If you didn’t know any better, the statistics surely would have corresponded to a victory.
New Hope High School football Kris Pickle even sounded like he didn’t believe what happened as he ticked off the numbers — 350-360 total yards, more than 200 yards passing, 100 yards rushing, 18 first downs — from his team’s 20-3 loss to Louisville in its season opener last week.
The equalizer, though, was six turnovers, seven bad snaps, and one bad exchange between the center and the quarterback that negated the Trojans’ ability to move the ball on a muddy field.
“We take those away, I am not going to say we win the game, but it is definitely a close game,” Pickle said. “It was a close game anyway. It was a 14-3 game all the way through and they got two field goals late, and that was off turnovers.”
New Hope will try to get back on track at 7 p.m. Friday when it plays host to Aberdeen (0-1). Pickle didn’t want to use his team’s youth and inexperience as an excuse for the mistakes. After losing 19 of 22 starters from last season’s team that went 10-3, Pickle acknowledged that the rain and the field conditions affected his team. Still, Pickle, who is in his second season as head coach at New Hope, said his players are going to have to learn to focus and to make adjustments.
“We did a lot of good things,” Pickle said. “I thought our defense, minus the first drive, played really hard. They kind of played inspired the rest of the game. We put them in a bad hole on offense We get the turnovers cleaned up and we will be fine.”
Pickle liked what he saw from junior quarterback Thomas Stevens, who was 17 of 42 for 220 yards. He said Stevens, who is in his first season at the varsity level, has a variety of options to throw to, including wide receivers Andre Earby, Terryonte Thomas, and Carlos Brooks and running back C.J. Clay. He said the coaches stressed ball security to the skill position players and execution to the linemen during practice in hopes that the Trojans will develop “muscle memory” and clean up their miscues so they can get their timing down.
“I thought he made some good decisions,” Pickle said. “That is what I liked more than anything. I thought he made good decisions, except for maybe one or two. The accuracy wasn’t quite there. I think that had to do with the ball issues. When I say it was muddy, it was swamp muddy. I was pleased with his play. I think he knows he can play better. He will do better this week.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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