THE BASICS
Who: Hartland at Brighton
Kickoff: 7 p.m.
Broadcast: Click here for the link to The Livingston Post. Broadcast starts at 6:50 p.m.
Records: Hartland 1-0, Brighton 0-1
Last week: Hartland beat Westland John Glenn 17-16 in overtime; Brighton lost to Belleville 34-31 in OT.
CLEANUP CREW
Coaches always talk about making the most improvement between game 1 and game 2. Both teams hope that’s the case tonight. “We had a lot of mistakes in Week 1 we don’t want to see, and hopefully we ironed them out this week,” Hartland coach Brian Savage said.
For Brighton coach Brian Lemons, a pair of breakdowns on special teams that led to a pair of 95-plus yard kickoff returns were part of this week’s remedial lessons. “We put some extra time into it,” Lemons said. “We had some young guys on that (kickoff_ team, and we watched a lot of film and worked on it on the field. We hope we fixed those things up.”
LEAGUE OPENER
The KLAA’s shrinking from 24 to 14 teams meant new divisions and new scheduling. “We’re used to crossovers and someone we don’t see on a regular basis in Week 2,” Savage said. “Week 2 this year, we’re in the league already.” The league opener is overshadowed a little bit by the rivalry between the two schools, who are 5-5 in their last 10 meetings.
“You have a game with towns this close, and it’s always going to be and extra fun,” Lemons said. “They seem pretty talented. They’ve got some young guys in some big spots that played really well last week. I’ve been pretty impressed with their defense, and their offense isn’t too far behind.”
As for Hartland, “We’ve got to stop Rudy (Ramirez),” Savage said. “They’ve got some weapons offensively. They’re pretty quick and they spread us out. We’ve got to be smart. They have multiple formations and we have to know what our checks are and be ready to go.”
HARVEY HELP
Both schools will be collecting money between the first and second quarters to help the Pasadena, Texas, school district help residents who have been displaced by 50 inches of rain since Friday due to Hurricane Harvey. “All dollars will go to them and go to kids who are sleeping in shelters or need school supplies or need to get back to school and have (some) little things are the same,” said Brighton athletic director John Thompson, who organized the fundraiser. “We’ll also have donation containers at our concessions and tickets. It’s one of those things when we thinkg about who we are, we’re nobody unless we’re everybody, and we’ve got to take care of everybody. That’s why we’re doing it.”
