OAK HARBOR, Ohio — There is not much left to the imagination when it comes to the Oak Harbor football defense.
Under head coach Mike May, the Rockets stress pursuit to the football as a mantra, preach the fundamentals over flash, and operate a simple scheme that hasn't changed a whole lot recently.
“That's the biggest thing we stress and what we want to be known for is our pursuit to the football,” May said. “That's really our whole philosophy. If you run to the ball then turnovers start to happen and people are there and you gather up fumbles or tipped balls or things like that. We stress it, and we start off every practice with a pursuit drill. Every play in defensive practice, we are stressing to our kids to get to the football. So it just becomes a mentality and becomes kind of a way of life for us.
“...We don't do a lot schematically, we just try to win with fundamentals and effort.”
Last year's defense gave up 6.2 points per game in the regular season with five shutouts and eight games allowing seven points or fewer.
It doesn't hurt when you have players who buy into the system like two-time first-team All-Ohio defensive end Jacob Ridener and all-district safety Michael Lalonde anchoring the unit.
“Everyone is getting stronger and getting faster, and we just want to hit someone,” Ridener said. “Everyone gets excited for defense — that's like our thing. If they can't score, they can't win, and that's been established since 2019 with the team that went to the final four. That's what we've seen, and what we grew up watching.”
This year's defense is perhaps as promising as ever with seven returning starters including Carson Ridener, Garry Brooks, Travis Bouyer, Tyler Thompson, and Brady Losie.
“I definitely think this could be one of our best years,” Lalonde said. “We have a lot of experience. It just keeps going up and up as we get more experience, and if we keep playing hard, good things will happen.”
The pursuit of the quarterback is his number one individual priority.
“I try to play fast and read the tackle,” Ridener said. “I study them a lot, but I just see what they do and react to it and try to get to the quarterback.”
Ridener's approach falls in line with the simple mantra of Oak Harbor, but May said that doesn't mean Ridener just shows up to a game and attacks the quarterback.
“He has a tremendous work ethic,” May said. “The kid has never taken a play off that I've ever seen in practice or in a game. He watches more film than probably any other player I've coached. He has plans every week for pass rush moves for every tackle he's going to face. He's very much a student of the game.”
Lalonde, who doubles as the team's quarterback on offense, explained his first and primary job as the free safety is to make sure each Oak Harbor defender is in the right spot prior to every play.
Once that is in place, the defense can begin their pursuit.
“I have to make sure everyone knows what they are doing and everybody is set up and in their right spots,” Lalonde said. “Then our defense does a great job of running after the ball.”
May calls Lalonde the quarterback of the defense. Everything pre-snap begins with him.
“He's our quarterback on both sides of the ball,” May said. “He makes all the adjustments, and he's a great communicator and great leader. He gives us confidence on both sides of the ball. He's one of the best competitors I've ever coached.”
Oak Harbor has to replace three starting linemen and one starting defensive back from last year's unit.
May is thrilled with the core of the defense that is returning, but he identifies the line depth as a priority this season.
“A lot of the guys we have coming back are two-year starters and some are three-year starters,” May said. “We feel like we have a good core coming back on defense. I think they had a good year last year and we want to continue to build off of that. This is the most returning starters we've had in a while on defense, so we feel like we can have another pretty solid unit.”
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