good job with them," Martin said. "We'll have to be more physical in our run game, their backers and safeties come up in a hurry."

At 4-2, the Chargers fall into the middle of the pack as far as GLIAC teams go. But with losses of one touchdown or less to Michigan Tech. and Ashland universities, Hillsdale fields a competitive team with weapons on both offense and defense.

Led by All-GLIAC and Sporting News Pre-Season All-American linebacker, Tom Korte (Grand Rapids Catholic Central), the Chargers play a physical, downhill defense that will challenge the GVSU offensive line in establishing the run and maintaining the pocket.

Korte ranks first in tackles for a loss, and third in the conference in tackles. Senior defensive lineman Eric Weber leads the GLIAC with 5.5 sacks.

The GVSU offensive line has allowed just four sacks through five games and has been the key on offense thus far.

All success on the ground can be attributed to key blocking, and proficiency in the passing game can be traced back to the time quarterback Brad Iciek has had to read coverage and find open receivers.

But for Martin it all comes back to preparation, the team's mantra for the past several weeks.

"They're all about execution, they execute very well on both sides of the football," he said. "If you don't execute well they take care of your mistakes, and obviously that's been our Achilles' Heel at times this year in our focus and our execution."

That lack of execution surfaced against Ferris State University, but the Lakers have outscored opponents 101-6 and have made the succession to No. 1 in NCAA Division II.

"I really don't care," Martin said. "I think I voted us No. 7 last week, and I might've moved us up to No. 5 this week. We have a lot of season left before rankings of any kind mean anything."

sports@lanthorn.com

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