Charleston High School is preparing for its next home game against Jersey Community High.

Junior kicker and punter Max Weber doesn’t play any other position for Charleston High School, but his impact for the Trojans (2-0) is important 

“He’s a talent, and without question he’s going to be kicking for someone on Saturdays in a couple of years,” Charleston head coach Brian Halsey said.  

Weber, who played soccer through his freshman year, says he’s thrilled to be a Trojan.  

“It’s a great time,” Weber said. “To be with the guys and be part of the team, it’s great.” 

In Friday’s 25-18 win over Paris High School, Weber was 2-for-2 on field goals.

Paris was able to block two extra point attempts, and Weber had to have a higher trajectory to make his 35-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter.  

“We had some breakdowns [in the blocking], and that’s not acceptable,” Halsey said. “We had one at Rantoul, and we had two the other night and we feel we’ve rectified that situation.”  

Halsey says the team adjusted the personnel and blocking techniques, and that the Trojans worked hard in practice this week to stop Weber’s kicks from being blocked.  

Charleston will welcome the Jersey Community High Panthers to Trojan Hill this Friday evening.  

Jersey (1-1) defeated Roxana in a high scoring shootout, 55-47, in week one. The Jersey Panthers are coming off a blowout 41-7 loss to Freeburg last week. Jersey gave up 310 yards of offense last week and had three turnovers, according to MaxPreps.  

One big issue with Charleston’s offence last week was converting on third down, something that Halsey says was addressed in practice this week. The Trojans were 1-for-9 on third down conversions, which is mostly due to an inexperienced offensive line that made some key mistakes.  

“Penalties put us in bad situations and then blown assignments,” Halsey said.  

Quarterback Luke Bonnstetter completed 10 passes in the win over Paris and looked sharp when the Trojans ran plays that were designed to get him on the move and throw on the run.  

“He throws the ball well on the move,” Halsey said. “I wanted to move him because we were having some breakdowns up front.” 

When the Trojans and the Panthers played last season, Charleston walked away with a 30-18 win. Bonnstetter completed 16 of his 29 pass attempts for a total of 176 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.  

The key will be stopping Jersey’s ground game, something that Charleston struggled to do last week, giving up 161 yards on the ground.  

“I was concerned [about the defense],” Halsey said. “We were a little bit confused; we weren’t lining up, we were rattled early on and once we settled in and simplified after half[time], we start playing good football.” 

The game kicks off at 7 p.m. 

Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at ghnewman@eiu.edu.