by Zachary Cohen

Sports Editor

The struggling Johnson Jaguars looks to get back to .500 this Friday night as they take on the Madison Mavericks at Comalander Stadium. After starting 2-0 with wins over Brandeis and Jay, the Jags have lost three straight, including one district game last week against MacArthur. With injuries to key players, the Jag defense hasn’t looked quite as sharp in recent games.

Last week, they went into the game without corners senior Mario Verrett and junior Jacob Lady-Schreiber in addition to junior defensive lineman Connor Roy. This week, the Jags get Roy back, but lose junior linebacker Garrett Hunt, who suffered a knee injury earlier in the week. “We can’t control injuries, we’re going to stay focused on what we do control,” Coach Rittiman said.

The Mavericks come into this game with a 3-1 record after destroying Judson last week by a final of 45-28. The explosive Madison offense that averages just under 34 points a game, combined with a struggling Johnson defense could result in a long night for the Jags.

“We can’t focus on stats; we just have to play our game and do what we do,” senior defensive lineman Cody Gonzalez said. The Jags need to show the determination they exhibited in the first two games this week in order to pick up a victory over the heavily-favored Mavericks. In the first two games of the season, the Jags only surrendered 17 points a game on average. In these last three games, they’ve given up an average of 24 points a game. That may not seem like a big difference, but in football, just as every yard counts, so does every point.