As far as the first stringers go for Tooele football, coach Ray Groth feels pretty confident that they will be able to get the job done on the field. Of course Tooele has to avoid the injury bug this season to keep those first string players on the field for 2010.

Tooele opens up their season on the gridiron on the road to face Judge Memorial on Friday as they open up their newly built football field in Salt Lake City. The Buffaloes have a mix of experienced returning players and newcomers that will work hard to prepare for a successful season.

The signal caller for the Tooele offense will be senior Nick Hyde. “Nick has played a lot of quarterback and is a heck of an athlete,” Groth said. “He knows the offense really well and knows the reads of the offense.”

Behind the quarterback is the heart of the Tooele running game: the fullbacks. Thomas Allen and E.J. Jones will be looked upon to chew up yardage on the ground. Damon Thomas plays both fullback and wing in the backfield for Tooele. Wade Heston and Austin Schmidt will also be called upon to gain yards for the Buffaloes.

Catching the ball for Tooele will be a handful of talented receivers. Angel Medina will line up at wide out along with Alvaro Fernandez, who is a move in from New Mexico. Josh Crane is also coming along at receiver as coach Groth likes Crane’s height as he is continuing to improve each week in practice. Scott Brady and Tell Stewart will also be used as wide outs.

The offensive line for Tooele will also have quite a bit of experience, starting with Cody Weyland at left guard while Nick Yepez will be the starting center as coach Groth thinks that Yepez could be one of the better centers in the league. Isileli Saafi will be a guard while Brian Heaps will be at the right tackle position along with Cameron Ascarte.

The defensive side of the ball will look a lot like the offensive side because Tooele’s top players will have to play both ways for the Buffaloes to be successful.

As far as their opponent, Judge is returning a load of experienced players from a young team last year that beat Tooele by 14 points in the season opening game last year.

“It will be difficult for us to prepare for Judge completely because they have changed their offensive and defensive coordinators from last year,” Groth said. “They might also have extra incentive because their field is finished and they finally get to play at home.”

Groth acknowledges that it has been a lot of training and workouts leading up to Friday’s game but also knows that his team will be ready. “The players deserve a lot of credit for all the hard work they have put in,” Groth said.

Tooele will head to Salt Lake City to face Judge on Friday at 7 p.m. to open the season.

The Buffaloes will play their first home game on Aug. 27 when they host the West Panthers. Tooele travels to Ben Lomond for a game on Sept. 3 and begins league play when the Bountiful Braves come to Tooele on Sept. 10. Tooele will host one other non-region game on Oct. 1 when the Hurricane Tigers make the long journey to Tooele.

Jake Gordon: jgordon@tooeletranscript.com