PENDER, Neb.-- It’s been an up and down start for Pender football as they currently sit with a 1-1 record on the season.

With the team giving up 66 points and losing to Clarkson last week, they still remain confident.

Their head coach, Cody Volk, said his team needs to be more physical this week against Wakefield.

“We weren’t as physical as we needed to be within that game,” Volk said. “We executed offensively when we needed to. We had some sustained drives that we liked but we didn’t hold onto the ball when we needed to and we lost some of our fundamentals.”

Volk said this week was all about going back to square one.

“We’re going back to technique on a lot of things and really just getting back to being physical football players, getting out there off the snap firing off and really try to finish plays,” he added.

Despite the defense struggling, the offensive didn’t. They scored 36 points which made the final score look like a Big 12 conference game.

Volk said he took away a lot of positive things in what the offense was able to do.

“We didn’t just rely on the big play to score which was nice because last year we did that quite a bit,” Volk said. “We were able to put drives together at six, seven yards at a time which that’s what we wanna do.”

One of their running backs, Brody Krusemark, said he wants him and his teammates to put together a complete performance on Friday night.

“I guess what I want to see is to continue our diversity and skill set,” Krusemark said. “We’re good passing, we’re good at running, the quarterback is good at scrambling, I wanna see a little bit more of spreading that diversity.”

The quarterback, Braxton Volk, said his weapons on the outside make his job a little bit easier.

“It’s nice to have a lot of speed, and the routes they can run to lose defenders to make a lot more easier throw for me,” Volk said. “It just helps a lot to have all these weapons out there.”

Volk also added he expects Wakefield to come out and play confident at home.

“They're a well-coached team,” Volk said. ”They do what they do and they do it well. So, it’ll be our guys just doing their jobs and just being better, honestly.”

It’s no secret Wakefield just opened up their brand new football complex. The coaches and players for Pender can’t wait to step on the field Friday night.

“It’s always nice to get up there and see what a neighboring community can do,” Cody Volk said. “We’re in the works of trying to get our own sports complex going and Wakefield’s been working on this one for quite a while and to finally see them get that done and then the quality that it is, I mean it looks fantastic.”

“I’m actually looking forward to it,” Krusemark said. “I’ve been looking forward to it since before the season started. I really like the field. That turf field is going to feel nice and new. It’s going to get me hyped up.”