Zeeland West vs St Joseph Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Zeeland West</strong> will travel to take on <strong>St Joseph</strong>, for the division 3 district final. The winner will play <strong>Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central</strong> or <strong>Coopersville </strong>in the regional final. <strong>St Joseph</strong> and <strong>Zeeland West</strong> both come into this game with a 9-1 record. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Zeeland West </strong>has a very quick edge rusher in <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='899585' first='Brody' last='Maas']</strong>. Maas is a guy that if you do not block, he will accelerate into opposing teams backfields before they even know it. Maas is an excellent tackler as well and really does a good job of getting his head across and wrapping up. Maas relentlessly pursues ball carriers and is so quick to read and react to running and pass plays. Maas is a very good athlete who can jump up and deflect passes as well. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='899626' first='Trey' last='Sloothaak'] </strong>is another guy to watch for on this <strong>Zeeland West </strong>football team. He plays the safety position at a high level and has multiple interceptions this season. Sloothaak is excellent at back pedaling, reading a run play, and then flying up and making a tackle. Sloothaak also plays quarterback for <strong>Zeeland West </strong>and does and excellent job of running and picking up yardage for his team, often times breaking multiple tackles while doing so. Sloothaak is a high level athlete who can impact the game on both sides of the ball, he certainly is a guy to watch in this football game.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>St Joseph </strong>has a high level linebacker in <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1298766' first='Isaac' last='Codde']</strong>. Codde is a tackling machine for this <strong>St Jospeh</strong> team. Codde plays fast and is always looking to tackle ball carriers as quickly as possible before they can pick up a much yardage. <strong>St Joseph</strong> looks to be a championship contending team and very good linebacker like <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1298766' first='Isaac' last='Codde'] </strong>is key.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A key guy on the <strong>St Joseph</strong> offensive line is left tackle <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1124916' first='Rusty' last='Klaer']</strong>. Klaer gets off the line of scrimmage well and has very good explosive strength to drive opposing defenders back. Klaer sustain run blocks very well and this ability really helps <strong>St Joseph</strong> run the football. He does a good job in pass protection, showing the ability to keep a wide base and hold anchor. <strong>St Joseph</strong> is lucky to have an offensive lineman like Klaer where you don't have to worry about the left side of the offensive line, you know he will keep that side protected.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1290838' first='Keaton' last='Hendricks'] </strong>is a very fast running back for <strong>Zeeland West</strong> who has the ability to break long touchdown runs. Hendricks has the ability to make defenders miss. He does a great job of getting up field quickly without any wasted movements. Like <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='899585' first='Brody' last='Maas']' </strong>ability to shoot in the back field before teams know it, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1290838' first='Keaton' last='Hendricks']</strong> can pickup 5 yards before opposing teams know it. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This is a game that is very interesting since these two teams do not play often. I think it is also a tough game to predict a winner and it should be a close game. Every week in the playoffs there always seems to be several close games between evenly matched teams. You get the feel this may be one fo those games. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->