The Atlantic Trojans football team is getting set to open up district play this week in Class 2A District 9. The Trojans (2-2) will begin the new district run by hosting the team that won the district last year, the Kuemper Catholic Knights (1-3). The Trojans are coming off a 56-14 loss at Harlan last week but despite the loss did take away some positives from the game. The run game showed some flashes of efficiency and the Trojans were able to break a couple big plays in the first half to stay tight with the Cyclones for a quarter and a half. Where the Trojans struggled was defending the deep ball and Head Coach Mike McDermott said they have been working on trying to win those jump ball battles this week in practice. The Knights are a team that will try to spread the defense out and Coach McDermott wants his defense to stop the run game first.

Nate Wendl leads the Knights on the ground with 345 yards and 1 touchdown so far this season against a tough schedule where the Knights have played up or against ranked opponents each week. Defensively Coach McDermott expects the Knights to be tough and the Trojans will need to take advantage of space they are given.

Chase Mullenix has thrown for 477 yards and 4 scores and rushed for 408 yards and 5 touchdowns. Coach McDermott said they are looking at more ways to use Chase’s talents but at the same time he said they are asking some of their other upperclassmen to step up their game down the stretch.

Tune in for a full interview with Coach McDermott on Trojan Preview on Friday afternoon at 4:45pm on KJAN.

The Trojans and Knights will kickoff at 7:00pm at the Trojan Bowl on Friday night.