Monarchs look to bounce back against Pratt
By CONOR NICHOLL
Monarch football coach Gene Flax met individually with his Thomas More Prep-Marian seniors on Saturday. After practice Wednesday, Flax dismissed his underclassmen and again talked with the seniors for a few minutes
The message was clear.
"Don't let anything happen like last week," senior lineman Tanner Burkhart said. "We are going to win this week."
Last Friday at home, the Monarchs did little right in a 63-8 Mid-State Activities Association loss to Ulysses, the worst defeat by a TMP-Marian team since 2006.
"It stings for a little bit, but then you move on as soon as you possibly can," senior lineman Carl Conway said.
The Monarchs had 10 yards of total offense midway through the third quarter and scored their only touchdown off Ulysses' junior varsity players. Sophomore Sean Conway didn't complete a pass, while senior running back Clint Taylor was held under 100 yards for the first time this season. After the game, Flax said the team "quit."
"It was a disaster," Flax said. "We got steamrolled the other night. Part of it was they got on a roll and part of it was that we kind of felt a little bit of pity for ourselves. Consequently, we didn't execute anywhere, offensively or defensively.
"They got to make sure that everyone else is doing their part, too, and not being 'Hey, I am doing mine, you do yours.' But as a team we can do better than this."
The meetings and talks could produce a different result, or a much closer game, when TMP-Marian (2-2 overall, 1-1 MSAA) travels to Pratt (3-1, 1-1) on Friday night for another MSAA matchup. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m.
Pratt, which returned 14 offensive starters and eight defensive starters, has lost to undefeated Scott City. Last week, it beat Larned 56-6.
The Greenbacks could be the toughest team thus far on TMP-Marian's schedule, even better than Ulysses.
"I think overall, quality-wise, I think they are better than Ulysses," Flax said.
Pratt, like Ulysses, has handled the Monarchs easily in recent seasons. TMP-Marian's senior class has been outscored 141-20 in the three games versus the Greenbacks in their careers, including a 68-0 loss in 2006, the last time the Monarchs traveled to Pratt.
This season, Pratt returns senior fullback Jake Garrett, junior quarterback Skylar Angood and senior wideout Chris Nicholson as several of its top skill players.
"They have got more speed (than Ulysses)," Flax said. "They are a quick, fast team. Size-wise, we match up very well with them, but they are quick and they got speed and a lot of different people are capable of breaking.
"They run a lot of formations, double-wing, Wing-T, ace. Their line is not real big, but they get out and they swarm to the ball defensively," he added.
This week, the Monarchs have focused on staying confident after the blowout loss to Ulysses.
"I am really not sure that we didn't have a bad mindset (last Friday)," Flax said. "We got handled rather easily down there. They have had their way with us the last several years and am I not sure the mindset was, 'Can we even be on the field with them?' "
In the last two years, TMP-Marian followed a big defeat against Ulysses with three straight defeats, all by at least 32 points. This season, Flax has focused on his seniors to prevent that occurrence again.
"Keeping our heads up, not getting down when we make mistakes, coming out stronger," Burkhart said.
"Just forget about last week," Conway said. "Just keeping positive and move on."
Defensively, TMP-Marian has focused on stopping the big play. Pratt, because of its speed, has a chance to break big plays. It has scored 97 points through four games and ranks 22nd out of 64 Class 4A teams in scoring offense, according to preppowerindex.com.
"We feel like we made some progress and we feel like if we can keep from giving them big plays early, we have got a real shot at this game," Flax said.
Stopping the run also is critical. In the Monarchs' two losses, against Kinsley in Week 1 and Ulysses, opponents have rushed for 399 yards on 74 carries. In two wins versus Ness-Dighton and Larned, TMP-Marian has yielded 165 yards on 69 carries.
"Same kind of thing all year, stop the run, make them pass," Conway said.
And that could yield a turnaround after last week's blowout loss.
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