LaChance takes responsibility for AKO’s lacklustre start

by Rob Benneian

LaChance: ‘I need to be better’

Two lopsided wins for the Windsor AKO Fratmen have done nothing to help erase the taste of a heart-breaking loss in the Ontario Football Conference championship game last year.

Head coach Mike LaChance said his team has yet to hit the stride they had last season. Sloppy play against two opponents who are still in their infancy as OFC franchises has not cost them a victory, but LaChance cautioned his team would not be so lucky three weeks in a row.

“We have to pick it up,” LaChance said. “Ottawa’s an improved opponent that we’re going to be facing. They’re dangerous because they’re 0-2. They’re gonna be desperate, they’re gonna play that way. I expect that and I think they’re going to bring their A game, they’re gonna come out swinging, and we gotta be prepared for it. We need to step our game up.”

The Fratmen opened their schedule with a breezy 33-0 victory over the Twin Cities Predators at Knight-Newbrough Stadium in Kitchener, Ont. In their home opener Sunday against the Brampton Bears, they flew out to a 14-0 lead on their first two possessions and coasted to a 38-7 win. LaChance said his team cannot afford to play down to the level of their competition any longer with the Sooners coming to town.

“I tell our guys all the time ‘don’t worry about the city you’re playing, don’t worry about what’s on the side of their helmet, just do what you have to do to make us better and worry about what your job (is)’,” LaChance said. “If you do that it doesn’t matter who you play.”

LaChance said the problem offensively for his team has been a lack of tempo, an issue which he would try to rectify in practice. He said running their no-huddle offence smoothly would pick up the pace of the game, and force their opponent to react faster and force them into mistakes.

LaChance said though his team has been passing the eye-ball test early in games, they’ve been letting up once they take the lead. LaChance said he doesn’t care what the score is, he expects his team to play the same way every game.

“I expect them to be great every time they’re on the field,” LaChance said. “I want us to play AKO football and make the other team play at our level, and not the other way around.”

“We gotta collectively pull ourselves out of that garbage can that we fall in to. That first drive that we don’t have success on, it’s the next drive that I’m worried about. “

Blondeau comes up big in debut

Rookie wide receiver Jason Blondeau played his first game with the Fratmen Sunday after transferring from the University of Windsor Lancers football team. Blondeau said he had lost his passion while at the university because he wasn’t being rewarded for his hard work in practice with any playing time.

Against the Bears, Blondeau had two catches for 57 yards including a 50 yard strike. Blondeau said he had been accepted into the Fratmen locker room and was happy to have been given a number of roles and responsibilities on the team right away. He agreed with his new coach’s assessment of the team’s play on Sunday.

“Our mentality right now is ‘a win is a win’, and we’re just going to do the bare minimum that we need to, and that’s not right,” Blondeau said. “I’ve been with this team for a week and I can see their potential. I think if we pick it up against Ottawa we’ll be fine.”

“They’re gonna come down here on a nine hour bus ride with a purpose, and we have to be prepared for that,” LaChance said. “I know what they’re going through (and) I know their coaches are really questioning the things they’ve done.”

The Fratmen will host the 0-2 Ottawa Sooners Sunday, August 26th, at 1 p.m. at Windsor Stadium.