Junior Keaton Cook, #55, and Senior Brody Ford, #75, on the tackle for the Blackhawks.
Friday night's football game with the Lincoln Cardinals was a disappointing 36-0 loss for the Blackhawks but there are two ways to look at it. You can be a pessimist and see only the final score or you can break it down into sections. By doing so, you can realize it wasn't as bad as the score would indicate.Adrian took the opening kickoff but on their third play from scrimmage, the Blackhawks fumbled the ball, giving the Cardinals a short field. Lincoln scored two plays later. On the Blackhawks next possession, a Cardinal defender stepped in front of a pass, giving them a short field to work with again. Lincoln had the early moment and Adrian was on its heels. The Cardinals scored their second touchdown and the game was barely underway.
This is the point in a game that you learn what type of team you have: one that will pack it in and take their lumps or one that's not going to quit fighting and play until the final whistle. Blackhawks fans should know this already, but if they don't, fans learned this team has fight in them. Adrian held the Cardinals to no further points in the first half.
The second half opened with Lincoln taking the kickoff. They scored two touchdowns in the third quarter and added one more in the fourth. A two-point conversion made the final score 36-0. Adrian had another long drive stall inside the 20 before turning it over on downs.
A pessimist will see this as a frustrating loss featuring lots of big plays, multiple touchdowns and lack of production on Blackhawks part; but let's be optimistic about it. To be down only 14-0 at halftime was pretty good. A fumble on first possession led to an easy TD to start the game. The next possession was an INT for another short field TD. Lincoln's stat line will look impressive, lots of yards gained. That's going to happen with the offense they run and the skill players that they have, but Adrian's defense was able to string together enough plays together to force the Cardinals to punt numerous times.
The Blackhawks had two scoring drives that stopped inside the 20. Lincoln had three scoring drives after we gifted them two. You have to play mistake-free football against the number one ranked team in the state. Remove those two touchdowns and convert our scoring opportunities and the net difference is a single touchdown. After that it just comes down to making a few more plays or stopping them on defense another time or two. It may sound cliche, but the game was a lot closer than what the score indicated.
We have a lot of new starters that had yet to play in a game like this. This was a coming of age game for the younger guys. The team learned a lot about themselves. The Blackhawks will be better facing and losing games like this than by beating up on inferior opponents. It's never fun to be on the receiving end of a score like this game but now the team and coaches know where they are lacking and will have game experience should the two teams face again in the playoffs.
Head Coach Matt Cochran's Comments:
"Pretty tough loss tonight. Lincoln is a very good team, and their QB is a load to bring down. The final score didn't indicate how competitive the game was. It was only 14-0 at the half and could have been 14-7. We had too many missed tackles in the second half. The kids didn't give up, though. They kept fighting until the end. Ultimately, that loss will make us better. They exposed some things we need to work on. We need to know that now so we can get better. Individually, I thought Colton Bass made some really good receptions. That wasn't the outcome we wanted, but it will make us better in the future. We have Benton coming in next week, and they are a Class 3 team. It will be another good test for us. We need to get back on track and get a win."
Sophomore Colton Bass
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