By Brandon Judeh

sports@vindy.com

HANOVERTON

United got off to a hot start during the 2012 season, starting the season 3-1, including big wins over Rootstown and Springfield.

But the Golden Eagles finished 3-3 over their final six games, including a 23-20 loss to South Range and a season-ending, 54-53 overtime loss to Mineral Ridge.

United coach Mike Ward knows the Golden Eagles’ 6-4 record could easily have been 8-2, but feels this year’s club has the experience and leadership needed to push their way into the postseason.

“This is a very experienced team,” Ward said. “We lost only four seniors and have almost all of our starters back from last season.”

United returns 20 lettermen.

OFFENSE

Perhaps the Golden Eagles’ biggest strength will be under center, where three-year starting quarterback Garrett Beech looks to take United’s spread offense to the next level.

“Garrett [will be] a four-year letterwinner and has a ton of experience at the quarterback position, we feel his leadership will only help our team,” Ward said.

Running back Mike Martin, wide receivers Cody Dickens and Braden Davison round out a balanced offensive attack, but Ward says maybe the biggest strength of the offense will come from the experience of the line.

Juniors Charlie Smith, Mike Gauding, Eric Blosser, Lucas Cooper and senior Stephen Leyman look to protect Beech and open holes for Martin.

DEFENSE

Defense will be another strong point for the Golden Eagles as they return 13 players with experience.

Beech and Martin will lead the secondary, while the junior trio of Smith, Cooper and Blosser look to punish opposing quarterbacks at the line of scrimmage.

Rounding out the 4-3 defense are four junior linebackers — Caige Vincent, Bryan Weyant, Roger Knizat and Chase Courtney.

“We are very pleased with the way our defense is looking,” Ward said. “We have a lot of two-way players who have a lot of experience on both sides of the ball, which always helps.”

Special Teams

Beech may very well be on the field for every snap as he also does the kicking and punting for the Golden Eagles.

OUTLOOK

With most of the positions nearly settled, one of Ward’s biggest concerns lies in conditioning and preventing injuries.

“The biggest thing is making sure our guys are conditioned very well,” he said. “That way we can prevent injuries. When injuries start piling up, especially at a smaller school, depth can become an issue.”

Since United enters the season as one of the area’s most experienced teams, there is little surprise the Golden Eagles are thinking playoffs.

“We feel that making the playoffs is definitely a realistic goal and, of course, we want to win the ITCL [Tier One] title,” Ward said. “We know that we need to take it one game at a time and be competitive in every single game.”