Healthy again, Sharks hoping to click

Posted Oct 1, 2009 by Adam Adkins

Updated Oct 1, 2009 at 11:33 AM

For a team coming off a shutout loss, the last thing it probably wants to see is another tough defense. Nevertheless, that is the challenge that awaits the Riverview Sharks, who travel Friday to face Spoto.

And from what Coach Bruce Gifford has seen, he knows it’s a big test that awaits his team.

“They look pretty good on film,” Gifford said of the Spartans defense, which has posted three shutouts in four games this season.

The good news for the Sharks is they again are healthy. Riverview dealt with the flu bug last week, one that kept 17 starters out of practice all week leading up the Plant game and limited most of them in that 35-0 loss to the Panthers, Gifford said. The coach is hoping his team, especially the offense, can recoup this week and get back in a groove.

“If it wasn’t for about two or three penalties in that Lennard game, we would have had 700 yards of offense,” Gifford said of his team’s best outing this season, a 34-12 win over the Longhorns in Week 3. “We were starting to click, and then we all got sick. We were right where we wanted to be, right where I thought we would be. We’ll see where we are Friday.”