A partly cloudy day at Chippewa Stadium for the game against St. Johns. The general feeling is that this will be a little tougher than the first two games.
Opening kickoff? We return it for a touchdown….
Kickoff to them? They return it for a touchdown….
Game on!
You can click on any of these photos and you’ll go to the video (but again, sadly, not to any specific play). This is the first of Matthew’s tackles; he’s playing linebacker right now.
Matthew’s second tackle….he’s the only linebacker you see here before the play starts…..
Lo and behold, the first close game of the year appears and magically, things start changing. The first two games, each player would be on offense one half and defense the other; Matthew and Christopher have been opposite, so, there’s always be one kid on the field
This play is again Matthew on the tackle…but you’ll see Cpher making an appearance on the defensive line as the coaches shift the better players onto the field to stop the other team. It’s 8-6 at this point, St. Johns is ahead (we missed the kick after the TD, they made it, and you get two points for a kick at this age)
I have told Matthew to be patient as the season has progressed and he hasn’t found himself in the positions and the plays on the field that he wants to be in. As the season has gone on, his coaches have seen what Matthew can do, and he’s ended up doing more.
No boys on the kickoffs this year, not even in practice…..but, you get two kickoffs returned against you in two games and the coaches made the subtle switch here to introduce some better tacklers….you can see Matthew on the lower right and he’s involved in this return. At the end of the game, it wasn’t so subtle, you could hear the coach yelling to his assistants “I want my best tacklers out here for the kick!”
Here’s a first. The double-Hutsell tackle. It’s mostly Cpher, and he falls on Matthew, but hey, it’s a first.
It’s the second half; we’re down 14-12. There were four turnovers in about 3 minutes on this section of the field. This is the second; we lost a fumble, and now St. John’s is losing a fumble. Cpher got the credit for forcing the fumble and the recovery from the announcer, but, video review shows the guy was bobbling it before he got to Cpher and Cpher did not get the recovery. But he did stop the running back from getting his fumble, so, that’s all good.
The third turnover; we throw an INT. Matthew, playing right guard, rushes out to make the diving tackle.
They are driving again; both Matthew and Cpher again on the field……Cpher makes this tackle after being held….
If you watch the video, you’ll note they’ve pushed Matthew out to cornerback. He has played, zip, zilch, no cornerback at any of the practices.
Ok, you can see him here, lined up to the far left. He’s backpedalling away in coverage.
This is the last turnover….Matthew intercepts this ball and returns it about 15 yards before being tackled / dragged out of bounds. He swears if he could have gotten by the guy and had more room he could have gone all the way. I particularly like how his teammates come up to him at the end (although the brother-teammate is nowhere to be found….)
Matthew picks this ball off with about a minute left in the third quarter….Cpher and Matthew had played every down on defense on this last series. We proceed to march the length of the field on a 14-play offensive juggernaut of a drive. Matthew’s normal station is left guard during this half; Cpher is moved on to the field as we start this drive and stays there next to Matthew blocking for the rest of the game. We score with about two minutes left to take the lead, 18-14 (we haven’t missed many kicks all year; missed all three today). Recover a fumble on the kickoff to preserve the win!
