HARROD — Allen East has a message for opposing offenses: They’re coming for you. Nearly every play.
“Oh yeah, we’re blitzing probably 90 percent of the plays now,” said Logan Schick, a senior linebacker and fullback for the Mustangs. “It’s a fun way to play defense.”
The Mustangs (5-2, 2-2 Northwest Conference) changed their defensive scheme from a 4-4 to a 3-5 about a week before two-a-days-began. The results have been eye-opening.
Through seven games, Allen East allows just 227.1 yards per game, second in the Northwest Conference. That’s 158.4 yards less than the Mustangs allowed last year.
Much of that improvement came on run defense, allowing 112.4 yards per game, an astounding 130.9 yards less than it gave up per game in 2014.
“That 3-5 suits our athletes very well,” said Allen East coach Mike Abbey, who’s enjoyed watching his team turn a corner in his fifth season at the helm. “We’re not awfully big, but we’re quick and athletic. That scheme allows us to slant and angle and blitz all over the place.”
The Mustangs pair that up with an offense that’s third in the conference in scoring while giving up the third-fewest points. It’s a recipe for winning at a school that hasn’t had a winning season since the 2006 team went 9-3 and fell in the second round of the playoffs to Lima Central Catholic.
Few games were as satisfying for the Mustangs as Oct. 2’s 19-0 shutout against Paulding, when they allowed just 102 yards, including a paltry 19 on the ground to the Panthers.
The Mustangs didn’t allow a single third-down conversion in 11 tries and didn’t give up a fourth-down conversion in four tries, Abbey said.
“Paulding was a real good game for our defense,” said Logan Emerick, a senior linebacker and team captain for the Mustangs. “Everybody has to do their thing right to get a shutout.”
The team changed its defensive philosophy a week before the season began when Cam Staley, a former Allen East head coach, came back to coach the defense and changed the base defense to the 3-5 scheme. Shifting one player back from the defensive line into the linebacking corps made all the difference.
“We’re aggressive,” Schick said. “There’s not a lot of big guys, so we’re relying more on our speed.”
It made an instant difference. In the opener against Van Buren, the Mustangs allowed minus-3 yards of rushing in a 41-19 win.
“One of the main differences is how we run-fill, how we play the run,” Abbey said. The team also switched to a switching man-to-man approach in the secondary instead of a cover-man scheme.
The results include three interceptions apiece for Shane Gipson and Caleb Smelcer this season and two from Spencer Miller.
The Mustangs hope to bounce back from a disappointing double-overtime loss to Crestview, a game where they missed an extra point in the first overtime which could’ve won the game.
They also played without Miller at quarterback for the second week and saw Smelcer go down with an injury at running back. Abbey said he hoped Miller could return this week.
“The loss last week was tough,” Abbey said. “It was hard us on. We’ve already rebounded. We had a great start of the week.”
Their other loss was to Delphos Jefferson, which provided a bit of a moral victory by holding the Wildcats 177 yards under their offensive yardage average.
Now the Mustangs are “definitely” daring to think about a playoff appearance, Schick said. The Mustangs are 10th in Division V, Region 20, a difficult region with Delphos Jefferson, Marion Local, Spencerville and St. Henry ahead of them.
Still if they win their final three games against teams with a combined 16-5 record (Columbus Grove, Spencerville and Ada), they’ll likely earn the right to play additional games.
“If we take care of ourselves and play great defense, we have a great chance of playing in Week 11,” Abbey said.
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Allen East at Delphos Jefferson in football on September 19, 2015
photo by DENNIS SAAM for The Lima News
