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RIPON, Wis. - After a tune up last week against UW-Oshkosh, the Ripon Red Hawks prepare to enter the games with the most meaning, as they'll jump headfirst into conference play this weekend. Lake Forest is the first team on the docket for the Red Hawks, who will hope to start this conference season much like last year, when they began MWC play by winning their first five games.
"Anytime we have the conference season starting, it brings a new sense of focus to what we're trying to do. We want to play a non-conference game to see where we're at as a team, but we live for the conference season," said head football coach Ron Ernst. "We were certainly able to evaluate our team last week, but now we're looking forward to getting the conference season started."
Last week's 44-6 loss to UW-O is a distant memory for the Red Hawks, who hope to put it out of their mind completely and focus on a tough Lake Forest team, who finished in a tie for fifth place in the MWC last season. The Foresters dropped their season opener 41-28 at Washington University (MO), in a game which their offense was able to move the ball well at times. In order to win, Ripon will have to stop their offense better than they stopped the Titan offense last week.
"The main thing we have to do this week is tackle better. Lake Forest has very good players and if we don't wrap them up and make the tackle, they will run wild on us," Ernst said.
The Foresters struggled to run the ball last week, gaining just 17 yards on the ground, but they didn't have any trouble moving the ball through the air. Quarterback
Jeff Ziemnik completed 21 of his 43 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those touchdowns went to Tom Cirone, who caught nine passes for 122 yards. Cirone also had a good game last year against the Red Hawks, catching 10 passes in Ripon's 35-27 victory.
"They've got very good athletes at quarterback and receiver. The biggest thing we have to do on defense is contain their play makers and not let him get the big play," said Ernst. "What hurt us last year was that we gave up some big plays, and that is not a good thing for any team."
One thing that is certain is that the game will very likely be a barnburner. The last six meetings between these two teams have been decided by an average of 4.6 points. Look for that to be the story once again, as both teams seem to bring the best out of each other.
"Lake Forest is well coached and they're a very similar team to us. Both of us are very competitive and both schools have great traditions. When we each have quality football teams like we usually seem to have, we're going to have close games when we go up against each other," Ernst said.
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