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--> --> Grizz on the rebound By Bobby Heiken Ashland Daily Tidings It's back to work for the Ashland High football team as the Grizzlies prepare of their non-conference opener Friday night at home against College Park of the Bay Area. After returning from Japan Sunday night, the Grizzlies have had a full week of practice and a full week to put behind the 48-0 rout at the hands of the Japan All-Stars Saturday. "We got after it pretty good Monday night," said head coach Jim Nagel of a practice that lasted well into the night. "We worked on getting back to fundamentals. That's something we really need to stress. We are not ready to add anything new yet." In the blowout against the Japan team, the Grizzlies gave up 357 yards of offense, including 183 yards rushing in the first half to tailback Shirisomo Sukata. Ashland was also playing against a different squad than it had faced before in the series. This year's team was made up of 14 high schools, instead of the usual eight. "They had a very talented football team," Nagel said. "The best I've seem them have. They also played with NCAA rules, which meant that they could block below the waist, and we weren't really ready for that. They would chop block us and then get to the outside, and they had so much speed that we couldn't stop them." Even though Friday's game with College Park is the first official game of the year, Nagel is putting a lot of importance on the matchup. "We need to get back on track," Nagel said. "It's key that we get our confidence back and boost our morale." Despite poor numbers, Nagel was impressed with the play of senior quarterback Cameron Voget. Even though Voget got injured in the first quarter, the signal caller returned for the second half and was impressive, but fell victim to many dropped balls and mental mistakes by his teammates, Nagel said. Voget will start Friday and is slated to play the entire game. Junior Bryan Clevenger - a contender at quarterback - is nursing a sore hamstring, but will start on the defensive side. "Cameron performed well," Nagel said. "Others didn't rise to the occasion and help him out." The already questionable offensive line took another hit as seniors Koko Amadeus (back) and Dan Timmons (knee) will miss the College Park game. "We are just going to have to patch things together," Nagel said. Nagel and his coaching staff have seen film on the College Park team from last year. "Last year they were a veer-option team," Nagel said. "They didn't throw the ball a lot and it looked like they had some solid skilled athletes. It should be a good matchup for us." With so much emphasis on a running game, Nagel is a little nervous after watching Japan run through the Grizz defense. "I'm a little concerned," he admitted. "We need to get more secondary support on the run and an overall better effort defensively. Offensively we need to eliminate the mental mistakes." The Grizzlies will need to bounce back from the Japan loss quickly. After the College Park game, Ashland will travel to 13th-ranked Gresham before opening Southern Oregon Conference action at South Medford in a matchup between two teams predicted to battle for the third and final playoff spot out of the SOC. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing