Cedarville at Newberry - Game 2

Cedarville 14 – Newberry 8

It was raining hard the whole game. The wind and cold were all that bad, but the rain was aggravating as hell. I was still happy with the turnout for the game. A lot of people braved the weather to support our boys. The first 3 quarters were a defensive fight on the Grid Iron, with neither team giving an inch. 0-0 through the first 3 quarters. Defensive play from both sides was excellent. Our running game was stuffed for the most part. We kept trying sweeps and keepers, but their ends played contain well, not letting us to the outside. We contained well also. We also held them from running up the middle. They didn’t complete even one pass all night against our D. That is normally their game. We practiced all week, using their pass plays as our model. We kept our outside line backers containing the run, but rushing when they saw the QB stepping back for the pass. This worked nicely, with one of our boys making 2 sacks while their QB held the ball a little too while waiting for his receiver to get down field. Also they had probably 5 fumbles in the game right after the snap. The ball was wet and they weren’t dealing with it well. Ash-boy split the offense once smacking the ball down for a fumble right at the snap, but the QB pounced on it and recovered. All in all, not a bad offensive effort from both teams, it was just that the D’s were ready to rock. The rain did obviously cause some of the offensive stagnation.

OK, now is where I get pissed. If you have been reading the football summaries, you know that we always play our 2nd string the last quarter no matter what. Most of the time, the other team does also. Because of the Brimley issue from the prior week, our Head Coach went over before the game and discussed this with Cedarville’s Coach. He agreed that the 4th was for the second squads. But get ready for this unsportsmanlike shit. Cedarville has thus far gone undefeated this season, and apparently planned on keeping that way no matter what.

We pulled our 1st string out but they kept theirs in. Within 3 plays they scored a TD on our smaller group of kids. Then they had the nerve to put in their 2nd string once they were up on the board. Our guys made a slow and steady drive all the way down the field. 1st down after another. A few times we had to go on 4th down, and pulled out the 1st down. When we got a 1st down on the 15yrd line, they called timeout. They then put their 1st squad back in the game. They stuffed our first 2 rushes. 3rd down we moved switched our back and wide receiver. The kid is fast and can catch well. We threw a pass into the left corner of the end zone and he reached out long and caught it for the TD. The crowd screamed and shook their rattlers. We then ran through the 3-hole for the 2 point conversion and equalizer. Our 2nd string scored on their big boys. The crowd cheered again. 1 min left. Of course they still have their top kids in the game. They run all over our D again and in a few plays score again. They used a reverse on the boys and drew them inside, thus sweeping back around and sprinting down the right sideline for their second “1st string” TD of the 4th. There was 17 sec left. We got 2 plays in and then it was over.

I went over and helped give the boys a pep-talk to try to raise their spirits. We told them that they were a winning team and that they played fair. And that everyone played every game no matter what. It really was a good season and a good group of kids.

This is the 5th and 6th grade kids, so it is more about teaching them the fundamentals of the game and less about winning every game. Don’t get me wrong; I want to win as much as the next guy, but I have ethics. Ok, I guess they have ethics also; they just have bad ones. How do you teach your kids morals if you have none. When these kids get farther in their football careers the 2nd stringers will have enough time to sit the bench the whole game and be tackling dummies in practice for the 1st stringers. I don’t mind our boys losing so much as the way it happened. If you say you are going to play your 2nd string, that’s what you do. We are the only team that gave them any comp this year, and they were going to do what they had to win. Sad really. Bad sports all around. I had to restrain myself from snapping. I did scream one time, “Good job Cedarville 1st string!” People started shying away a little so I calmed down and just berated their sportsmanship quietly to a few select parents. It was the coaches' fault, not the kids'.

Newberry Season 3 – 2 – 1.
VS Rudyard 2 wins.
Vs Brimley 1 win - 1 tie.
Vs Cedarville 2 losses.

These little 5th and 6th graders are the only winning team in Newberry Football this year. So maybe this portents well for the future high school team.