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Fairmont hits road to Montgomery for Week 4

FAIRMONT — Fairmont mentor Mat Mahoney and Tri-City United head coach Ken Helland face polar-opposite mental approaches in preparing for their first-ever South Central Silver District football game at 7 p.m. Friday night in Montgomery.

Helland looks to restore confidence in his inexperienced Titans after opening the season with consecutive losses to Waseca, Marshall and Jordan. Waseca, a former Class AAAA power, held the No. 2 spot in last week’s Minnesota Associated Press’ Class AAA poll; Marshall was ranked No. 10 in Class AAA during Week 3, while Jordan received votes in the Class AAAA poll.

The unranked Cardinals upended Waseca, 20-14, last Friday night at Mahoney Field in Fairmont, pitting TCU against a fourth straight formidable foe.

“We’ve definitely had a tough start to a tough schedule, but it is what it is and we can’t change it,” said Helland. “We have 19 new starters this year, so you’re going to have some growing pains.

“Our kids are playing hard each and every week, but when you make mistakes with your assignments, good teams — like our first four opponents this season — capitalize.”

Ironically, Mahoney and his coaching staff’s task during this week’s practice has been preventing even the slightest sense of overconfidence in their personnel after toppling Waseca in a down-to-the-wire clash.

“After a big win against the No. 2-ranked team in (Class) 3A, we need to guard ourselves against becoming lackadaisical,” said Mahoney, whose youthful roster carries a 2-1 record into Friday’s district game. “Our theme for the week has been ‘do your job.’

“It’s back to basics for us — studying film, recognizing our opponent’s tendencies, sticking to our assignments, etc. Last week is over, and TCU is straight ahead.”

Fairmont’s defense, which produced a 3-to-1 edge in turnovers during Week 3, will face a TCU offense still seeking its identity.

“I think we’re better at running the ball, but we haven’t spent too much time on offense this season so far,” said Helland, whose team has been outscored 152-14. “We’re making progress each week against quality programs, but we haven’t found our stride offensively yet.”

Adam Fredrickson, a 6-foot, 165-pound senior, will handle the Titans’ duties at quarterback, with fullback Mason O’Malley and running back Kayden Factor spearheading the potential ground game.

“Fairmont has an aggressive defense that gets up the field in a hurry up front and has tall defenders in the secondary to break up the pass,” Helland said in reference to interceptions by Cale Steuber and Zach Soelter to complement Wyatt Frank’s fumble recovery a week ago. “Offensively, they have a balanced mix with the run and pass, and their quarterback (sophomore Zach Jorgensen) is impressive both running and throwing the ball.

“We must be mistake-free against them or it’ll be another long game.”

Mason O’Malley and Factor, two of TCU’s eight two-way starters, also will handle defensive duties at linebacker on Friday night and will join forces with defensive lineman Zack Wendorf in trying to limit Jorgensen and the Cardinals’ explosive offense.

“Offensively, we need to get off to a fast start Friday night,” said Mahoney. “I’m pretty sure that we haven’t scored a point in the first quarter yet, so we have to change that.

“We have put together strong second quarters and second halves through our first three games, but I’d like to see us put together four solid quarters of football this week.”

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