Last week the Fallon defense had the daunting task of trying to stop South Tahoe's Jake Hurwitz, who rushed for 158 yards and a touchdown in the Vikings' 31-6 win over the Greenwave.
Tonight at 7 p.m. against Carson, they have an equally difficult challenge. But instead of focusing on one-feature back, they have to find a way to contain Doug Brooks and Josh Carter, who together have rushed for 443 yards and six touchdowns in Carson's last two games.
"Those are the two guys that we need to stop," said first-year head coach Geff Habel, who is still looking for his first win as coach of the Greenwave. "We're really impressed with Carter. We're not very fast defensively, so we have to play more disciplined and not over commit."
As Brooks and Carter go, so do the Senators, who after last Friday's 27-26 win over Sparks, have already matched last year's win total of two. And against winless Fallon, it seems very possible that the Senators could stretch their win streak to three games. But coach Bob Bateman isn't thinking victory just yet.
"You can't think it'll be easy because every game is so different," said Bateman, who mentioned that all of Fallon's games have been close. "We've got some things that we still need to work on."
Next Saturday the Senators play Wooster, whom they haven't beaten since 1977. So any wrinkles the Senators have must be worked out against Fallon as the game against the Colts marks the opening of Sierra League play.
On offense, the Greenwave are led by 15-year-old sophomore quarterback Chris Warner and running back Tim Sorenson. In Fallon's option offense, Warner has passed for 178 yards and rushed for 158 yards this season. His lone touchdown pass came against South Tahoe, a 14-yard strike to Rob Sorenson, Tim's cousin.
"He's (Warner) a real good athlete," Bateman said. "He's got excellent speed and can read the offense really well for a young guy."
Sorenson, a senior, has rushed for 165 yards and a touchdown in three games. Both players struggled against South Tahoe but other than that game, their losses have been close, a 13-10 decision to Hug and a 15-0 shut out loss to Douglas.
"All of those game we're really tough on the kids," said Habel, who starts six underclassmen on both offense and defense. "I said going into the year that we're young and green and there's no game that we think we should have in the bag."
And if history is any indication, it doesn't look promising that Habel will pick up his first win as Fallon's head coach against Carson. The Greenwave haven't beaten the Senators in the past seven years, six of those games when Habel was an assistant coach. In fact, Fallon was one of only two wins for Carson last season.
"Carson has always been a tough team," Habel said. "But I think it should be real fun."
However, Habel doesn't measure success by wins and losses but rather by improvement.
"I don't think about wins," Habel said. "If we can get better every snap, then that's a success to me. We are just trying to improve each game but it's going to take time."