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RIPON, Wis. - The Red Hawks will run onto the brand new Ingalls Field artificial turf on Saturday, hoping that this is where their path to a Midwest Conference championship will begin. The 'real season' begins this weekend with their conference-opening game against Lake Forest College, who, like the Red Hawks, lost a non-conference game last week to open up their 2008 campaign.
Unlike the Red Hawks, Lake Forest's game wasn't close, as they lost to Aurora 35-13 at home. Ripon meanwhile, opened with a near-upset of UW-Oshkosh, losing 14-13 on the road, in a game that wasn't decided until the final minute. After a month of practice, the Red Hawks are more than ready to unveil their 2008 team to the home fans on the new and improved Ingalls Field.
"Our players are excited to play at home on our beautiful new turf, after practicing for the past four weeks and I think we're just anxious to get the conference season underway," head football coach Ron Ernst said.
Just as they have the past two years, Ripon will open their Midwest Conference schedule against the Foresters, who Ripon has defeated three years in a row and 15 of the last 18 times they've faced each other. That includes going undefeated against them for the entire decade of the 1990s. Even though they've dominated the series, which they lead 29-8, with four ties, the game usually goes down to the wire when these two teams hook up. The last seven meetings between the two have been decided by an average of 5.3 points.
"It's always a very tough game and both teams play extremely hard. We're expecting an intense game because both teams are well coached and have very good talent on both sides of the ball," said Ernst. "Both teams want to get off to a good start, because whoever loses this game will be one game behind half of the conference."
In order to beat the Foresters, one focus Ripon will have is to stop the passing game, which threw for 271 yards and three scores in last year's match-up, a 34-27 Red Hawk victory. Lake Forest quarterback Jeff Ziemnik is gone from last year, but sophomore Geoff Sobey is a capable replacement that does a lot of the same things, which includes beating teams with his arm and legs.
"Sobey is athletic and throws the ball very well on the run. He will pull it down and run for some yards if he has to, so we'll have to keep him in the pocket and make sure he doesn't run on us," Ernst said.
Sobey will have plenty of help from his receivers, senior Tim McNamee and juniors Will Christensen and Dan Carter. That trio combined for 16 catches, 166 yards and one touchdown in last Saturday's loss to Aurora, and they'll try their best to give Ripon fits again this weekend.
"Lake Forest throws the ball a lot and they have some very good receivers. Carter caused a lot of problems for us last year and we must keep an eye on him if we want to win the game," Ernst said.
Ripon will try to contain them the best that they can, but as is the case in most games, Coach Ernst and his coaching staff will be more concerned with how they execute, instead of worrying about what Lake Forest is going to do to execute. That will include protecting the ball better on offense, after committing four turnovers last week at UW-Oshkosh.
We can't turn the ball over if we expect to win, and we'll also have to produce some turnovers on the defensive side of the ball, so it will make things easier for our offense," said Ernst. "We have to execute better and we have to get better as a football team each week, which I'm sure is the same thing that their coaches are telling them. We have a good game plan and we've had a good week of practice, so we're looking to have a great day.
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