ALTON - The Marquette Catholic High School Explorers football team (0-2) is ready to face off in their first Prairie State Conference battle of the season against the Nokomis High School Redskins (0-2). However, it might not take place on this potentially rainy Friday night.
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Notorious for its muddy nature after heavy downpours, such as those that have been plaguing the region since late Thursday night, Public School Stadium’s field might not be able to hold up after the beating the Redskins and the Explorers may put on it. Keeping the field in top shape for Alton’s game against Belleville East on Sept. 16 also plays a role.
Marquette head coach Darrell Angleton expressed his concern about the field’s conditions and a possible postponement early Friday morning.
“Weather’s on everyone’s mind here,” he said. “It’s rained for two days straight and everyone knows how Public School Stadium can be. We can even see a possibility to play the game on Saturday night.”
In the case of postponement, the Explorers will head indoors for a practice Friday and will treat the game like one of their regularly-scheduled Saturday evening games with a kickoff at 7 p.m.
Last year, Marquette defeated Nokomis in a 24-23 overtime victory. At the end of the 2015 season, the Explorers went 6-4 after a playoff loss at Rochester.
The team is hoping for a solid battle against the Redskins, regardless of what day the game takes place.
“They’ve got a new coach who has a long-time tie to Nokomis. It looks like they’ve moved to a spread-based offense. They’ve done a lot of run-pass plays and a very typical spread offense.
“We have to play a lot of zone reads in the spread; everyone has to do their job. You have to play assignment football.”
As far as earning their first win of the season to their book, Angleton thinks that all wins, especially a conference win, are crucial this time of year.
“All conference wins are very important. I like the match-up and I like our speed and size; it’s a matter of us executing,” he said.
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