How close was this past Friday’s game between the Sacred Heart Trojans and the Catholic of Point Coupee Hornets?
Let’s take a look at the stats.
First up, the scoreboard. Yes, Catholic came away with the 28-22 win, but, the game was tied at 22-22 with under 30 seconds to go.
Then their is the total yardage. Sacred Heart actually had one more yard of total offense (288-287) than the Hornets.
What about time of possession? The Trojans had the ball 24:37, Catholic controlled it for 23:23.
So when Sacred Heart (2-1, 0-1) head coach Josh Harper tells you that he was excited with the way his team played, even with the loss, you can certainly believe him.
“We talked with the players before and after practice Monday about how well the coaching staff and myself thought they had played,” stated Harper. “Actually, when you go back and look at the game, we left a lot of plays on the field. If we had executed a little better, the game might not have been as close. Catholic is a solid football team. Once again, I think that this shows us that we can play with anybody.”
Execution was definitely missing in the early part of the game against Catholic. Sacred Heart gave up three big runs, two of them for over 70 yards, and found themselves down 22-6 late in the second quarter.
After that, the Trojans were able to get back to their game plan and hold the Hornet running game down long enough to crawl back into the game.
“We really did not make any type of adjustment after those big runs,” said Harper. “It was just a matter of us settling down. We had a long weather delay and when we came back out onto the field, we were wide eyed for a little while. We did not change the scheme. I think we had to play the game like we knew we could and just make plays.”
The Trojan offense was as balanced as it has ever been this season. By the time the game was over, Sacred Heart had rushed for 134 yards and threw for another 154 yards.
Despite the combined 286 yards of offense, the Trojans did not make a splash on that side of the ball until late in the second quarter. Once again, Harper pointed to execution as a main reason why Sacred Heart was unable to move the ball efficiently.
“The first couple of drives, we had open receivers and open running lanes,” commented Harper. “We were just missing those receivers and not hitting the holes. The emotion and the big game feel took control of us at the start. Our execution inside the red zone was not good enough either.”
Tomorrow night brings a different type of challenge for the Trojans when they host the Westminster Crusaders for homecoming. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
The Crusaders come into the game with an overall record of 3-1 and a district record of 1-0. This past Friday night Westminster took down the North Central Hurricanes 46-12.
“Westminster runs a totally different type of offense than Catholic did,” stated Harper. “So, we go from defending the triple option to now having to defend the Wing-T. We have re-group this week and learn different keys. Schematically, we have to erase and re-boot how we approach their offense. They do a great job of running their offense. It will be more or less how we execute the game plan and having the confidence to make that game plan happen.”
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Tracey Jagneaux
Sports Editor