Last Friday night at Totino-Grace, we lost a hard fought, defensive game 13 - 10 dropping our early season record to 0 - 2. A game that had many great moments, we fell up achingly short as they scored on a 91 yard pass with less than 3 minutes left to forge ahead.
Offensively, we continued to struggle a bit maintaining drives and taking advantage of opportunities that were presented throughout the night by the defense. We had a great opening drive, moving the ball down the field which led to a field goal by Spencer Wherry. On the following drive, we had the opportunity to put the ball in the endzone to go up 10 - 0 with a possession starting on the two yard line, but we made a huge turnover which changed the momentum of the game. After that, we had trouble moving the ball, but we were able to make a huge play at the beginning of the fourth quarter as Spencer Wherry found a hole and went 80 yards to give us a go ahead touchdown at that time. We still are trying to find our identity on offense, but I love the effort of the kids and they will get there. We just got to keep working and get a week where we get some confidence on this side of the ball.
Defensively, the kids played a great game and put us in many situations where we were able to capitalize during the game. Jake Johnson set the tone early with an interception that he returned down to the two yard line, and Anthony Gipson had another big game with over ten tackles. The two big plays given up in the game were during avoidable situations for us, so we will use them as learning experiences down the road. This is a side of the ball that will lead us to great things this year, and they will keep getting better. It's been fun to watch them play so well over the past two weeks, and hopefully they will keep flying around and giving us great opportunities down the road.
Our special teams had highs and lows but did some great things as well. Our punt team did a great job keeping field position moving in our direction, and we did a great job pinning two punts in a row inside the ten. However, we made one major error allowing our punt to be tipped one time leading to bad field position after a possession. It was great to see our field goal team going 1 for 1 on field goals and extra points, and we were close to having these points make the difference in the game. We need to keep getting better in this area, but along with our defense I believe this needs to continue being a positive for us during game days.
Next week we have our first home game at the Grove! That is exciting and will be a great opportunity for our team to go out there and compete in front of our home fans. It should be a blast! We play a very good Edina team that is also coming off of a tough loss, so both teams will take the field with a purpose of getting better and having our best performance to date! We need the crowd getting it going for us because these kids are going to give every ounce of who they are out there! It should be a fun one! Go Crimson!
Lombo