Althoff team loses high school football conference opener as defense struggles

One week after posting an impressive 13-7 win against Mater Dei, Althoff opened South Seven Conference action with a 62-42 road loss to Mount Vernon.

The Crusaders dropped to 2-2 while starting league play at 0-1.

Althoff coach Austin Frazier credited the Rams while also lamenting his team’s shortcomings.

“Early on, it was back and forth. Nobody could stop anybody for the first five drives or so,” said Frazier, whose team defeated Mount Vernon 37-20 last season. “Defensively, we just didn’t perform the way we did the week prior. We need to put people in better positions. We need to execute better. Give credit to Mount Vernon, they really flipped the script.”

As noted, the Crusaders’ defensive struggles particularly concerned Frazier following the unit’s strong performance against Mater Dei.

“Coming of nearly shutting out a great program like Mater Dei and being on a high, I thought (the defense) would be a strength,” he said. “We need to get back to drawing board.”

On the flip side, Althoff’s offensive production pleased Frazier.

“Offensively — especially in first half — I was pretty happy with the execution,” he said. “I think we scored on our first four drives and had a good mix of running and passing. I was happy with the growth there. Sooner or later, we’ll put together a week where the offense and defense are executing at a high level — I wouldn’t want to be that team (facing us). But we have a lot of work to do and soul searching to do after this one to see what the season will hold.”

Next up for Althoff is another long road trip, this time to Centralia for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday, Sept. 23. Frazier expects a tough tussle against the Orphans and noted — as far as Week 5 games go — the importance of securing a win.

“They’re a well-coached group,” he said. “They were a junior heavy club last year and are a quality team. They run a good system down there. Whenever we go play Centralia it’s pretty much going to be a good game — it’s a good rivalry. We know how big of a game this will be for playoff implications and South Seven implications. It doesn’t get any bigger of a Week 5 game for us.”

Althoff looking to hit on all cylinders

Moving forward, Frazier hopes his team can put together a game where all three phases — offense, defense and special teams — are clicking.

“We’d like our quarterback play and receiver play to continue like we had this week. We did not have any drops at receiver,” he said. “Our quarterback played well. I just want to see us finally put things together on both sides of the ball and have a well rounded defense, offense and special teams. We’ve shown flashes of talent in all three areas. We just haven’t been consistent enough, which is the mark of a young group.

“My biggest hope is to put everything together on all sides of the ball and fire on all cylinders.”

After visiting Centralia, Althoff then will have three-straight home games.

This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 11:52 PM.