In the first two plays from scrimmage against Grand Forks Central on Friday, the Dickinson High football team scored a pair of touchdowns.
Though the first was called back on a penalty, the No. 5-ranked Midgets tried the play again and it resulted in a 64-yard Michael Cherwinski touchdown.
The new spread, no-huddle offense the Midgets are running this season is picking up yards left and right. Yet, Dickinson head coach John Tuchscherer knows there are ways to improve.
Dickinson has its toughest challenge of the season when it plays No. 2-ranked Bismarck Century at 6 p.m. Friday in a Class 3A, West Region game.
“Offensively, being in a new system, I like where we are at right now,” Tuchscherer said. “With that being said, we can still even get better. After watching film, we still made a ton of mistakes. We are focusing on shoring those things up, because on Friday we are going to play a really good football team.”
In their first two games of the season, the Midgets are averaging 41.5 points. Engineering the offense in both games has been Andrew Heckaman.
The 6-foot-2, 170-pound junior quarterback said there were plenty of nerves before his first varsity start, but the jitters slowly went away with each practice and game.
“The first week, I had a lot of nerves going into that first game,” Heckaman said. “Last week, the nerves kind of went away but then they came back again right before the game — like they always do. Once you get the first couple plays, they go away and you just get rolling.”
On the same token, Dickinson’s defense is keeping its end of the bargain too by not allowing a single point in the first two weeks.
The Midgets, which used to run the power I and double wing offense, is now utilizing their speed and quickness as Cherwinski stands next to Heckaman in the spread.
However, Dickinson didn’t go away from its bruising strength. The Midgets have senior fullbacks William Schwindt and Luke Rovig.
“I feel comfortable handing the ball off to any of those guys,” Heckaman said. “Michael is more agile, so he kind of bounces outside. Luke and William can run over guys.”
Not to mention the Midgets have a plethora of talented receivers with speed in the slot and size on the outside. The speed at slot receiver is senior Dylan Skabo, juniors Ben Twist and Preston Theurer. The size on the outside is 6-5 senior Judson Mork, 6-2 senior Levi Jordheim and 6-2 junior Carter Blackwell.
“This is honestly one of the best offenses that we could run with the speed that we have on our team,” Twist said.
Blackwell added: “Our offense is coming along a lot better than what we thought it would be.”
With this being Heckaman’s first season at starting quarterback, he said the most settling part is a veteran offensive line. The Midgets have eight seniors listed on the offensive line and seven juniors.
“That’s nice knowing that they know what they are doing up front,” Heckaman said. “That just makes my job easier. It also helps our running backs find the holes easier.”
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