Howell football ready for Northville test — with broadcast link

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HOWELL — The objective is the same for the Howell football team, but getting there figures to be a much different journey this week.

The Highlanders (2-0 overall, 1-0 KLAA West) take on a Northville team (1-1, 1-0) that also is coming off a win in its KLAA West Division opener last week.

“Last week was a cage match,” Howell coach Brian Lewis said of his team’s 41-21 win over Canton in a battle of rushing attacks. “This week (Northville)_ is going to try to spread you out and throw it a bunch. It will be a different kind of challenge for us, andit’s going to be different in seeing how we respond ,and how we handle it.”

Tonight’s game will be broadcast by The Livingston Post at 6:50 p.m. Click here for the link.

As it turns out, all four winners in last week’s division openers are playing tonight with Hartland playing at Brighton in the other game.

Northville is led by quarterback Jack Holland, whose use of wideouts Kai Saunders and Nolan Thomson is enough to keep Lewis and his staff worried about their potential.

“We have to really control (Holland),” he said. “Not letting him get out and dink it over our heads while he’s running. We have to be really good with how we cover downfield in those situations when he’s scrambling. They want you to get into a couple of different things so you misalign (on defense), and then they want to take advantage of that. We have to be good communicators this week and line up properly, and that will be half the battle.”

The other half, of course, is the Howell offense, which racked up more than 400 yards, most of it on the ground, in last week’s win. The Highlanders were led by August Johanningsmeier, who rushed for 249 yards, while quarterback Nolan Petru had nearly 100 yards more and Noah Ramonaitis ran for three short-yardage touchdowns.

They ran through holes made by the likes of senior right tackle Nathan Koch.

“it’s the same challenge every week,” Koch said. “If we do our jobs, I don’t think there’s anyone who can beat us.”

He says it with a certainty that leaves no room for cynicism.

“They have speed,” he added, “but we’re fast, too, and we’re going to be fast and physical off the ball, and we’ll be ready to go.”

Flexibility on offense will be a key, too, Lewis said.

“It’s always a ‘feel’ thing,” Lewis said, referring to play-calling. “I would like to tell you we were going to run the ball as much as we did last week, but I didn’t know how it would go. Calling a game on offense, week after week, is always a different kind of flavor, and it depends on what the game has to offer. Obviously, we’ll have August, and we’ll try to get August the ball. Other than that, we’ll see what the game has in store for us.”

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