Indians wary of Evans, McLeod West

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- When the McLeod West Falcons travel to meet Sleepy Eye High at 7 p m. tonight in a Class 1A state quarterfinal game there will be a trip on the line.

The winner of this game takes the trek north to the Metrodome in Minneapolis and a semifinal game.

These two teams met the first game of the season in Sleepy Eye with the Falcons coming out on top 48-38.

"They are a great team and we really respect them," said Indian coach Dean Deibele. "They have some outstanding talent at quarterback (Travis Bussler) and at running backs (Tyler Evans, Jeremy Gettel, both juniors). They have a young but outstanding offensive line. We know that they are young but they also are very solid."

Deibele said he Falcons are a multidimensional squad.

"We know that if you take away their run, they can pass. They did a great job passing the ball against Le Center," Deibele said. "We know that they will exploit what we give them defensively. We know that it will be tough shutting them down."

But Deibele said his team will "feed off the fact at the start of the year, we were young but they were also a young team. That is an interesting aspect. The game was high scoring so we can't sit there and say that we are a veteran club now because they are in the same boat as we are. All that we will say that is that we are the underdog and we get to host them on our home field in a state quarterfinal game. So we are going to go out and see what happens."

Deibele said McLeod West is "a very different team from the first game of the season. We will look at that film. But they have moved some people around. They have added a few tricks here and there. They are very well coached and they will adjust to what we are doing.

"We are concentrating a little bit more on their recent games, but we will look back at that first game and come up with some tendencies."

While McLeod West has made some adjustments, the Indians have also.

"We have made some major adjustments," Deibele said. "We have switched some linemen around a little bit to try and do what is best for our team. Our backfield is pretty much the same (from the first game). We try to adjust game by game to exploit what our opponent does."

He said overall "we are a better team, but they are, too."

Deibele said his team has to be concerned with Evans -- the state's leading rusher.

"He is something," Deibele said. "I have been reading about him all year and he is so solid. He is tough to bring down and he has good speed. He is one of the best backs in the area. There is no doubt about that and we are going to have to do a great job in containing him."

But then the Falcons turn lose the other half of their version of Thunder and Lightning in Gettel.

"Plus, they also have a great play-action passing game," Deibele said. "They do more than just one thing. We know that they are going to be able to exploit us either in the passing game or the running game, so we are going to have to come up with a great defensive scheme."

While the Falcons' offense is diverse, the Indian offense also poses threats to the McLeod West defense.

"We don't throw the ball much, but we think we can if we need to," commented Deibele. "There is no doubt that we are a run-oriented team (Cody Walter, Jose Saenz). But at the same time we can throw the ball when we need to, like last week against (Minnesota Valley Lutheran). We only threw the ball seven times last week, but all three of them were huge completions (from the arm of quarterback Bryce Belseth). I think every one of them led to a score. We can throw the ball if we have to."

Deibele said it will take the "same old same old. Keep the turnovers and penalties down and play a solid game on both sides of the ball. Our offensive line has to do the job run blocking and the defensive line has to stop the run. If you control the line of scrimage, you will win the game."