Colonel defense holds the Scots to 144-yards in 57-plays from scrimmage
The offense isn’t quite clicking but the defensive performance last night against a very good offensive ball club was a ‘thing of beauty.’
Fletcher W. Long, Centre Colonel Insider and Correspondent to KPGFootball
On an evening which felt considerably more like the Fall season, temperature wise, the Colonels showed its defensive intensity was a Mid Summer Night’s Dream. Swarming to the ball and limiting the Scots to a smidgen over 2.5-yards per play, Centre demonstrated the type defensive chops which lead to championships.
Centre demonstrated the type defensive chops which lead to championships.
HB Lyon, KPGFootball
Maryville College, a team whose head coach (Ben Fox) is known to be an offensive guru, having formerly served as offensive coordinator for the Colonels prior to landing the head man’s job in Maryville, Tennessee, saw his team corralled and limited all night long in all phases of its offensive attack. The same Scotsmen who had accumulated 389-yards a week prior, in 77-offensive plays, against the mighty-Vikings from Berry, Georgia’s “Valhalla,” would only muster 144-yards of offense against the Colonel’s “stop squad.”
Oliver Hunter would lead from the front. Hunter, a down lineman who plays from NG out to DT, registered 7-tackles and a QB-sack to lead the effort. Both Justin Gainey and Armon Wells would toss in 6-stops a piece.
Jack Colosimo would add an INT, his third of the young two-game old season, and the back two-thirds of the defense would limit Maryville College to only 93-yards of passing. However, it was the run-box which would “steal the show” for a defense which appears to be rounding into championship caliber form.
Maryville College,…managed a measly 51-yards rushing, averaging just 1.5-yards per carry, over its 33-rushing attempts from scrimmage.
HB Lyon, KPGFootball
Maryville College, a team which had gained 161-yards of rushing against Berry College, managed a measly 51-yards rushing, averaging just 1.5-yards per carry, over its 33-rushing attempts from scrimmage. A team which scored 24-points the week prior against top-caliber SAA competition, managed 10-points against the Colonels last night, a figure which seems like a lot for a team limited to only 144-yards of total offense.
Offense for the Colonels is still a work in progress. Nick Osterman, the senior QB who has been thrust into the limelight, has performed admirably under the circumstances. While throwing a pair of picks, the senior still threw for 165-yards of passing while engineering a rushing attack of 191-yards, 86-of which he accounted for personally to lead all rushers.
Will McDaniel gained 43-yards in rushing and scored the team’s lone rushing TD. Sam Murray carried the ball once, on a nifty fake punt play the team also ran pivotally a season ago, for a gain of 38-yards. The only difference, last year it scored.
The passing game, which still doesn’t appear to have the kinks solved, had some bright spots with consistency not being among them. Christian Billiter caught 4-balls, Ashton Foos caught a pair including one for a TD, and Cole Littleton caught a pass stretching 26-yards.
The passing game, which still doesn’t appear to have the kinks solved, had some bright spots with consistency not being among them.
HB Lyon, KPGFootball
Cam Tegge contributed a pair of FGs, one from 41-yards the other from 38. The 6-points proved pivotal on the evening.
Something which has to be circled for the coaching staff when directing last night’s film are the penalties. Centre was penalized 10-times for 90-yards while the Scotsmen were only flagged thrice for 25-yards. Several of Centre’s flags were dead-ball, composure penalties teams of Centre’s ilk don’t often incur.
We survived it last night. We shouldn’t expect to get away with comporting similarly when we arrive in Angola in a couple weeks to face Trine’s Thunder.
Looking ahead to the Thunder…
Centre has the week off this coming Saturday. Trine College doesn’t, though the Thunder’s opponent figures to be little more than a “tune up” for the visit from Centre (and if this ends up on the bulletin board of Franklin College, so be it).
Trine College should just apply for membership in the Heartland Conference. The Thunder are a MIAA (Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association) conference squad presently but for starters, the school is in the same state as many other Heartland affiliates and secondly, they seem to do very well whenever they play a Heartland team.
The Thunder opened this season with a convincing win over Anderson College before taking on the “King of the Heartland,” Rose-Hulman. Trine, this past Saturday, ran its record to 2-0 by beating Rose 24-23. Rose was picked to win the Heartland by a vote of its coaches preseason, and why not, they won the conference a year ago.
Trine, this past Saturday, ran its record to 2-0 by beating Rose 24-23.
HB Lyon, KPGFootball
Trine will play the Grizzlies from Franklin College while we are off this coming weekend. The Grizzlies are winless and Trine is undefeated.
We believe when Centre enters the Fred Zollner Athletic Stadium (capacity 5,000) in a couple weeks, we will be staring into a sunlight cast from a 3-0 ball club. Beating them in Angola, Indiana will be a “statement win,” provided we can do it.
We will have to be considerably better on offense. We will have to play the same kind of stifling defense we have been playing. We will have to limit our pre-snap and dead ball fouls.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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