By Evan Mugford
BYFIELD — With the bye week now a thing of the past, the Triton Vikings football team (1-2), akin to the New England Patriots, is venturing into enemy territory looking to erase the memories of a hard-fought loss.
Idling on a two-game losing streak, Triton's week off was anything but. The Vikings have continued to work on coach Jim O'Leary's new system diligently, thumping through the mud and rain, preparing themselves for their next opponent — the 0-2 Ipswich Tigers.
"We've worked hard these past two weeks, which have been pretty much under water, but we haven't missed a beat, and we're certainly getting better at what we do," O'Leary said. "Guys are starting to understand what we're trying to accomplish, and I believe we're correcting mistakes from our past games.
"We hope to perform better than we did against Hamilton-Wenham in which we committed way too many turnovers and penalties," O'Leary said. "We're certainly stressing to win the turnover battle and avoiding the wrong side of the whistle. We'd like to put some more points on the board for sure."
The Vikings have struggled to put up big numbers in their first three games (33 combined points), but only one team — the unblemished Amesbury Indians (3-0) — has managed to put a dent in the much-improved Triton defense.
A squad that went winless in the 2007 season, non-league foe Ipswich, is a different team this year; a team that relies on a strong backbone and that owns a record indicative of how hard it performs, O'Leary said.
"We saw them play North Reading, and it was a lot closer than what the final score showed," O'Leary said. "North Reading didn't score any offensive points so certainly their defense is strong, and they have a few kids who are as good as anybody in the league at their positions.
"Their captain, Neil Berzins, an offensive tackle and defensive lineman, he'll be a tough one to handle. I would say he's one of the better ones in the league."
The offense that Ipswich runs has been known to cause problems for even the most well-oiled machine, but the Vikings have already had a sample of what the Tigers are selling.
"They run the Wing-T, a deceiving offense, which is always tough," O'Leary said. "I think it helps us that we've already seen that offense (Amesbury), but it remains tough to defend no matter the situation."
Senior/captain Billy Tindle, a running back who competes in indoor and outdoor track, is cognizant of what the Tigers can bring, but he's confident that his team will have the right strategy.
"We've watched film on them," Tindle said. "We've seen what they can do. I think our team is more than ready for the matchup and that our bye week has definitely helped out our preparation.
Coach O'Leary isn't about to alter his game-plan just yet, and he knows that his team is eager to finally hit another jersey color.
"We're not changing a whole lot. We're just trying to get better at what we're doing," O'Leary said. "We're just getting off the bye week, so we've been at each other's necks for a while. Everyone's excited for the game."
