Warriors relying on fresh faces, veteran savvy

by Dave Delgado

Guam - The Pepsi Warriors are scheduled to take on the DOCOMO Chargers this Sunday at 2:30 pm at the UOG Field in Week1 of the 2011 Miller Football League season. The Warriors finished in 3rd last year and look to get to this year's championship game.

Head coach Loring Cruz said of his roster, "Our team is a mix of young and old players, some of these guys played in the original MFL League. We have a lot of younger guys from the high school, mostly from G.W and the other high schools. We're working to make sure that we have a better running game and passing attack and defensively we are just going to work on getting more turnovers than last season."

Cruz added, "On defense Ryan Rios is back to guide his players that he has coached at GW. The defense will rely on their speed and aggressiveness at the defensive line."

Veteran defensive back Faith Thompson said, "We have a lot of young guys and hopefully this year they will have the experience from last year too see what it's like for the MFL. It's good to have the league back and hopefully everybody enjoys the league this year and hopefully we can contend for something higher than we did last year.

"Look out for the Warriors - we're coming."

On the other side of the ball veteran wide receiver Sandy Fejeran will lead the way with Craig Quichocho and Steve Alcantara, the team will have the deep threat along with possession receivers come kickoff.

"We're pretty stacked with our offensive line and we are looking at that being our strong point for the season," Alcantara said. "It's a good rotation with the line, the backs and receivers. With the rotation coming in it's going to be nice, everyone should be pretty fresh every play out and I think going into the season we should be ready for the coming season."