Spencer, Ia (KICD) – It’s Football Friday for the Spencer Tigers. Let’s take look at their opponent tonight, the Fort Dodge Dodgers.
Fort Dodge has one of the longest Football Histories in the State of Iowa. The Dodgers are one of the current 4A schools that were playing in 4A before realignment 2 years ago. Their best era was in the late 70s and early 80s when only 8 teams were making it to the playoffs. They made it to the Playoffs 3 times in 8 years during that era, and would go as far as the Semi-Finals in 1978. Since then it has been lot of first round exits for the Dodgers when the qualify. When the Playoffs were at 32 teams the Dodgers never made it in to the round of 16.
Last year, after a 4-0 start to the season, Fort Dodge would drop two straight to Webster City and Spencer. They would bounce back by winning their final 3 regular season games. The Dodgers 7-2 record was strong enough for an At-Large bid to the Class 4A Playoffs. Fort Dodge would fall to Bondurant-Farrar in the first round of the playoffs 36-9.
This year has been bumpy. Ft. Dodge opened up with a loss to rival Mason City, a team they had not lost to since the mid 2000s. Another rival in Ames would squeak past Fort Dodge before the Dodgers picked up their first win in dominant fashion over Waterloo East. Marshalltown would make it two wins for the Dodgers on September 16th.
Last Week though was a tough one, as Fort Dodge got ran over by the Webster City Lynx. The Dodgers allowed Webster City to rush for 678 yards and score 62 points. This put Fort Dodge at 2-3 coming in to this week 6 matchup with Spencer.
Last year Fort Dodge flexed a very high powered offense that averaged just under 400 yards per game, and 24 points a night. If there was anything lost from last years offense, it hasn’t shown yet this year, as they are averaging more points per game and close to the same amount of yards. It begins with Quarterback Connor Carver who is throwing the ball much more efficiently then what Fort Dodge was doing last year. Carver has 88 completions for 1,005 yards and 12 Touchdowns to only 3 Interceptions. His top target is one of the best players in the State of Iowa in Javion Jondle. Jondle has caught 43 passes this year for 433 yards and 6 Touchdowns, but as dangerous as he is on offense, he is the most dangerous on special teams, where he averages 56 yards per kick return and has already taken 2 kicks back for touchdowns this year. The Dodgers will run out of either the shotgun or pistol, with no more than 1 running back in the backfield. Receivers will usually be unbalanced with 3 to a side.
Defense has certainly been a problem for Fort Dodge this season as they have given up an average of over 400 yards per game and 30.6 points. Opponents have had a ton of success attacking the Dodgers on the ground, averaging over 250 yards per contest. There are some individual bright spots on the defensive side such as Kaleb Lynch who has 16 tackles for loss this year and 2 sacks. Most of their defensive looks are from the 3-5 or the 4-4 with one safety back.
The game starts tonight at 7:00, we will have pregame at 6:30 on News Radio 102.5 FM and AM 1240 KICD, streaming on KICDam.com. You can watch the game on SMUnet.net or SMU Channel 3.