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GLEN DALE -- At the beginning of the season, if you had told first-year John Marshall coach Justin Kropka that the Monarchs would be 5-3 and fighting for playoff positioning heading into Week 9, he would have called you a liar.
"I wouldn't have believed you," Kropka said. "When we were in our second offensive practice in July, we had seven or eight plays where we had to stop because we didn't line up right. I'm talking the basics of the basics, we didn't even know our formations."
A 55-0 beatdown at the hands of University in their season-opener continued to keep any thoughts of making the playoffs far from Kropka's mind. And yet, the Monarchs are 5-3 and sitting in 13th place in the WVSSAC football rankings as they prepare to host Oak Glen for their penultimate regular-season game on Friday.
"Our goal at the beginning of the year was just to get better every week," Kropka said. "I didn't know any of the kids, they didn't know me so we just decided to focus on the fundamental things of getting better. That has obviously paid dividends for us because we weren't necessarily focused on the playoffs or winning, we were just focused on everybody getting better."
The Golden Bears (2-4) come into this week losers of three straight, but at this point in the year, John Marshall is not taking any opponent lightly.
"Matchup-wise, I think Oak Glen presents a lot of problems for us," Kropka said. "We're not taking them lightly at all, I think it's going to be a dog fight.
"They're typical Oak Glen, they're big and physical and they run the ball well. This game scares the (heck) out of me."
Ranked 25th in Class AA, Oak Glen is on the outside looking in at the playoffs and are now where JM was at the beginning of the year, not focused on winning so much as just getting better.
"We're trying to work on fundamentals, making sure our base schemes are developed properly," said OG coach Ted Arneault. "We're kind of back to the basics this week and going back to doing what we do best."
Arneault said he has watched JM get progressively better every week and expects a tough challenge at Monarch Stadium Friday night.
"They've got big, physical kids and what they run, they run well," he said. "We're going to have to control the line of scrimmage as best we can. We can't whiff on blocks, we have to make sure we have hats on people offensively. We have to make sure we have movement offensively and find some ways to get first downs. We need to be methodical with the football, eat clock."
Arneault said his biggest concern with John Marshall is the versatility they show on offense. He said the Monarchs use a wide variety of formations that they can run and pass out of.
"They adjust to situations well and they're able to get into three (running) back looks, but they also get into spread looks where they're able to both run the ball and pass the ball," Arneault said. "I think where they're most dangerous is when they get into those multi-back, three-back sets and they run right at you. They have a few different running backs they can throw at you."
Kropka said those sets, which use freshman Klypson Wallace and seniors Ben McCardle and Nate Menendez all in the backfield with junior quarterback Jacob Coffield, came about mostly out of necessity but have worked very well this season.
"It's partially because we don't really have a true tailback," Kropka said. "If you look at Klypson Wallace, he doesn't look like your typical I (formation) tailback, he looks like a Wing-T tailback. We don't have that true 'one guy', but we have a lot of guys who we think are really good football players and we try to find different ways to get them the ball."
Kropka said those sets are also used to help take pressure off of all three backs. As a freshman, Wallace has taken a beating this season while McCardle and Menendez are both also full-time defensive players.
To counter those looks, Arneault said Oak Glen's defense will need to flow to the football and tackle in space, two things they have struggled with recently.
"Our defensive line needs to get hands on and fire out low," Arneault explained. "We need to make sure we're not giving up ground and we're going to have to flow to the football. Our linebackers and our defensive backs are going to need to play run defense and tackle well in space. Those are the biggest things we've struggled with the last two weeks and we need to remedy those."