About a decade and a half ago, Willard boasted an NFL-bound quarterback in Charlie Frye. The quarterback threw for more than 6,200 yards in his prep career before having a standout career at the University of Akron and eventually playing a few seasons in the NFL.
Things are a little different now with Willard's offense.
Willard comes into tonight's game at Columbian with a 3-4 record. Tornadoes' coach Brian Colatruglio, whose team is undefeated and ranked third in Division II, said the Flashes want to control the ball.
"They've completely switched schemes; they're a run-first team," Colatruglio said. "I think they have the least amount of pass attempts in our league."
Colatruglio said the Flashes will run an option game. The good news for the Tornadoes is that this won't be the first time they will go up against that type of offense.
"Very similar to Marion Harding," he said. "(Willard is) gonna run a lot of option, the triple option with quarterback trying to read things. They want to try and possess the ball. That's their approach. It's nice that we've already seen it before, so, yeah, I think our kids remember how we played against Marion and how we did things. Hopefully we're at a little bit of an advantage having seen that once this year."
Colatruglio said the Flashes' best weapon on offense may be fullback Wes Potts, who ran for 80 yards and a touchdown in last week's 42-6 loss to Bellevue.
"Their fullback, Potts, he's pretty solid; he runs hard," Colatruglio said. "He's gonna get a bunch of carries. He's somebody that we have to make sure we tackle in the option game."
Colatruglio said that on defense, the Flashes focus on not allowing "the home run."
"Defensively, they're gonna play a little bit of a soft zone; keep things in front of them," he said. "They're a little bit lacking in speed, where they want to make you drive the field and not give up big plays, which is smart; it's what they need to do with their personnel."
Colatruglio said he's impressed with the Flashes' inside linebacker play, especially Sam Petrie.
As for the Tornadoes, they are coming off a game in which Jack Jacoby ran for more than 100 yards and their defense notched a shutout.
"We just gotta show up and play," Colatruglio said. "Play with intensity and focus."
Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
