The Cornwall Wildcats will be looking for their second consecutive win on Saturday against the Durham West Dolphins. The Wildcats are coming off their first victory of the season, defeating the Oshawa Hawkeyes last week.
In their win over the Hawkeyes, the Wildcats put up a season high 31 points, and have scored 59 points in the last two weeks after managing just 15 in their first three games combined.
Wildcats offensive co-ordinator Andrew Willson chalked up this success to a simpler approach.
“We we’re focused too much on what the other teams we’re doing and trying to scheme them up,” said Willson. “The reality is that you need to be good at what you need to do to win football games.”
Willson said shifting focus in practice back to his team strength’s and what the Wildcats need to do to be successful rather than trying to develop a complex game plan each week to combat the opponent is the reason for Cornwall’s improved offensive output.
This is his first season coaching at the OVFL level, and Willson said the onus is on him for trying to get to complicated in the short and sweet OVFL season.
“The reality of it is we don’t have the same amount of time we spend at the university level in meetings and on the practice field, so getting these kids to make adjustments week to week is asking a lot,” said Willson.
This problem was compounded by the fact it is Willson’s first year as the Wildcats signal caller and he introduced an entire new playbook.
“What I’m trying to get out of them is different than what they’re used to,” said Willson. “So it just doesn’t make sense to make too many adjustments week to week, it’s better to just focus on what we’re doing.”
Early in the season, Cornwall saw the more success running the ball than passing. One of the tenets of their offence from opening kickoff this year has been to make teams respect both the run and the pass so when teams responded to their running success the Wildcats adjusted.
“We’ve had some success passing the ball the last few games, whether it be quick hitters, or we had a couple of big plays against Oshawa,” said Willson.
One reason the Wildcats have seen some positive results through the air the last two weeks has been the return of Quarterback Tyler Fisher to full health.
“It was disappointing to have him go down with injury early in the year. Now that he’s back in good enough shape to play it’s benefited our offence because he’s a little more familiar with it.” said Willson.
Another factor in their improved air attack is Cameron Wilson, Cornwall’s back-up pivot who joined the team in week two.
“I think that has really helped us out, having the competition in practice has been beneficial to both of them,” said Willson.
The Wildcats will be able to see if their new approach continues working come Saturday when the ball kicks off at 4:00 at Joe St. Denis Field in Cornwall.
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