Football: Pep talk sparks Alleman
Michael Kautz was taking it personal, letting opponents dictate terms along the offensive and defensive lines.
So after getting knocked around in the opener against La Salle-Peru and offering up a lackluster first-half effort, the Rock Island Alleman captain and his teammates along the offensive line had enough.
That decision, combined with some encouragement from Pioneers coach Dave DeJaegher, led to Alleman’s offensive line coming out with a renewed sense of purpose in the second, firing out and dominating the line of scrimmage. The effort gave the Pioneers an 18-14 victory and an opportunity to even their season record at 1-1.
“He (Coach DeJaegher) was so mad at us,” Kautz said of the mood in the halftime locker room. “(After the pep talk), we were so ready to go out and smack somebody in the mouth.
“Morale’s really high. (Winning) is a huge motivation.”
Although DeJaegher wouldn’t elaborate on specifics, he did allow that his team faced a significant gut-check at halftime, after Alleman’s first four possessions resulted in three punts and a fumble deep in Tigers territory.
“We called them out at halftime,” DeJaegher said. “Even though it’s only Game 2, we were at a crossroads...whether we weren’t going to play or we were going to go for it. I kind of challenged them, and they responded.”
And it wasn’t just the big uglies on the O-line doing the responding. Cale Raisbeck, who fumbled late in the first quarter and had a first half that was all too reminiscent of a sub-par Week 1 outing, started running with more authority behind the offensive line. He also picked off a pass in the third quarter, a play that set up Alleman’s first go-ahead score.
“It’s all thanks to the offensive line, everybody believing in each other,” Raisbeck said. “That’s what we’re about, going downfield and sticking it in the end zone. This is the team we should start every game with, everyone playing 110 percent.”
And Jared Ater added 116 yards on 25 carries, with two scores.
“We needed to get back to good, hard-nosed football,” DeJaegher said. “Every time we started to think we were in control of the game, we had nervous mistakes (like nine penalties, which made several possessions much more difficult than necessary), but we can fix those in practice.”