WINTERS — A year ago, the Winters Blizzards surged from a 5-6 record in 2017 to a 8-4 mark, fueled largely by the expansion of capabilities in its flexbone offense. 

Where once there was strictly a straight-ahead power game, the Blizzards implemented and executed the very thing the flexbone was originally designed to deliver: the triple option. 

It proved crucial from the outset, with a 5-0 start and an eventual No. 3 seed in a brutal district behind powerhouses Hawley (10-2) and Stamford (9-3).  

The Blizzards’ offensive production jumped from 22.5 points per game in 2017 to 30.3 a year ago and their points allowed (helped by greater ball control) fell from 32.5 to 19.6.