The Baldwin Bulldogs, who are ranked No. 5 in Class 4A, return nine starters on each side of the ball and have high expectations at the state level.
But before all that, Baldwin coach Mike Berg said his team will find out how good it is against the Paola Panthers at 7 p.m. Friday. The game at Baldwin between the two undefeated Frontier League teams was voted the Kpreps Game of the Week by the state’s readers.
“Every year, Paola is a measuring stick,” Berg said. “Because they are very well coached and have a great tradition. We usually play them early in the year, so we find out how good we’re going to be very quickly. That’s how we look at it again this year. We’re going to find out how good we are by playing them.”
And the Bulldogs believe if they can win in the Frontier League, then they can compete at the state level.
“Our No. 1 goal is to win our league, and we haven’t done that in a few years,” Berg said. “Eudora has been dominant in our league and has gone to the last two state championships. So I feel like if we can win our league and be the best team in the Frontier League, I think the state stuff will take care of itself. Five of the last six 4A state championship games, there has been a Frontier League in there.”
Baldwin, which is running more of a traditional I formation than past team’s single wing, enters 1-0 after a 46-12 win over Wellsville in the season opener. Quarterback Chad Berg ran for two touchdowns. Running back Cornell Brown rushed for one touchdown and caught one from Berg.
“They’re scary,” Paola coach Mike Dumpert said. “They’re very good. We knew that coming into the year. With Coach Berg’s boy at quarterback, he has all the intangibles you’d expect from a coach’s kid. Plus he’s very quick. With Brown at running back, they have two of the quickest players in the league in their backfield. We’re going to have to play lights out defensively to be in this game.”
Paola is 1-0 after opening the season with a 28-14 win over St. James Academy. The Panthers, who have been known as a running team for quite some time, passed for 115 yards against St. James.
“We heard that in the offseason, and I thought Coach Dumpert was just doing some coach talk there,” Berg said. “We went to their scrimmage, and they threw the ball. In Week 1, they threw the ball. They’re doing it. So it does change our defense. Their running game is still very effective. We’re going to want to put eight men in the box, but now we’re going to have to be more alert to their passing game.”
Of course, Paola is still going to run. The Panthers rushed for more than 200 yards in the opener, receiving two touchdown runs from Exzavier Miller and one each from Luke Wilson and Matt Sloan. Still, with Andrew Henn under center, Paola thinks it has the personnel to put the ball in the air.
“This is not a historical Paola team where we’re going to line up and run the ball hell or high water,” Dumpert said. “We still put a premium on running the ball, but we’re going to be more balanced. We are going to expand the passing game a little bit. We threw the ball eight times the other day, and we feel like we probably should have run it more. We feel like we have the kids to do it.”
Since it is Baldwin’s home opener, the game will serve as the school’s annual Baldwin Bash. The event allows families who pay for a meal to get into the game for free.
“We’ll have more at this game than a playoff game,” Berg said. “It’s always fun. It will be largest crowd all year.”
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