Tigers Shut Out Thunder 28-0

by Coach Ribsy Petermeier

The Tigers opened up the season two weeks ago, traveling to Frazee to take on the Hornets. The Hornets bring a big offensive and defensive line, and our plan was to hold our gaps and let our linebackers read, react, and make plays. We did a pretty good job defensively to begin with, holding our own and making some key pl–ays. Unfortunately, their size and physical play at the line got to us and wore us down. With the numbers we have this year and a few players out with injuries, we had to play 10 starters on offense, defense, and special teams. By the middle of the second quarter, we were gassed, and it showed. When you are tired, it is hard to focus on the task at hand, and you become a half step behind. This showed as the night went on.

The hornets started to control both lines of scrimmage, and we struggled to consistently stop their power run game. On offense, we struggled to win the line of scrimmage, and we just couldn’t get things going to sustain drives. We did a lot of good things, but one bad play would put us behind the chains, and we couldn’t make up for the lost yardage. In the end, the Tigers lost the game by a score of 22 - 0. It was a great opening game for us as we really learned a lot about ourselves and what it takes to overcome the mistakes that we made. The film on Monday provided a valuable learning and teaching experience for a group with limited varsity experience. We lost 9 starters on offense and 9 starters on defense from last year, so most of these kids were in their first real varsity action. The most important thing we took from Friday night was that most of the things that went wrong are very flexible with practice, repetition, and the belief that I need to get better and I can get better...

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