The fall 2021 football season began on Saturday for the Albion Britons after a 36-20 victory against the Lions of Mt. St. Joseph University. Predicted as the MIAA No. 1 finisher, there’s high hopes for this year’s athletes.
“It [was] a pretty decent game. It’s easier to learn from a win than it is to lose,” said Dustin Beurer, who is entering his third season as head coach for the Britons.
Despite the season opening victory, Beurer is still looking for how the Britons can improve.
“There’s enough across the board that we can get better, but I thought in the second half we attacked and got back to playing how we like to play, and take the game to them a little bit,” said Beurer.
In addition to a team win for the Britons, Justin Thomas, wide receiver and senior from Wixom, surpassed 100 receptions. Thomas’ performance broke the school record for most touchdown receptions and was named MIAA Offensive Player of the Week.
Even with the impressive start, Beurer wants to see improvement in the team as his expectations for the year.
“[We want] to get better every day, to get better every week,” said Beurer. “We shouldn’t be playing our best football in week one and week two, we should be progressing as the season progresses.”
The team chemistry is also at a positive level. According to Thomas, the difference between his first year playing for the Brits and the current team is exceptional.
“From my freshman year to this year, it’s completely different,” said Thomas. “I think it helps that what are now the super seniors, fifth year players, have been a three-seven team to now they won a spring championship. So now I think the team, the freshmen/sophomores to super seniors, have matured so much, so it makes it so much more fun.”
Despite the high ranking in preseason, Thomas believes in taking the season game by game.
“Anything can happen, week to week,” said Thomas. “The way I see it, we haven’t proven anything yet.”
However, he still believes this team can meet the expectations of their coaching staff as well as the expectations the preseason ranking has put on them.
“The sky’s the limit for this team,” said Thomas.
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