Elgin went to Ridgedale for Week 2 high school football to open Northwest Central Conference play for both teams Friday, Aug. 29.
MORRAL — Elgin opened the football season with a loss to River Valley in a game that got away from it in the second half. Yet, Comets coach Zack Winslow felt his squad was as dialed in as could be expected.
A week later, Elgin posted a 36-7 win at another rival, handling Ridgedale in the second half of the Northwest Central Conference opener for both teams Aug. 29. Still, Winslow was left wanting more from his group after Week 2.
"I hope this is a wake-up call for our guys. It doesn’t matter who we play. We need to be ready," Winslow said. "If we had played this way last week, it would have been way worse. And if had played the way we played last week against River Valley and played with that same mindset, we would have executed a lot better this week.
"Consistency is what we need moving forward."
What happened in the first half?
Elgin scored on the first series of the game, but Ridgedale hung tough until the Comets hit a couple of rare big pass plays late in the second quarter, as Zach Bowers found Luke Nelson for a 22-yard pickup then three plays later a 30-yard touchdown.
Ridgedale took advantage of a botched kickoff, a scramble by Colt Rawlins and a facemask penalty by the Comets. Michael Deas then finished it for the Rockets with a 1-yard plunge with no time on the clock to cut the lead to 12-7.
"By me losing my composure (on the sidelines in the final minute), I think it hurt our composure and execution," Winslow said. "I apologized. Me acting a fool doesn’t benefit you guys. I’m sorry for that, but now we have a chance to redeem ourselves. We’re still ahead. We’re not where we thought we would be or where we wanted to be, but we can still show ourselves how we are moving forward."
What was the turning point in the game?
Ridgedale started the second half with a couple of first downs, then Elgin's defense picked up a fourth-down sack to take over. The offense used the momentum to string a nine-play drive, capped by Jack VanGundy's 24-yard run up the middle for his second TD of the game.
The Rockets then fumbled the ball away on the first play of its second series, and Elgin took advantage of the short field as Chase Gilliam ran in an 11-yard touchdown to put his team up 24-7.
Ridgedale struggled the rest of the way, while Brennon Luikart and Nate Freshour added scores for the Comets from 10 and 50 yards, respectively.
"We shouldn’t have come out as flat as we did. We came out flat for no reason," Ridgedale coach Asch Tilley said. "It was a game at half. We came into the locker room, and we were up and ready to go. We left the locker room happy, and we hit the field and all the tempo went away. We lacked a little bit of heart."
Injuries mounted for the Rockets, which did not help their cause, Tilley acknowledged.
"We had a lot of mental mistakes," he said. "We’ve got to tighten up as a crew and come back again next week and start all over."
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This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Elgin football executes in second half at Ridgedale in Week 2
Category: General Sports
