The Austin football team will be hoping to amp up its defense as it prepares to host Rochester John Marshall at Art Hass Stadium this Friday at 7 p.m.

The Packers (1-1 overall, 1-1 Big Nine) are coming off a 42-41 win over Albert Lea and they’re allowing 44.5 points per game in their first two contests. Austin is young on the defensive side of the ball and the Packers are hoping the experience they gained in the first two games will start to pay off.

“We’re not happy with the way we performed on defense in either of the first two games,” Austin head coach Brett Vesel said. “A lot of the guys are young and they’re still learning. They’ve done well in practice so far this week. Hopefully it’ll be a real competitive game.”

The Packer offense has been rolling as Austin is averaging 38 points per game behind the rushing of Nate Conner and Brandon Edgar.

The Rockets (1-1 overall, 1-1 Big Nine) are coming off a 23-22 loss to Rochester Mayo in JM and they beat Faribault 36-14 to start the season.

The Rockets will look to running back DJ Hardin to get their offense going as he had a 74-yard TD run against Mayo last week.

The Packers are hoping they can stay healthy as they’ve already been hit hard by injuries. The team lost speedsters Devin Klapperick and Jon Gallagher before the season began and center Damien Ryks and wide receiver Jason Stouil went down with injuries in the win over AL.

“We had two of the fastest guys on our team and the conference out and that hurts you,” Vesel said. “We have a couple of other guys banged up that left early against Albert Lea.”