Tigers tasked with slowing stacked Seneca squad

Nevada High School sophomore Ty Thomas receives reps at quarterback during a preseason practice in mid-August. Thomas has been named the week three starter.

Matt Resnick | Daily Mail

Non-conference foes when they met a season ago, the Nevada Tigers nearly sprang a season-opening road upset of the Seneca Indians, relinquishing a second-half lead en route to a 28-20 loss.

A year later the two squads are Big 8 Conference West division rivals. While Nevada lost the vast majority of their skill position players to graduation, the Indians, fresh off a 9-2 season, returned nearly everybody. The Indians reeled off eight consecutive victories to open the 2017 campaign before they were tripped up in week nine by seven-time defending Class 2 state champion Lamar.

The gifted Gavin Clouse, a three-year varsity starter, returns under center for Seneca. Clouse poses a danger with both his strong arm, and especially, his swift and elusive legs.

Seneca is solid in the trenches, returning seven of its eight starting varsity offensive linemen. The Indians explosive offense is further accentuated by First Team All-Big 8 tailback Trey Wilson, who racked up nearly 1,000 yards on the ground last year. Junior Monty Mailes provides another dangerous weapon at the running back position for Seneca.

“They’ll try to take advantage of their speed and get to the edge,” said Nevada head coach Wes Beachler. “With that offense, it’s going to kind of depend on what we’re giving them. It’s all going to depend on how we defend them.”

Despite the seemingly loaded roster of experienced players, Seneca is off to a rough start, dropping its season opener to Springfield Catholic (50-42) and following with a week two loss to Reeds Spring (28-0).

“They haven’t been 100 percent healthy yet this year,” said Beachler prior to Wednesday’s practice. “And they’re probably going to be pretty close to healthy Friday night. So we’ll have our hands full.”

Added Beachler: “I think they’re faster than they were last year. They have more speed than last year. They’re solid on defense. I’m not sure they’re as good up front on the offensive line as they were last year, but they’re a pretty good ball club.”

Beachler said there aren’t many takeaways he can apply from last year’s game, as his squad is working with an entirely new set of skill position players.

“Our offensive line is better than last year, I think we’re better up front,” noted Beachler. “And our kids know we can play with them. I think our kids feel like we can play with anybody.”

Beachler, however, said in order for his team to have a chance it needs to clean up the miscues. Nevada has been a turnover machine through the first two weeks of the season.

“We’ve been our worst enemy the first two weeks with turnovers, miscues, and some missed assignments,” he said. “We’ve got to get better at those things.”

Beachler said ball-security has been moderately emphasized during practice this week. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword, because you don’t want to talk about it so much you never forget about it. Yet, you don’t want to ignore it, and keep doing it. So we’re just kind of walking a fine line with emphasizing ball-security without pounding it into their heads — about how often we’ve miscued. So we’ve got to just keep working towards taking care of the football.”

Beachler said he took away some positives from last week’s 48-16 home loss to reigning Class 3 State runner-up Mount Vernon.

“I thought we played a lot better up front against another good football team,” he said. “We’re ahead 8-6, and it could have been 22-6 at the end of the first quarter if we would have taken care of business. We had some missed assignments in the second and third quarter, had some miscues, things we’ve got to clean up. So I think we played a little bit better, and we just have to continue to improve.”

Of pressing concern is Nevada’s quarterback situation, as starter Matt Thorp sustained an injury in the second half of the Tigers’ week two loss to Mount Vernon. Beachler confirmed with the Daily Mail that Thorp has been ruled out for tonight’s matchup with Seneca.

“(Sophomore) Ty Thomas will be our quarterback this week,” said Beachler. “He gives us a little bit of a different look than with Matt in there.”

Beachler noted that Thomas was among four finalists for the starting QB gig, a decision made several days prior to the season opener. “So his learning curve is not huge,” concluded Beachler.

Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. tonight at Seneca High School.