The Falcons (1-0) play host to Madison, which also features a first-year coach in Dan Baker, at 7 p.m. Friday.
“When I was at CHCA they knocked us out two years in a row so that left a bad taste in my mouth with them,” Mueller said. “They have tough kids, physical kids, a new coaching staff. It’s a look in the mirror type of game. Most high school coaches tell you the biggest week of improvement happens between Week 1 and 2 so hopefully we can keep taking steps forward.”
Mueller was pleased with the win last week, although there were plenty of things to correct from the film.
Most importantly, it was a confidence builder for a program in need of a boost. Fenwick was 1-7 last season under one-year coach George Moore, and the team has been through a series of changes over the years.
“It felt awesome, obviously for the kids,” Mueller said. “They didn’t have a great year last year with COVID and everything else that took place with their season, so it felt good. Playing a good Franklin team, it was a good start for us. There’s some confidence now I would say. That’s our job, to fuel confidence but also show the amount of mistakes they made and make sure we are correcting them so we don’t have them again. But this was a positive start.”
The team played especially well on defense, as evident by the final score, and Mueller noted defensive backs Augie Quirch and Riley Tippmann stood out, as did the defensive line against a powerful Franklin running game.
Franklin’s only points came when the Wildcats pinned the Falcons’ offense deep in their own territory on the second drive of the third quarter and ended up tackling Jude Hooks in the end zone for a safety. Mueller said the offense still needs some work, but the players are picking up the new scheme and just need some more time in the system, especially with a young quarterback in Bryce Pearce.
“We saw kids doing what we asked them,” Mueller said. “They might not have physically performed well when we did it, but they understand what we need. Defensively, we played well. Franklin has physical kids and we were aware of that. Things were good overall, but there are a lot of corrections to make. It was just good to get a win.”
Running back Colt Bradshaw, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound senior, racked up 98 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries last week and will be tough for defenses to take down.
Mueller expects Fenwick will be running the ball a lot with the fourth-year letterman leading the way; however, the offense is going to need to open up some to take the focus off him. Jake Davis also had a 21-yard touchdown run against Franklin.
“We’ve got to correct some things up front, and teams will try to take him away so we’ve got to be able to do some different things,” Mueller said. “The passing game will be one way to back some people off and open the running lanes again, so it will be important to get that going too.”
Mueller admitted he didn’t quite know what to expect in Week 1. The Falcons have looked good in practices but the coaches and players are still learning about one another and it’s hard to evaluate much until the real games begin.
“Our expectations are pretty high,” Mueller said. “We make practices hard so the games are easy. I wouldn’t say I was completely surprised. We just don’t know what we have all the time, so I was pleasantly surprised after the game. We’ll see how it goes this week.”
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